Surface RT

Microsoft shaves $100 off Surface Pro through August 29

Christian Zibreg / August 5, 2013

In another sign that Microsoft's Surface tablets are failing to hit the ground running, the Windows giant has slashed the Surface Pro lineup by $100 through August 29. The Microsoft-branded tablet family was unveiled last October so it's only logical the company now wants to get rid of unsold inventory as it gears up to announce a second-generation Surface later this year. Both the 64GB and 128GB flavors of the Surface Pro are now a $799 and $899 value, respectively...

Microsoft believed to have only sold 1.7 million Surface tablets since launch

Cody Lee / July 31, 2013

Steve Ballmer sounded pretty confident when his company debuted the Surface tablet last fall. At one point, he even said "I don’t think anybody has done a product that is the product that I see customers wanting," implying that Microsoft had.

But I think by now, it's pretty clear that's not the case. Not only did the software giant have to eat $900 million in unsold Surfaces last quarter, but estimates based on a new SEC filing suggest that it's only sold 1.7 million of them since launch...

Steve Ballmer admits Surface defeat

Ed Sutherland / July 26, 2013

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer Thursday played Captain Obvious, telling Microsoft workers the company may have overestimated demand for its Surface tablets. Really? The revelation comes only after the software giant announced a nearly $1 billion writedown after slashing Surface prices.

Not willing to take such things as a sign to go off and do something else, Ballmer and operations chief Kevin Turner reportedly told a closed-door town hall meeting a new Surface is now being tested...

Welcome to the post-PC world, Microsoft: $900M in unsold Surface RT inventory

Christian Zibreg / January 26, 2016

Microsoft last June unveiled its iPad contender, the ARM-powered Surface RT tablet. We've suspected all along that it hasn't been much of a smash hit.

Nine months later, the Windows giant admits defeat by announcing it will be taking an astounding $900 million loss over unsold Surface RT inventory.

The top dogs called it an “inventory adjustments”. Our take: these things would not have been collecting dust in the warehouse if they were flying off the shelves like hotcakes...

Despite anti-iPad campaign, Microsoft forced to lower Surface price

Cody Lee / October 11, 2018

In an effort to spur struggling slate sales, Microsoft launched a TV ad campaign aimed squarely at the iPad. The strategy, which has spawned four commercials since May, focuses on highlighting the flaws in Apple's popular tablet in comparison with the Surface.

But despite the agressive campaign, Microsoft still seems to be having trouble selling tablets. According to a new report, the Redmond company is planning to drop the price of all Surface RT models by $150 later this month—a move in response to lackluster sales...

Microsoft can’t convince Apple to update iTunes for Windows 8 Metro devices

Ed Sutherland / February 28, 2017

Remember all the back-and-forth between Apple and Microsoft before tablets? We heard echoes of that earlier this week when the software giant announced Apple's iTunes app won't be available for Windows 8 Metro tablet users any time soon. Although iTunes continues to be available as a Windows 8 Desktop mode app, the lack of a Metro edition leaves owners of Windows tablets in the cold. Even worse is that owners of the Surface RT tablet - which by the way runs only Microsoft apps - will be stuck with just Redmond's Music app...

Microsoft CEO goes on defensive, says the Surface is ‘a real business’

Ed Sutherland / February 20, 2013

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer recently addressed the companies Surface and the tablet's sales (or lack thereof).

We're going to try our best not to characterize his comments as whiny or envision the firm's leader stomping his foot in the face of gloomy analysis. But it's hard - real hard.

Speaking with MIT Technology Review, while admitting the Microsoft product was not an iPad-killer, Ballmer stressed the Surface isn't a post-PC fantasy, either...

Surface Pro teardown: Apple’s iPad wins the repair race

Ed Sutherland / February 13, 2013

Microsoft's one-week old Surface Pro tablet already has some dings in its reputation. The device is more difficult to repair than Apple's iPad, according to a teardown by iFixit. The Surface Pro makes extensive use of glue to secure everything, including the battery and display, giving Microsoft's latest tablet a score of just one out of ten for repairability. And repairs could become common, given simply using the Surface Pro could be harmful to the hardware...

Holiday quarter Surface RT sales barely half the shipments

Ed Sutherland / January 31, 2013

Although Microsoft's Surface RT is not yet in the bargain bin of tablets, a fire sale could appear any day. That's the impression from a report that the software giant turned tablet player is selling as few as 55 percent of Surface's shipped. But wait, there's more bad news: A "very high" rate of the Surface RT tablets are being returned to stores.

If true, Microsoft sold between 680,000 and 750,000 of the 1.25 million Surface RT tablets shipped during the fourth quarter of 2012. Little wonder, then that production of the first Surface has likely halted, according to one hardware research firm Thursday...

Microsoft (barely) sells a million Surface units

Ed Sutherland / January 14, 2013

If you're Microsoft, January can't end too soon. The company's Surface RT is taking a battering from the iPad, selling one million of the tablets during the holidays. According to one Wall Street observer, the consumer-oriented tablet has two strikes against it: being compared to Apple's product and too little retail exposure.

The one million figure is less than half of the two million units previously forecast by UBS analyst Brent Thill. In December, IHS iSuppli projected Microsoft would sell just 1.3 million units of the Surface RT...

Microsoft turns to retailers to help flagging Surface sales

Ed Sutherland / December 12, 2012

Microsoft's Surface tablet just isn't selling. But the company knows - or thinks it does - the reason. The problem with sales is that the Surface just isn't available in enough stores, the software giant turned tablet maker says. Currently, the Surface is mainly sold in about three dozen Microsoft's own retail outlets in the country.

After being stung by reports that its tablet wasn't even selling in Microsoft-owned stores (are you reading this, Oprah Winfrey?), the company announced it will put the Surface on the shelves of third-party retailers, such as Staples. If 'build it and they will come' isn't working, will 'stock it and they will buy' be any better?

Ballmer qualifies Surface sales as ‘modest’, but there’s a huge opportunity

Christian Zibreg / January 22, 2018

For all the talk about the Surface - and we've said some nice things about it - Microsoft's foray into big league tablet computing has been marred with teething problems and lackluster sales. Arriving in a crowded tablet market on October 26, the Surface was praised for its industrial design and build quality as it was panned for its resource-hungry and buggy OS and insufficient third-party software.

The software maker did not release exact sales data and its CEO Steve Ballmer is dogging such questions in absence of a milestone like Apple's three million tablet sales in three days. In an interview with a French newspaper, Ballmer qualified the beginning of the Surface sales as "modest", which probably means way worse than expected...