Microsoft Surface Pro “Sells Out”

This looks like an emerging trend: new gadgets are selling out on launch day. First is was the new BlackBerry Z10, now it looks to be that the 128GB Microsoft Surface Windows 8 Pro is also flying off the shelf.

Here is some interesting information on sales estimates for the Surface Pro.

From the Microsoft Surface blog:

“Surface Windows 8 Pro 64gb is available online or from store shelves at all Microsoft retail stores in the U.S. […], at Staples and Best Buy in the United States […]. Customer response to the launch of Surface Pro has been amazing. We’re working with our retail partners who are currently out of stock of the 128GB Surface Pro to replenish supplies as quickly as possible. Our priority is to ensure that every customer gets their new Surface Pro as soon as possible.”

ComputerWorld‘s coverage of the Surface Pro launch:

“Microsoft’s retail partners for the Surface in the U.S. — had single-digit supplies that in some cases were claimed earlier in the week.”

Being an self proclaimed Apple fan, I liked John Gruber’s post on Daring Fireball about the subject. Specifically, the articles he linked to over on the Virtual Pants blog.

From the Virtual Pants blog:

“When new products sell out on launch day it usually means one of two things: it’s a hot product or they didn’t make enough. Unfortunately for Microsoft, it appears that the Surface Pro falls into the latter category. My local (Northern Virginia) Microsoft store sold out in 15 minutes, which means there wasn’t much to sell. The local Best Buy sold out too, but only received one unit. The local Staples received and sold a whopping two units. Selling out on launch day doesn’t mean very much when there isn’t anything to sell in the first place.”

The author over at Virtual Pants, I’m sorry, but I didn’t see their name posted, goes on to do a pretty reasonable estimate of how many units were actually sold this past weekend. The assumption is that Best Buy and Staples retail locations received 1 – 2 units each, while the 30 US-based Microsoft Stores received 150 units. The Virtual Pants calculations break down like this:

“Let’s add up all the Surface Pros sold in the U.S. yesterday based on these estimates:

Best Buy: 1,103 stores * 2 units per store = 2,206.

Staples: 1,575 stores * 2 units per store = 3,150.

Microsoft Store: 30 stores * 150 units per store = 4,500.

That’s 9,856 Surface Pros sold in U.S. retail stores on launch day. Many more were likely sold online, but less than 10,000 units available in retail stores is an embarrassment by any measure.”

Huh. I wonder if Microsoft will release their launch weekend sales figures in the near future. Remember, this is just an estimate of what Microsoft had out in retails locations in the US this past weekend. It also doesn’t take into account how many Surface Windows 8 Pro units were sold online. (My checks at Staples.com and BestBuy.com show the Surface Windows 8 Pro as out of stock.)

This “sell out” is starting to sound a lot like the BlackBerry Z10 sell out, the Palm Pre sell out (which I was a part of, my “live” blog is here), and as AppleInsider (biased, yes I know) reminds us, the Microsoft Zune HD sell out.

The Surface, Microsoft’s answer the to the Apple iPad, just went from “Gee, I really want to play with that!” to “Are you friggin’ kidding me?! That sucks!”

Not that long ago I tweeted that I wanted to get a Surface RT tablet – the smaller form factor version of Surface that doesn’t run full blown Windows PC apps. The device itself looks to be well made and not too heavy. The battery life is OK, not great when compared to an iPad. But the lure of the Surface tablet, whether it’s the Surface RT or the Surface Pro, is that it comes with touch enabled, tablet optimized-ish, versions of Microsoft Office.

Ok, so far so good. Ya, Microsoft’s prices are higher than Apple’s, but it’s Windows and Office on a tablet.

And then Microsoft released the Surface Pro storage specs. Not good. Not good at all.

“Microsoft is getting ready to ship a version of its Surface tablet, the Surface Pro, which features the full Windows 8 operating system installed on the tablet. The device comes in two models, a 128GB and a 64GB. Microsoft even makes a note on the specs of the Surface Pro that formatted storage capacity will be less but doesn’t mention exactly how much less. Want to know the truth?”

Microsoft has published a storage specifications page over on Microsoft.com detailing how much storage space is left for you to use on your new tablet after the bloated versions of Microsoft Windows and Office are installed.

The snippets below are from Microsoft’s Surface storage page. I will note, that only the Surface RT is mentioned by name and I am not sure if that is a typo or if there is another page specifically for the Surface Pro.

Surface storage

Important System software uses significant storage space; your storage capacity will be less. See surface.com/spec. 1 GB = 1 billion bytes

Surface with Windows RT comes in two storage configurations. Users can select between a 32 GB and 64 GB version of Surface. As with all PCs and tablets, the operating system and pre-installed applications take up a certain amount of available storage. With Surface, you can store and enjoy media content, and also get real work done, right out of the box. Surface comes with these pre-installed apps you’ll need for work and play[.]

How much storage space do I have?

Here’s how much storage you have available out of the box:

The 32 GB Surface with Windows RT has approximately 16 GB storage available for user content
The 64 GB Surface with Windows RT has approximately 45 GB storage available for user content

The one bit of good news is that there is a microsSDXC card slot built into the Surface which allows you to add up to a 64GB of additional storage space.

To me, this all seems kind of disingenuous. Yes, when you format a storage device, hard drive, flash drive, flash memory, you lose some space. That’s just accepted in the technology filed. It’s true for the iPad, the various tablet’s running the Google Android OS, and even my HP/alm TouchPad. But when you advertise a 32GB device, and there is only 16GB of usable storage space left, well, then you are selling a 16GB device, not a 32GB device in my book.

I might still get a Surface RT, but not before they show up as refurbished devices in Microsoft’s stores or other online retail outlet.

Pricing and Availability

The Surface RT is on sale now starting at $499 for a “32GB” unit without a keyboard cover. The 32GB Surface RT with a keyboard Touch Cover goes for $599. A “64GB” edition of Surface RT with Touch Cover sells for $699. The Surface RT is available at Microsoft retail stores (if you can find one) and online at Microsoft.com. You can also purchase them at Best Buy and Staples.

The Surface Pro with Windows 8 will go on sale on February 8 and is expected to be around $1,000 with a Touch Cover.

[Via GadgetsOnTheGo.net…]