Microsoft Surface with Windows RT tablet sales disappoint in fourth quarter
Summary: Market research suggests fewer than a million units were sold, while Apple sold more than 22 million iPads in the quarter. But the low sales and high returns are similar to the launch of the original Amazon Kindle Fire.
Unlike Taylor Swift's new album, Microsoft's Surface RT tablet didn't go platinum in the last quarter of 2012, according to data from two market research firms.
Yes, more than a million of the tablets may have shipped, but that doesn't mean they were sold. In fact, depending on which source you listen to, far fewer than a million Surface slates have been purchased.
IHS iSuppli told our sister site CNET that despite shipping over 1.25 million Surface units, Microsoft only sold about 700,000 of them. Even worse, return rates for the Surface RT were deemed "high," owing perhaps to the learning curve surronding Windows 8/RT. Analyst Rhoda Alexander did suggest, however, that the low initial sales and high returns was reminiscent of the Amazon Kindle Fire's entry into the market.
Meanwhile, International Data Corporation (IDC) reports that about 900,000 Surface RTs were shipped in the fourth quarter, just missing out on reaching the top five for tablet shipments. In comparison, Apple shipped over 22 million iPads, while Samsung and Amazon shipped more than 13 million Android-based tablets. Obviously, not all of those items shipped were sold, and IDC mobile devices program manager Ryan Reith said reaction to the Surface was "muted."
Reith suggested that cost may be a factor in the Surface's lackluster sales. So it will be curious how well the Surface Pro will do once it's released on February 9 (or the 8th at the Union Square Best Buy in New York), given that it's even pricier than the Surface RT.
Are you surprised by the Surface RT's first sales numbers? Do you think it will take a significant turn upward in the future? Let us know your thoughts in the Talkback section below.
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Talkback
because i'm waiting for the surface pro
RT
1. The iPad is very good
2. People are buying the tablet that they know, the one that their friend already have
3. Apple is in fashion, it makes you look smart and in vogue
4. The Surface was introduced to the market very badly. It was available only through the Ms store for a long time and there was no way of trying it in many places around the globe, including here in Canada.
5. The RT thing was not very received. It's windows without being fully Windows.
6. Bad press. Every blogger and journalist has bashed this product. It seems like the new kid on the block, the one made my the Evil Microsoft was doomed
7. The surface pro was also announced. Some are waiting for it
8. The bad press around Windows 8
9 The windows 8 learning curve
I did not take any of these factors into consideration when I bought mine and I don't regret it at all. The Surface will probably fail and it's a shame because it's a useful tablet, I mean really useful. Since I got mine, I find my iPad to be a bit "Passé". IOS should evolve, iTunes also.
Here's a few things the Surface RT Dows better than my iPad:
1. Remote desktop from out the box
2. Office app from out the box
3. Print directly to any Bluetooth printer
4. Browse a network, add content to my Surface without a stupid and controlling application like iTunes
5. Horizontal layout of the apps. Try it for a while, you'll understand.
6. Integrated keyboard, detachable keyboard.
7. Split windows, dual apps on the screen.
8. Multiple user accounts
9. Overall feeling of owning one
You should give a try.
Not predictive typing obviously
It does
One thing I did forget to mention was the Usb port, the sd card port and the mini Hdmi port. I'm taking those for granted but they are extremely useful and the iPad should have them also.
USB, SD and HDMI
Adapter
Point is it's available as an accessory
The iPad is the most popular tablet and as a result, you have plenty of companies offering choices of accessories/adapters at varied prices.
A little bit available
But with the keyboard attached, I have all three on the Asus Transformer. I can back my camera/camcorder data directly to a USB HDD, or display photos or video directly from the memory card to an HDMI monitor. Apple's minimal support for non-Apple peripherals doesn't really take into account the fact these things are often synergistic.
Yup
Surface PRO is a big mistake
- Very Expensive $889 or 999
- real bad battery life
- A tablet with no GPS, no 3G, no NFC, ...all for the low price of $889 !!
- windows uses more than 30 GB 64 GB
-the tablet has cooler
desktop applications do not work perfectly on touch screen
does not work like tablet
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMJfc_sy4NI
Best to check
I would wager that bouchard speaks vastly better English than you speak what I presume is French. ;)
No surprise at all
Android tablets
Maybe technically, but not in popularity. From the article, the Surface RT shipped 900,000 units; Samsung and Amazon (not the only two Android tablet makers) shipped 13 million. And I really like the Asus Transformer Prime that I've got.
The same was said about Android vs iOS years ago
Did anyone really expect Surface to sell millions and millions of tablets at release?
Microsoft was late to the 10 inch tablet market. Now that the tablet market is moving to smaller more portable devices, microsoft will most likely be late to that as well.
Hopefully Windows8 tablets get some popularity so that it forces iOS and Android to incorperate more features and move towards true post-pc devices.
Re: The same was said about Android vs iOS years ago
Surface, on the other hand, comes only from one supplier that is deathly afraid of cannibalizing its own desktop Windows and Office cash cows. Microsoft's mobile division, in other words, is perpetually hampered by having to compete with one hand tied behind its back.
So your theory is that Microsoft is afraid of cannibalizing
Is that really the plan you want to go with?
Microsoft's issue
It's not really about protecting the PC itself, but the PC market status quo. Microsoft has chosen to basically tell the OEMs that Surface products are not industry changing competition, but perhaps more like Google's Nexus devices -- just a template for how they see this kind of device. They could drop the price dramatically, which would certainly boost Surface RT sales, but they'd kill the OEM RT market (which isn't going that well anyway, so it's probably not permanently off the table).
Agree but
Show me one Android tablet that is not sluggish or that can do all of what I have listed.
Yes they will sell many Android Tablets because the Google name is associated to it and for that reason, MS cannot compete. But it terms of how useful a tablet is, the RT wins by a mile.
For me anything associated to Google is a spyware.
For me anything associated to Microsoft is crap
They were too busy playing dirty tricks to get world domination, instead of taking the time to learn how to write decent software
As a software developer, I disagree