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Surface Pro Sold Out; Was It Just Understocked?
TechCrunch is one of the many outlets to report that Microsoft's Surface Pro tablet computer sold out on its first day of wide availability. Business Insider points to Reddit threads complaining that "selling out" was largely a product of not having all that many in stock to begin with, in some cases not even enough to cover pre-ordered devices.
I think the Surface is a terrible device, but It will be interesting to see reaction to this vs reaction to the Nexus ordering issues.
Isn't that the definition?
Am I the only one here who's first thought was: "Well, if that's their story, they better stick to it..." ?
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
I want this thing running linux before the month is out. I'd even settle for Windows 7. Just... not the Windows 8 abomination. Anything but that.
If it weren't for the price, I rather like the idea of an x86 high-spec tablet. The android offerings have to make a lot of compromises to keep weight down and battery life up. The Surface pro doesn't: It's a lap-burning battery-sucking brick with processing power to rival a laptop. That's the type of tablet I want.
a standard marketing technique? That makes it possible to be "Amazed and pleased at the huge demand that has far exceeded our expectations!"
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
Microsoft also "sold out" of the Surface RT on launch day as well... and that thing has sold poorly after it's initial launch. They were originally expecting to sell 2 million units in Q4 2012, and they only sold about half of that.
It seems that this tactic has become a common way for Microsoft to generate some additional post launch hype for their products. I wonder how many times they can get away with it before the mainstream press catches on...
I would absolutely buy one if I had not recently bought a high-end notebook. In fact I am thinking about buying it anyways and selling the notebook.
Why?
All the reviews I've seen say it's a heavy, expensive, power-hungry tablet that makes a crappy, expensive laptop.
I want this thing running linux before the month is out.
First big hurdle - is there even a Linux that's built for touch input?
Yeah, it's called Android. You living under a rock?
Second hurdle - all sorts of custom drivers, including I'd imagine the driver for the keyboard/trackpad cover. It's not bluetooth and I don't think it's standard USB either.
Maybe you're right, but do you really think they'd reinvent all these wheels just for spite?
It's a lap-burning battery-sucking brick with processing power to rival a laptop. That's the type of tablet I want.
You and very few other people! I mean, what's the point, exactly? Why not get a similarly light ultrabook? The whole idea of a tablet is that it's light, the batterly lasts all day, and the UI is oriented around touch. I mean, there are things about the iPad that drive me nuts (particularly file-handling, or rather the way it tries abstract away file-handling completely) but it gets all that right. Do you really want something as heavy as a laptop with a laptop-focused OS, but with no keyboard?
All the pro-Surface stories I've seen over the last few months don't pass the sniff test.
They all give me the impression that MS marketing is pulling out all the stops for this one,
sensing serious implications if they fail.
I'm pretty sure this happens at every apple release. They run out of stock, and it's a huge success. I suppose the definition of success and understock (and all things related) is quite variable.
... expecting this sort of statement, controversy and ... free advertising (I'm such a cynic).
I can't help wonder if microsoft just judged the market acceptance of the product just right and was
- Nec Impar Pluribus, or so I'm told.
There is also plama active.
I finally came to the realisation that I had a genuine use for a tablet. Reading academic papers on the train and the like. I tried to buy a Nexus 10 but it wasn't available anywhere. So I had a long hard think about it and in the end I bought an Acer W510, an x86 atom-based tablet running full-fat Windows 8.
Obviously I'm going to immediately draw all sorts of ire here on Slashdot but that can't be helped. The problem I had was that there really just wasn't much difference in price between a high-end Android tablet and something with an x86 and a proper OS with proper software. Whether that matters is down to the usage case. I wanted a tablet but one I could clip a keyboard to and do some proper work in. Office apps mostly. I also wanted proper battery life, not pretend battery life.
So far it's been pretty good! I use the weird Windows 8 Metro (or whatever it's called now) UI when I'm using it as a tablet. Mostly as a launcher but some native Win8 touch apps are handy, like document readers, Kindle, that sort of thing. The touch interface is borderline useless on the classic Windows desktop but at least there *is* a Windows desktop which is where the clip-on keyboard and Bluetooth mouse comes in. That said yesterday while lying in my hammock reading a book on it, a simple gesture swiped between the reader and full-fat Gmail running in Chrome. It's better than anything I've owned before in that respect.
