Surface Sales Terrible

[jpiniero]

I know you are totally, totally shocked by this:

Microsoft has sold little more than a million of the Surface RT version and about 400,000 Surface Pros since their debuts, according to three people, who asked not to be named because sales haven’t yet been made public. The company had ordered about 3 million Surface RTs, they said. Brent Thrillhttp://topics.bloomberg.com/brent-thill/, an analyst at UBS AG, had initially projected that Microsoft would sell 2 million Surface RT devices in the December quarter alone.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-...let-is-said-to-fall-short-of-predictions.html

 

[bonkers325]

What was the purpose of an ARM version of Windows 8 again? On release day I played with a full windows 8 tablet on an atom processor by Samsung and thought to myself "If i can get this, why should I even bother with RT?"

 

[lopri]

Waiting to hear from those who blew fanfare and gushed over the greatness of Surface franchise. Won't hold my breadth, though.

(And to be frank, I'm surprised that it sold a million units)

 

[ponyo]

The biggest problem I see is cost. And then Windows 8. Windows 8 is not intuitive and pretty difficult to use for new users. Design elements are not cohesive and it can be difficult to figure things out. Even more so than Android IMO. I don't have any experience with Surface tablets but I bought the Lenovo Yoga 13 and have been testing it. I find the whole Windows 8 experience mixed bag as a desktop and tablet OS.

 

[IamDavid]

Price, price, price. WTF was MS thinking? I've found mine extremely useful and everyone I purchased on for loves them. All the decision makers at MS need to be fired. My entire company is rolling out Win8 tablets so I guess we probably bought a majority of these sold? lol

 

[StrangerGuy]

Waiting to hear from those who blew fanfare and gushed over the greatness of Surface franchise. Won't hold my breadth, though.

(And to be frank, I'm surprised that it sold a million units)

I have a theory: most people who buys mobile PCs don't actually care about the mobility part of the equation, thus whatever the Surface Pro offers doesn't appeal to them especially not at the ~$1000 prices without also bundling it with the critical accessories.

 

[destrekor]

The Surface RT, imho, seems pointless. But I guess it could be decent in the enterprise, BYOD or "provided device" market... it would be wonderful there, in fact, but most companies aren't going to have a majority of their work done in Metro interface apps. It's very much possible, but the app ecosystem is far too young and most enterprises are very slow to adopt both new hardware and/or new software. And while using Office on them isn't bad, that can't be the only selling point for those devices.
If Microsoft can keep the Surface RT around for a few generations, it might become quite successful. Convincing themselves to gamble on that? I doubt they will.

The Surface Pro, on the other hand, is flipping awesome for what it is. I love it.

Granted, I don't use mine much, but I knew that going in.
I suspect it might get a decent amount of use in my near future, if things go well. Picking up a new camera and equipment, the Surface Pro will go in my bag with me and I'll have my editing software on there. If I build my portfolio fast enough and can get some freelance business going soon, it'll definitely be used to quickly show some stuff to clients or check whatever.

Admittedly, the Surface Pro would be that much better if it launched after the new Intel chips drop last this year.
Now, they just need (or need to force someone to get to it already) to get those teased battery-toting keyboard docks out already. If I can have one of those, I'm completely sold on this thing and then some. It's why I still keep an eye on any news from IBM for the Thinkpad Helix, but it's more expensive.
It's a terrific "can be a tablet when I want" device, but obviously can't hang with the form factor and battery life of a true ARM-based tablet. As it stands now, it can't be a great laptop but it can be a decent laptop. With a functional hinged keyboard dock, that would solve the only issue there.
If it's to be a third-party product (the battery keyboard - they never mentioned hinged but I can't believe it would be anything else), hopefully it's a well-designed one and matches the device. I'd love to see a first-party version, but who knows.

It's not for everyone, for sure. The Surface RT, at this point, I wouldn't even recommend. The Pro - you should know if it's up your alley or not. It won't sell at mobile OS tablet-levels, it's just not possible. I don't think any single laptop makes that kind of dent in the overall market, and that's very much what the Surface Pro needs to be measured as. The Surface Pro, to be successful, does not need to pull in "tablet" sales numbers.

 

[pm]

Surface RT never made any sense to me at all. And I used one and it felt fluid enough to me and worked well enough but I had exactly the same experience as Bonkers325 which was "why would I get an RT when I could get an Acer W510 for about the same amount of money?" Surface Pro remains intriguing to me and I would consider getting one but I want that product, with the soft keyboard included, for less than $700. And I agree with destrekor that the Surface Pro refresh that will (probably) happen later this year will make it a good product... and then they just need to drop the price... or maybe stratify the price in such a way that there's an inexpensive one that you can get for $500 that has limitations and then talk your way up to $700+ by adding features like memory or CPU speed.

