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Microsoft Is Sitting On Six Million Unsold Surface Tablets
DavidGilbert99 writes "Microsoft took everyone by surprise last year with the Surface tablet. It was something completely new from the company everyone knew as a software company. However nine months later and the sheen has worn off the Surface tablet and Microsoft's financial results on Thursday revealed it has taken a $900 million write down on the Surface RT tablets, leading David Gilbert in IBTimes to estimate it is sitting on a stockpile of six million unsold tablets."
I think i know an area in New Mexico where they can bury them. With good electronic company.
-+-=-+-=-+-=-+-=-+-=-+ *** http://www.mountainfort.com *** +-=-+-=-+-=-+-=-+-=-+-
With those cool commercials showing people spinning these around, and snapping keyboards onto them with such gusto. Certainly the choreography should have guaranteed these things get snapped up in masses.
It can't be that people are finally paying attention, and ignoring fluff. So what gives?
If you think I voted for Trump because of this post, you're wrong. I voted for Dr. Jill Stein of the Green Party. Again.
Then I'll buy one, I could do with a tablet to run Fedora :)
Microsoft had already tried and failed to sell tablet computing for about a decade before Apple showed them how to do it right. Their response was to double down with yet another attempt to shoehorn windows into a role it never fit.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
Microsoft Is Sitting On Six Million Unsold Surface Tablets
I guess Balmer threw all the chairs out.
It was actually surprising - not in the good sense, though. It was surprising that MS decided to enter a cutthroat market that is dominated by dirt cheap hardware made in China and an excellent free OS (Android) or a nearly free OS (Apple.) It was surprising that it chose to compete against MILLIONS of applications written for those two OSes. It was surprising that it decided to release a tablet that carries the name "Windows" [RT] but doesn't run Windows software. It was surprising that MS expected to actually win some place under the Sun in this market.
But of course why would they get any share of the market if they haven't delivered anything new, anything unique that would be worth of jumping the safe and sound ship of iOS/Android? What is it that lures the customer toward WinRT? I do not know, and I'm somewhat aware of what's happening with computing devices. As far as I know, there is nothing new in WinRT, except the fact that it is devoid of applications (compared to the competition.) What they have, is rumored to be largely garbage. I can't check those rumors because I don't know anyone who'd have WinRT. Everyone these days runs with iOS or Android, and they are happy campers.
MS is a million pound giant who is attempting to walk on thin ice. But whatever they do, they cannot get enough traction (=profit) to sustain their humongous empire, where one LOC of change costs a million dollars, after everything is said and done and all the uninvolved parties are paid. They cannot survive on low calorie food. They grew their business on products that they were the sole supplier, and they dictated their prices - hundreds, sometimes thousands of dollars for a copy of software that is sold in millions. This tablet market does not have such a profit margin. MS wants for their OS more than the whole competitor's tablet costs! And if they charge less then they are shipping money with every unit sold.
Actually, Microsoft was on phones long before Apple. It was called PocketPC in 2000. Switched to Windows Mobile in 2003. Then Windows Phone in 2010. They had around 40% market share in 2007. Which is when the iPhone came out. I had WinMo phones back in the day. That was the phone to get if you wanted apps, the ability to run a cellular data WiFi router, etc.
The iPhone was Apple's response to MS, RIM, and Palm. Not the other way around. And their response crushed the competition.
That's what happened with the win7 phones, they sold them dirt cheap after all the early adopters bought them for full price.
Now all the early adopters will never by a moble windows product again, including the surface.
I bought a lumia, for more then 400 euros, and 2 weeks later they:
- told me it would not be able to upgrade to win 8
- slashed the price in half, if not more
now why on earth would I go and buy another product with a microsoft label again? right, I wouldn't, I didn't and I'm pretty sure I won't for quite some time...
Not to mention they failed business 101, when entering a (nearly) saturated market you sure as hell better be cheaper than your already established competitor, especially when people's biggest complaint about the ipad isn't the multi-tasking, it isn't the lack of external storage, it's the price. Pricing your tablet that has an obviously relatively under-developed eco-system the same as your biggest competitor who already has an established user and dev base was beyond stupid. Had Microsoft priced the entry level at $399 or even $449 right from the start they might not have had such a spectacular failure on their hands. As it stands, most people willing to drop $500 on a tablet go with an ipad, those looking for something cheaper and/or more flexible go with Android.... Leaving Windows with the very small market share of people willing to shell out for an ipad, but not wanting one for some reason.
Yes, and before I get flamed about said reasons, most people aren't geeks, and the ipad customer satisfaction surveys tend to show that the vast majority of people who are willing to shell out for an ipad are happy with it, leaving MS with an incredibly tiny potential market.
Monstar L
I don't know about that... People keep saying what a "fashion device" iPads are, but have you actually seen how people actually use them?
My experience:
I actually have many tablets (I'm a developer, so that's my excuse...) and here's my uses for them
iPad 3:
- Often kept in the kitchen to watch TV on while cooking (Optimum app is one of rare useful things that a cable company gives out!)