Sorry for the digression but it's on that basis I can talk about the Surface Pro which I had a play with. Firstly, it's too damn heavy. It's 900g versus 550g for the W510. Secondly it's got a fan and it has crap battery life. It also costs a whole ton of money. Sexy slim ultrabook money. So the fact it's *also* a tablet is quite critical if it's pretty much inferior to cheaper ultrabooks in every way as a notebook. A high-res Windows 8 tablet that weighs too much to hold up easily? I don't really get it. On that basis I think the Pro just isn't right.
In the same way RT is just a waste of oxygen since it can only really touch W8 touchy tablet stuff and it makes Android tablet app availability look generous. If you'd wanted a proper tablet for tablet stuff only, you'd do Android or the iPad in my view. The W510 is an interesting device that fits my purposes but it seems kind of niche. I'd prefer it had a slightly higher res screen and the CPU sucked a bit less ass, but it looks like that's coming down the line.
I reckon the Surface Pro is a weird spec because Microsoft are trying to justify the whole Windows RT category as the light device. I think that's rubbish. x86 tablet/notebook hybrids look quite good to me but they do need to be good light weight tablets and that's only just on the bleeding edge right now. Looks like it'll get better still when the faster atoms come along and maybe the Windows 8 app store will start looking more interesting. It wouldn't take much to overtake Android in that respect.
VG Cats #214.
Get free satoshi (Bitcoin) and Dogecoins
The battery life is the biggest draw back in my opinion. Not a deal breaker, but still a drawback.
For practical use in business, you have to be able to have it run all day on the shop floor, the sales floor, the offices or the patient wards.
To be fair, the run time tests were continuous operation of some fairly screen intensive applications. If it is allowed to go to sleep mode in between frequent, but not continuous use, it may be fine in the real world.
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
The interest in Surface PRO is NOT in the nerd community.
Its in the business community that can immediately use PRO without waiting for an RT version of the software they use every day to come out.
And, other than the marketing droids who must have The New Shiny, why would they do that when they can buy a laptop for much less?
I think I've finally figured it out. One way of getting modded up on /. is to write a long, disorganized post that seems to be both sides of the topic being discussed, so that nobody can figure out where you stand, but you sure sound passionate about it.
"Sold out" online only. In fact it "sold out" online weeks (from memory) before the launch date.
Define "poorly." Quote numbers sold and source for your data. You don't know. I don't know. Only Microsoft knows and so far, they aren't talking.
And finally ... the conjecture that MS wants to "generate some additional post launch hype" by pissing off a bunch of potential customers is just ignorant.
You seem to think this is some form of contradiction or hypocrisy. Yet it is not: the reason they're accused of understocking is because they're being accused of creating the illusion of demand; when they are laughed at for low sales, it is because this false demand is exposed.
Don't think of it as a flame---it's more like an argument that does 3d6 fire damage
>Maybe they just know roughly how many they expect to sell, and stock accordingly?
That just means that Microsoft doesn't believe in its own product.
If you really believe that your product will sell and people will stand in line for it, like they stood in line for Windows 95, and you've got the cash, you should at least make enough to fill the pre-orders and a couple of month's retail orders. It's not like Microsoft is hurting for cash for manufacturing and it's not like they don't have millions to throw at marketing research to find out the actual demand. There are so many things wrong with this "shortage" it doesn't pass the sniff test.
>Really, why?
Schadenfreude is fun. If you step on the backs of people with your boots on the way up, expect kicks on the way down. They deserve all the derision they get.
--
BMO
Some things sell out because they just can't make enough. The company has made as many as it can and put them all out to retail, and they all sell. However other things sell out because the company deliberately limits production/distribution to make them scarce.
I can work too. People seem to have an irrational need to own things if they are told they can't have it. So paradoxically it can work to increase sales in the long run. People are told "you can't have this" and that makes them want it, even though they didn't before.
Look at the massive run on firearms/magazines what with the proposal for new gun legislation. These people were perfectly happy with what they had prior to this, but suddenly they get told "you can't have this" and they want to rush out and buy it.
A lot of people on Slashdot decided Windows 8 was supposed to be bad. So now it is to them, regardless of any facts. They haven't actually used it to any significant degree, if at all, they just hate on it because they think they are supposed to hate it.
You'll see the FUD crew out in full force about it. My favourite is that it is a "walled garden" and you can only run apps from the MS store. That is, of course, completely false. It runs anything Windows 7 ran. However the point isn't to spread information, but FUD to try and scare people away from using it.
I'm certainly not a fan, since I think the look is a step backwards and Metro is retarded for the start menu, but I don't hate it. Get a start menu replacer and it works quite well.