 

[wirednuts]

surface sales terrible because you cant run android apps on it :/

 

[dagamer34]

What was the purpose of an ARM version of Windows 8 again? On release day I played with a full windows 8 tablet on an atom processor by Samsung and thought to myself "If i can get this, why should I even bother with RT?"

Intel would not be selling its Clovertrail chips for cheap if Windows RT didn't exist. Also, I would expect most of the performance problems of SurfaceRT to go away if you swapped out the Tegra 3 with an Exynos 5 Octa, gave it at 1080p display and Wacom digitizer, and sell THAT for $499, and drop the price of the keyboard to $69 and $99.

Windows RT isn't bad, the products its on are overpriced. It frankly came out a year too early.

 

[lopri]

Surface RT never made any sense to me at all.

Surface Pro made even less sense to me. It's a burning brick.

 

[spaceman]

big surprise here
way overpriced
not clear if its a tablet or workstation
windows 8
i think the rt price and sp could be chopped in half ppl would still not bit

 

[Imaginer]

Intel would not be selling its Clovertrail chips for cheap if Windows RT didn't exist. Also, I would expect most of the performance problems of SurfaceRT to go away if you swapped out the Tegra 3 with an Exynos 5 Octa, gave it at 1080p display and Wacom digitizer, and sell THAT for $499, and drop the price of the keyboard to $69 and $99.

Windows RT isn't bad, the products its on are overpriced. It frankly came out a year too early.

You say like if any ARM based platform with a Wacom digitizer and immediately the creative audience will flock to it? Most of them (me included) invested money on previous software to let go of it that easily. And as far as I am aware, there isn't compelling stuff out as little apps.

Hence the Surface Pro. Obviously everyone is screaming like chicks over Android but not when it doesn't have the performance or software. Bending over backwards over supporting another platform for businesses is also adding cost.

 

[Imaginer]

Surface Pro made even less sense to me. It's a burning brick.

Not when you look at it as a stand alone entry level, reasonably light Cintiq with a built in computer. Then it becomes ALOT more reasonable.

Hence PRO. It was never meant for mindless consuming sheep.

 

[Imaginer]

One thing I wish that they didn't screw up is driver support. But that will come soon.

 

[gorcorps]

surface sales terrible because you cant run android apps on it :/

You couldn't be more wrong

http://www.bluestacks.com/

And they even have a special surface pro optimized version.

 

[dagamer34]

You say like if any ARM based platform with a Wacom digitizer and immediately the creative audience will flock to it? Most of them (me included) invested money on previous software to let go of it that easily. And as far as I am aware, there isn't compelling stuff out as little apps.

Hence the Surface Pro. Obviously everyone is screaming like chicks over Android but not when it doesn't have the performance or software. Bending over backwards over supporting another platform for businesses is also adding cost.

I could see Microsoft opening up verified .NET apps to run on Windows RT for enterprise use. My feeling is an SoC like the Tegra 3 was too slow to do something like that right out of the gate though.

 

[wirednuts]

You couldn't be more wrong

http://www.bluestacks.com/

And they even have a special surface pro optimized version.

wow, that seems awesome. does it work on rt well though? its basically an emulator, but if the horsepower is similar (rt) then i wonder if there is performance issues...

 

[amdhunter]

I haven't touched my Atom-based Samsung ATIV 500 in months. It's literally the single most unused device I have ever wasted money on.

 

[gorcorps]

wow, that seems awesome. does it work on rt well though? its basically an emulator, but if the horsepower is similar (rt) then i wonder if there is performance issues...

I'm not sure. I've tried it on my PC just to see if it works, which it does but since I just have a mouse the apps aren't really useful and the games aren't fun. The surface pro version though is properly ported to use the accelerometers, which is a big thing for some games. I don't think the RT got the same treatment so the accelerometers may not work in the apps like the surface pro does.

 

[ponyo]

I'm not sure. I've tried it on my PC just to see if it works, which it does but since I just have a mouse the apps aren't really useful and the games aren't fun. The surface pro version though is properly ported to use the accelerometers, which is a big thing for some games. I don't think the RT got the same treatment so the accelerometers may not work in the apps like the surface pro does.

The poor reviews for the app is scary. Reviews from users are saying the beta doesn't even have uninstall option and it embeds in your system.

 

[gorcorps]

The poor reviews for the app is scary. Reviews from users are saying the beta doesn't even have uninstall option and it embeds in your system.

It's in program files, and I when I click uninstall it uninstalls. I'm not sure what they're whining about.

 

[s44]

The biggest problem I see is cost. And then Windows 8.

These are the same thing, right?

I do think RT is a generation or two of chips away from being much more interesting. The hardware is going to be developed anyway unless Google gives up, and all new Win8 apps can be compiled for it as well (I think), so...

 

[olds]

I want the Pro but at half the going price.

 

[s44]

I want the Pro but at half the going price.

Considering it's a device built so both Microsoft and Intel can continue collecting monopoly rents... not happening.