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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.
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.
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.
Yeah, but Apple runs out of stock when it sells fifty million things in the first 48 hours after launch. Microsoft announcing "SOLD OUT" because it only sent one single unit to the retailer is a little bit different.
>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.
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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.
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?
Shit, son. Apple didn't even SHIP any iPad Minis to any stores in a 30 mile radius from me, save two that I'm aware of -- one being an Apple store, and the other an Apple-store-inside-a-Walmart.
Most places didn't start seeing them until right around Christmas (erring more towards *after* Christmas than before).
And of course Apple dropped iPad 3 prices by 50 bucks, and then again, so they now match the iPad 2 prices. Which were *not* dropped. So that the iPad Mini would be their lowest price point, so as to drive its sales. Many places stopped getting iPad 3 shipments around the last price drop, but PLENTY of iPad 2s! Which NO ONE WANTS, but Apple was able to unload onto retailers and keep the profitable 3s for their own stores.
Not that any of that doesn't make good business sense..
but then, not that any of that isn't at LEAST as big of a douche move as what you're saying MS is doing here.
... still waiting for this free-as-in-beer free beer I keep hearing about.