Microsoft CEO: Surface RT sales off to a 'modest' start
Summary: Just over two weeks since the Surface RT launched -- dogged with delivery troubles, peeling accessories, and even vulnerable to early critical security flaws -- Microsoft's boss says sales are off to a "modest" start.
Let them eat cake? No, let them buy tablets.
Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer says sales of the new ARM-based Surface RT tablets are off to a "modest" start, according to French newspaper Le Parisien.
ZDNet: Surface RT Review
He also told the Parisian publication said that he expects the upcoming Windows Phone 8 sales to "ramp up quickly." Devices running the next-generation Microsoft smartphone platform were released three days after the Surface tablet in late October.
And that's all he said. Not even a hint of anything else. (Thanks for the specifics, Steve.)
The day after Windows Phone 8 device went on sale at the end of October, Ballmer boasted that four million copies of Windows 8 had been sold, the latest desktop operating system which later Surface tablets will run, in just the few days after it launched. (By comparison, in the same four days after Apple released OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion, the company reported that more than three million copies of the software had been downloaded from the Mac App Store.)
But not everything out of the Redmond, Seattle-based company has been smooth in the past few weeks.
U.K. and European buyers failed to get their shiny rectangles on time, in spite of being promised a delivery date of October 26. Many waited up to a week before they received delivery, leading to widespread anger on Twitter and an intervention by Windows president Steven Sinofsky.
An even smaller number of users, once they had actually received the tablet, complained that the Touch Cover started to split and come away from the material that binds the touch-technology together.
But just over a fortnight after the Surface went on sale and Windows 8 was launched, primed and ready to be used on desktop and laptops all over the world, Microsoft issued its latest Patch Tuesday advisory notice, warning that Windows 8 had three "critical" security vulnerabilities while the Surface RT device had one critical security flaw.
Patches for the vulnerabilities be dished out over Windows Update tomorrow on Tuesday.
Kick off your day with ZDNet's daily email newsletter. It's the freshest tech news and opinion, served hot. Get it.
Talkback
Bricks!? Pah!
Surface = Yet another Microsoft Failure
Now he's using the same words to describe Microsoft's Surface RT tablet. The Surface was Ballmer's last chance to get it right in the tablet market, but it has flopped. It will cost Ballmer his job. Worst still, it will cost Microsoft its future, as the rest of the word moves to the ARM processor for all consumer computing, Microsoft will have nothing to offer, while its Windows sales will diminish over time.
Bye Bye Ballmer. You failed with Windows Mobile. You failed with Zune. You failed with the Sidekick phone. You failed with the Kin phone. You failed with Windows Phone 7. Now you have failed with Surface. Bye Bye Ballmer.
Cost him his job? Yeah, right!
Ballmer may be a bit of a buffoon at times but the only person who owns more Microsoft shares than Steve Ballmer is Bill Gates. Only Gates can fire Ballmer. Will he? Not likely!
Yes, Zune was a failure. How any years ago was that? Besides, NO ONE has, as yet, succeeded and unseating the iPod.
What about Xbox? What about Bing?
Bing is hardly a Success
I would say that the Kinect has been another success, but more so in spite of MS than because of it.
Reminded me of the current crop of bing commercials
I honestly believe that what will happen, is Win8 will start out slow
This too will have a cascading effect as people at work using Win8 decide to get the same thing at home.. So success will come, but will take a little time....
TW
it is wise
I prefer anyway TRILLION times win 8 to Linux.... android and the crappy things like it
Surface =
yes the guy that posted the failure comment
Do you always speak from the arse?
yeah.. the failure guy
Disgusting....!!!!
Project sales were 3-5 million in the first quarter
3-5 million
Zack, do us a favor
All the talk backers who wants Microsoft to just die, please realize that it is supply vs. demand issue and Microsoft's approach to it is modest. # of sold is not and Microsoft have to reveal the number of sold shortly anyway. Please don't compare this with Windows Phone, because none of the phones are Microsoft branded, but Surface is.
Hey... all .. pay attention
What the hell happens to some people here? They are a solid company... they have been a bunch of years in the market and they have been consistent to a some point.
I want Microsoft to succeed, I want Apple to succeed... I am not even American but I want these companies to succeed because they are American...
and here is the translation
We start modestly as Surface is available on our sales online and in a few stores Microsoft sites in the United States. But the home of the press in particular, is phenomenal. This product is one of the best PC and one of the best tablets in a single machine. Soon, we will be present in more countries, more stores. This is just talk about sales will have the meaning."
And where did he say that the # of sold are less like you, ldo17, MWagner and others are saying? I am poor in English, but I can understand what he meant and since you and others are from native English speaking countries, you should do good job. I am really sorry Zack, I expected better quality blog from you. not SJVN styled one. If want to read SJVN styled, we have SJVN, AKH and JK, and please spoil your reputation by degrading to their level.
PS. beard looks great on you.
I mean please don't spoil your reputation
and also it was not MWagner, it is Zchro.
And here is the source
Use Google or Bing translator and you will clearly see, he never talked about # of sold items, he talked about Sales strategy. And he also described it as "phenomenal."
curious