Report: Microsoft Surface sales well short of estimates
updated 07:30 pm EDT, Thu March 14, 2013
RT and Windows 8 combined sales less than just RT estimates
According to a report from Bloomberg, Microsoft has sold about 1.5 million Surface tablets to date, in both the RT and Pro versions, since their respective debuts. The alleged sales numbers fall short of Microsoft estimates, said to be two million of the Surface RT in just the December quarter alone. By comparison, in the holiday quarter Apple sold 22.9 million iPads.
"It’s pretty clear that things were bad entering the year, and at least for the moment they’re getting worse," JMP Securities analyst Alex Gauna said in regards to the lackluster sales. "The path to a successful Surface, in the same way that they were successful with Xbox, is not very clear to me right now."
Some of the adoption issues may relate to the poor handling of consumer education on the difference between the Windows RT and true Windows 8 experience. Additionally, best estimates of the number of Windows RT applications sit at about 47,000 apps to Apple's 300,000 for the iPad alone, not even including iPhone-centric apps.
The Pro model is available in 64GB or 128GB editions, each with a Surface pen for stylus input and a traditional keyboard for use as a notebook. The design shares the same 10.6-inch display size as the Surface RT, but with full 1920x1080 HD resolution. The Surface Windows 8 Pro tablet starts at $899, in contrast to the $499 entry point for the Surface RT.