Just thought would mention, normally for new product releases there are at least 2 distinct batches to arrive in stores.
First is air freighted typically not many units(often on pallets), second about a month later for the US, are standard shipping containers with the vast bulk of the supply. Air freighted products quite a bit more expensive (i looked at costs a couple of years ago and it was >5x).
If have just spent large $ on a production run, want to get some return as soon as possible but don't want to wreck quite often tight margins by air shipping too much and have it sit around for the month it takes the bulk to arrive. By selling out early can quite often get publicity and pre-orders to help shift the volume arriving later without having to discount the initial price too much.
do you really think they'd reinvent all these wheels just for spite?
Winmodem
Help stamp out iliturcy.
I guess just sticking your fingers in your ears and going 'la la la la la' may help.
But I bought one and I like it a lot. I want to write Python while I'm on aeroplanes. It's lighter and smaller than my X220 and has a much better screen. All its quirks and faults are to me, unimportant, and yes, the airline I fly has power sockets so that isn't an issue either.
"Our opponent is an alien starship packed with atomic bombs," I said. "we have a protractor"
Surface Pro is very close to reaching my "device trifecta". I think that the killer device for 2013 needs to be these 3-things with very few compromises: 1) Notebook: everyone is comfortable with this form factor and still wants it. It has to have a full keyboard is basically the main point here. I think that it ideally should be able to work on your lap but I don't know that everyone agrees with me. 2) Tablet: Most people want to consume and play, this is the easiest form factor for that. It is also the best form factor for convenience. If you want to whip your device out and check something really quick then a tablet is the most comfortable form factor to achieve this. 3) Desktop: This is the big one that I think all these tablets are missing and I feel like the solution is so close. All they have to do is make a docking station with dual mini-DisplayPort outputs and a bunch of other connections such as Ethernet, USB3, and audio in/out. the dock would need to connect with just a single connector and should ideally stand the device up in its tablet form factor so it can be used as a 3rd screen for additional interaction/notifications. If this isn't in the plans for Windows 9/Surface 2 then it should be.
Best Buy ordered 64000 units, but only 23000 were delivered.
Margins on these things tend to be pretty thin (and sometimes negative at product introduction), so the last thing you want is to have a bunch of inventory that's not moving. So at product introduction, you make fewer than your low-side estimate of your first month's sales. Then, once you see how it's received in the market, you either ramp up production or you don't.
Or...they have used it, or have seen the qualitative and/or qualitative reviews showing just why Windows 8 is a piece of shit. How it's not internally consistent, how mundane tasks are now hidden behind multiple layers of obscurity, and generally user hostile.
But let's pretend a spade isn't a spade, and that it's all just a bunch of Haterz whining on the Intertubes. Were you pushing the same storyline when Windows ME was released? How about Bob?
And do use it. I run Windows 8 on my work desktop full time. I'm our Windows support lead. So I have a pretty good feeling for it. I think it was a step backwards in terms of looks and usability. It's flat look is silly, particularly since the DWM is present and more powerful than ever. The start screen is also a very bad choice. While it is not hard to use, it is clumsy to use, it is worse than the start menu which is replaced.
However that really isn't such a big deal. Technically it is a very good OS. It is fast and stable, it has some nice new features, and it runs all the software I've tested, and I've tested a lot.
The major UI issue, the start menu, is easy to fix. You can get Classic Shell for free which does an ok job. For $5 you can get Start 8 which I love, it is a great replacement and very customizable. For $3 you can get Start is Back which actually restores the internal start menu to operation (most of the code is still there).
Hence I tell people don't bother to upgrade, if you've 7 stick with it. However if you get a system with 8, don't downgrade, just get a start menu and call it good.
Now if you have problems with 8, then that's fine, we can talk about them if you like. However just spurting vague shit is FUD, and that is mostly what we see. I see plenty of things about 8 that are flat out wrong.
MS made bad choices, but it really isn't all that big a deal. You find that out pretty quick if you use it much.
Basically my argument is don't upgrade or downgrade. So if you have an existing system with 7, stick with it. My home desktop is 7 and isn't changing any time soon. However if you get a new system with 8, stick with that. There's no reason to downgrade. The only real issue is the start menu and that is easy enough to get back. For that matter the start screen is perfectly usable, just more clunky and obtrusive than a start menu, hence my recommendation to get one.
It is silly to panic over 8 and act like you need to downgrade. You don't, it works just fine. Also, in the event you do happen to have a tablet, then it is better. That start screen is much easier to use than the start menu with fingers, and 8's multi-touch support is superior.