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The Microsoft Surface Pro will start shipping in a number of other countries later this month, as part of the company's plans to expand its retail availability further than the US, Canada, and China. The United Kingdom will see the device appearing on store shelves on May 23, while a number of markets in Europe looking to get the slate computer on May 30.
Microsoft is increasing the number of countries where customers can buy the Surface RT and Surface Pro tablets. The Surface Pro will be available in 24 more countries, while the Surface RT will be launching in Malaysia on April 25th, in Mexico by the end of may, and in Korea and Thailand in June. The expansion will see the Surface RT be available in 29 countries, and the Surface Pro in 27 in total.
Reports about additional problems with the Microsoft Surface Pro pen are beginning to become apparent. Several Surface Pro users are reporting issues with pen detection completely ceasing after some usage. One forum member of the Microsoft Answer community reports that the company told him to uninstall the pen driver, and reboot forcing automatic pen driver reinstall. The procedure resolved the issue. A second user attempted the same fix, which failed to resolve the issue, but "several" reboots fix pen recognition, but only temporarily.
The construction of the Microsoft Surface Pro has been judged to be highly unrepairable, after being dissected by iFixit. The repairability score of 1 out of 10 is the lowest on the firm's scale, and places it as harder to repair than many other competing products, including the Amazon Kindle Fire, the Samsung Galaxy Note, and the RT version of the Surface.
Microsoft has confirmed that more stock of its Surface Pro will be heading to stores. The head of the Surface team, Panos Panay, posted on Twitter that more 64GB models are shipping to Staples, Best Buy, Microsoft Stores and for online orders, while the 128GB variant will be reaching Best Buy and Microsoft Stores by Saturday.
Microsoft has ordered only 1 million units of its Surface Pro for its launch on February 9, according to Digitimes. Upstream supply chain sources say that initial orders for the Intel-powered version of the Surface are well down on the initial orders Microsoft placed for the ARM-based Surface RT when it launched. The news coincides with analysis from IHS iSuppli supplied to CNET showing that Microsoft may have only sold as many as 750,000 Surface RT tablets for the last quarter.
Similar to issues Microsoft had with its Windows 8 RT edition of the Surface tablet, reports are now circulating that the forthcoming Surface Pro tablet will also have its storage constrained in a similar fashion. The 64GB edition of the Surface Pro will have just 23GB of storage free, and the high-end 128GB model will have 83GB, with remainder taken up by the OS and preinstalled apps.
As promised, Microsoft has finally announced a launch date for its Surface Windows 8 Pro tablet. The new offering, which follows the Tegra-based Surface RT variant, is set to arrive on February 9 at a range of US retailers and select outlets in Canada.
Microsoft is allegedly going to release the Surface Pro, the tablet that will run the full version of Windows 8 instead of Windows RT, on January 26th or January 29th, according to two rumors. The earlier date would make the launch take place exactly 90 days after that of the Windows RT-based original and Windows 8 itself.
When Microsoft launches the Windows 8 Pro version of its Surface tablet, the device will apparently have a battery life somewhere in the area of four and a half to five hours. This according to a Panos Panay, head of Microsoft's Surface project. Surface with Windows 8 Pro -- which runs the full version of Windows 8 -- will launch in January of next year.