- Used for reading "large format" color stuff (ie. Comics)
- Sitting around browsing the web when I have no real desire/need to actually "interact" with the world... just read about it.
- Note taking from time to time when I'm too lazy to get my laptop.
- Video chatting with parents
iPad Mini
- Primary reading device (at least every night before bed. Kindle app set to white on black text w/ backlight and contrast way down to offset light-in-the-eyes effect.)
- Light gaming (mostly things like card games, although the occasional larger game)
- The occasional use at the gym to watch something I've pulled down from either iTunes, Tivo or BT
My wife's iPad 2, which she uses for..
- Everything. Of course, she's not much of a "power user", but basically it's her primary portal to Facebook, Twitter, all those things normal people do on a computer. She also has a MB Air 11" which (with a wirelessly connected external drive) she manages her photos, does her normal work on, etc. Most of the time it just sits here gathering dust, though.)
My parent's, my Wife's parent's iPad 2.
- Facetime and Maps. We generally video chat with either set of parents with the kids a few times a month. They love it, the kids love. It's a massive win. In addition, when I was traveling a lot last year (India, Europe) I was able to video chat with my folks every few days. Trying to get either parent set to setup Skype just Wasn't Happening (and we tried!) but Facetime "just worked" enough for them to get it. Hell, my 80+ year old mom, who's completely computer-phobic, can actually make and answer FT calls. Oh, and Maps and Weather. My dad, father-in-law both spend a really long time with both maps and weather apps. I have no idea why. I guess it's an old man thing.
I also have 3 other computers (MB Air, MB Pro and random PC Tower.) The MB Air is my "sitting on the couch" laptop when I just need to write stuff up. the Pro plugged into 2 27" displays for "actual work" and the PC for... gathering dust. I have a wide variety of phone-class devices which I switch around to (like I said, I'm a mobile-focused developer.) At the moment, I'm using a Galaxy S4.
Finally, I have a Nexus 7. When I discovered that I really liked the iPad Mini (smaller, lighter, easier to lug around vs. iPad normal) I thought the Nexus would be even better (smaller, better display) but I just can't get comfortable using it. I have no way of explaining why, other than to just call it... too clunky. I gave it to my dad to see if he'd like to use it instead of his 2nd gen Kindle or iPad 2, but he didn't like it either, so now it's just gathering dust until I need to do some dev/testing on it. I'll probably end up giving it to my sister-in-law who's still using a old Motorolla Xoom I gave her (a device -she- uses quite a bit, too, mostly for the same web-browsing, Facebooking stuff that my wife uses her iPad for.)
So as perhaps you can see there are use cases for all of these device that maybe -you- don't have, but others have and enjoy using these types of devices for filling those needs. Each and every time a device listed above is used in the manner described, it's in a way that using a regular laptop/computer, while certainly feasible, just wouldn't be as a good experience as using the tablet. Fashion device? The tablets all mentioned above almost never leave the house, so if we got them to be "cool" for other people to see, then they're massively poor at it. They are, however, massively useful for what we use them for. I don't mean to be derogatory, however your comment (and it's certainly a popular one around here) seems very much like "I don't understand it, therefore I will make fun of those who use what I don't understand."
By talk, obviiously, that ends up more 'argue'.
During the 'talk' it became apparent that Sinofsky quite believed that I no longer needed a file manager, and that it was OK to both break my current work mode, and provide a new broken work mode, and provide a windows machine that would not run windows software, nor would it be able to be added to a domain. I mean, what can be better than if I create local users I have to work through two UIs and process methods to do what happened under local users previously.
Its quite compounded when you even now try to have conversations.
"I run engineering for the core group in the os division. Let’s talk about the things you have issues with. Winrt & domain join is the big one, right? Usability for desktop users – I am guessing on non touch machines is the second. I am happy to talk about either of these."
I've turned that 'offer' down now - because quite frankly there comes a time when a vendor *actually* needs to be listening and stop talking. And 'I am happy to talk about either of these' is in the end insane. Noboady at MS should be 'happy' to talk about these. When they start being as 'unhappy' as I am and they start to actually get a clue, then I may start talking.
I think it was fairly clear to anyone sensible that RT (The system and the API), Surface, and Notro and other aspects were wrong, still are wrong, and are not going to stop being wrong because someone in marketing things they can be made 'right'.
I will admit a perverse pleasure in some basic historically proven events. Sinofsky being fired. Deserved for attitude alone, but partially a shame as he can deliver something - that somthing has to be right however. And seeing his utter failing in both 8 and with Surface after he spent so much time bullshitting about 'how great they are'.
98% of windows stuff happens on the real windows systems. Even in 8, that translates back to people running desktop and installing back a start menu, and running their standard legacy software.
I've tested 8.1 and the fundamentals remain utterly broken. The window dressing of 'fixing' what was wrong isn't whats required to fix the problems.
We`re all equal