“The Windows world is rocking with news that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer told the French-language daily Le Parisien that sales of the Surface RT tablet ‘are starting modestly,'” Woody Leonhard reports for InfoWorld. “Unfortunately, the original interview hasn’t been published online, so it’s hard to tell precisely how Ballmer may have phrased or couched that comment, and as usual, there’s absolutely nothing official emanating from Redmond.”
“All signs point to the Surface with Windows RT selling slowly,” Leonhard reports. “With only two manufacturers offering Windows RT products, any sizable demand for either the Microsoft or Asus products should’ve led to widespread shortages. Microsoft ran out of its cheapest Surface RT — $499 for 32GB with no cover/keyboard — for about a week. The identical machine with a black touch cover ($599) has always been available for immediate delivery. I’ve never seen a single ‘not available’ notice on an Asus Windows RT machine.”
Leonhard reports, “I don’t expect to see sales for the Surface RT to pick up, even over the holidays. With widespread reports of Touch Cover keyboards that split open like Gallagher’s watermelons, Metro apps that continue to underwhelm, complaints of rampant advertising in the apps (gimme a break — the Metro Music and Video apps are nothing but wall-to-wall advertisements), and reported audio stuttering and spontaneous muting problems, not to mention demonstrably lethargic performance and rumors of astronomical return rates, the Surface RT version 1.0 may well be circling the drain.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “SouthRoad” for the heads up.]
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