Fri, Mar 15, 2013 | 11:56 GMT

Microsoft Surface sales fall well below expectation, sources claim

Microsoft has sold about 1.5 million Surface tablets since the device launched, and sources claim that the figure is way below what the company had hoped.

The tablet runs a version of Windows 8, the same operating system that received highly-publicised scorn from Valve’s Gabe Newell, among others. The debate didn’t do much for the device’s popularity among gamers.

Today Bloomberg reports that three sources close to the matter explained that Microsoft has sold just over a million Surface RT models, and 400,000 Surface Pro units.

The sources added that Microsoft had ordered 3 million Surface RT models, suggesting that the spare 2 million are waiting to be sold.

By comparison, the site points out that Apple shifted 22.9 million iPads in the last quarter.

What do you make of the above?

Thanks Gamespot.

18 comment-trail-alt Posted in: Microsoft, microsoft financials
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18 comments

#2

DSB
15/03/13, 12:44 pm

Zune it will disappear

#3

theevilaires
15/03/13, 12:45 pm

^ I see what you did there ;)

#4

G1GAHURTZ
15/03/13, 12:59 pm

No surprises.

The MS app store is terrible, and, for me, a tablet without 3G/4G doesn’t make sense.

#5

OlderGamer
15/03/13, 2:03 pm

A preview of the new Microsoft?

#6

polygem
15/03/13, 2:11 pm

then bundle it with 720

#7

mistermogul
15/03/13, 2:15 pm

@2 – lol

#8

Lengendaryboss
15/03/13, 2:31 pm

@2 Hahahahaha :)
@6 Another killer app along with entertainment services :)

#9

polygem
15/03/13, 2:41 pm

you can still use it as a tablet…i mean in the old school way: carrying dirty dishes from the couch to the kitchen.

#10

Francis O
15/03/13, 3:46 pm

I thought tablets and smartphones are taking over Pachter? LOL! The Surface is a overpriced POS.

#11

Cobra951
15/03/13, 4:09 pm

Introduce an unknown tablet with growing problems to iron out, and price it as dearly as an established, reliable and popular tablet. Now why would that fail?

#12

fearmonkey
15/03/13, 4:29 pm

@2 -lol…awesome comment

#13

Old MacDonald
15/03/13, 4:30 pm

They ruined Windows for this?

#14

ps3fanboy
15/03/13, 5:55 pm

the microshaft deliver another killer app…

#15

Stilvan
15/03/13, 6:42 pm

@13 So true. But at least they were kind enough to add a “Fk me, get this crap off my screen” function to the Windows key.

#16

Docker Al
16/03/13, 6:45 am

I have one and it is a stunning piece of kit.Vastly superior to the I-pad in every way possible. They are over priced though. Also give it time, this is their first go at it; the sales will come as people realise how good it is. The haters are losers.

#17

G1GAHURTZ
16/03/13, 6:58 am

^ No built in 4G, though…

Meaning no internet, if you can’t find a wifi signal.

Also, the Windows App Store is poor. Both in terms of quantity of apps, and functionality.

#18

Christopher Jack
16/03/13, 7:29 am

Windows RT is shit as it is. MS have taken an Apple approach that only really Apple can pull off. The Surface Pro is pretty decent but nothing spectacular compared to other W8 tablets, especially to the average consumer who, despite not knowing the difference between W8 & RT, just see a tablet more expensive than an iPad, unaware of how much more functional it is.

The problem I have with RT is the same as the iPad, overblown mobile OS rather than shrunken PC OS. Sure RT looks just like W8 but the functionality just isn’t there. I was actually hoping that Windows Phone was more akin to the PC Windows but instead it was more like an iPhone.

With both Windows Phone & RT I am restricted to apps that MS allows in its store, the primary problem with that is that no one wants to publish on their store. So on both systems you have an empty list of apps to play around with. I also despised all the proprietary crap I needed to deal with on WP, if I wanted to browse the net I HAD to use IE, if I wanted to transfer my files, I had to use Zune, just so infuriating from a product labeled after a much more open OS.

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