“Microsoft announced Surface last summer to great fanfare. It was, after all, historic and surprising for the company to get into the computer device business, especially for Microsoft OEMs whose longtime partner suddenly became a competitor,” Shane O’Neill reports for Informationweek. “Microsoft rolled out the Surface RT tablet, running on ARM chips, last fall and the more powerful Surface Pro followed in February.”
“But the devices have fallen flat, even with relentless advertising,” O’Neill reports. “A May report from IDC reveals that Surface shipments totaled 900,000 units (700,000 Surface Pros and a meager 200,000 Surface RTs) in the first quarter, capturing only 1.8% of the tablet market.”
O’Neill reports, “The Surface may ultimately stand as proof that you can’t please everybody with one device. In trying to serve two masters, Microsoft ended up designing a device that’s neither a great laptop (flimsy keyboard, a screen still too small for prolonged use) nor a great tablet (awkward UI, lacking in quality apps compared with Android and iOS).”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: What was that we said over two years ago? Oh, yeah:
Our initial impression is that Microsoft, in trying to cram everything into Windows 8 in an attempt to be all things to all devices, will end up with an OS that’s a jack of all trades and a master of none (which, after all, ought to be Microsoft’s company motto). – MacDailyNews Take, June 1, 2011
Related articles:
Microsoft’s moribund Windows RT rasps out death rattle – July 9, 2013
TechCrunch’s Siegler reviews Microsoft Surface RT: ‘It’s time for a drop test – right into the garbage can’ – November 19, 2012
Microsoft hit with lawsuit over Surface tablet’s lack of storage due to bloated Windows RT operating system – November 15, 2012
Beleaguered Microsoft has failed – November 14, 2012
Slate reviews Microsoft’s Surface tablet: Too slow, mercilessly buggy; why is it so bad? – November 6, 2012
Microsoft’s bloated Windows RT eats 16GB of Surface tablet – November 5, 2012
InfoWorld reviews Microsoft Surface RT: A disappointment; you’re better off with Apple’s iPad – October 31, 2012
Acer delays Windows RT tablets; adopts ‘wait and see’ approach after poor Surface RT reviews – October 30, 2012
Gizmodo reviews Microsoft Surface RT: Do not buy; inferior to Apple’s iPad; the worst of both worlds – October 25, 2012
The Verge reviews Microsoft Surface RT tablet: ‘The whole thing is honestly perplexing; who is this for?’ – October 24, 2012
Analyst: Microsoft’s Surface RT tablet priced too high, could be the next Zune – October 18, 2012
Dvorak: ‘Microsoft’s Surface tablet isn’t the Apple iPad, so it shouldn’t be priced like one’ – October 18, 2012
Microsoft inexplicably claims Surface RT tablet lower resolution screen beats iPad with Retina display – October 17, 2012
Microsoft Surface RT tablet Wi-Fi-only; 32GB for $599 with, $499 without keyboard, $699 for 64GB – October 16, 2012
Microsoft airs first TV ad for Surface tablet (with video) – October 15, 2012
Apple’s ‘iPad mini’ to obliterate Microsoft’s Windows 8, Surface RT tablet launches – October 13, 2012
Acer CEO to Microsoft: ‘Think twice’ about Surface tablets – August 7, 2012
Microsoft Surface tablet pricing leaked; US$1,000 for ‘cheapest’ Windows RT model – July 26, 2012
Ballmer: Uh, yeah, ‘Surface is just a design point,’ you know – July 10, 2012
Microsoft’s Buffoon, er… Ballmer throws down gauntlet against Apple – July 10, 2012
Microsoft reportedly dumps ‘VaporMg’ chassis, will use ‘VaporMg’ only as ‘surface treatment’ – July 9, 2012
Microsoft’s downfall: Inside the executive e-mails and cannibalistic culture that fueled Microsoft’s lost decade – July 7, 2012
HP said to dump Microsoft over Surface; to cozy up to Google Android for tablet efforts – July 2, 2012
Bad news for Microsoft’s iPad killer? – July 2, 2012
Dear Microsoft, Steve Balmer and Bill Gates: What is up with your obsession with keyboards? – June 28, 2012
Jason Schwarz: Top 10 reasons why Microsoft’s Surface is DOA – June 22, 2012
Why I love Microsoft’s vaporware Surface tablet – June 22, 2012
Microsoft’s Surface tablet said to be Wi-Fi only at launch; no 4G, no 3G, no 2G, not even 1G – June 22, 2012
Microsoft outsources Surface assembly to Pegatron; prices above $799 for Windows 8, above $599 for Windows RT expected – June 21, 2012
Acer founder: Microsoft will quit making tablets soon – June 21, 2012
Devastating video shows Microsoft’s Surface event aping Steve Jobs’ iPad unveiling (with video) – June 20, 2012
Thanks to Apple, Microsoft is doomed in the era of mobile computing – June 20, 2012
Why wouldn’t Microsoft let anyone touch its Surface tablets’ keyboard cover? – June 20, 2012
The cost of Microsoft’s Surface tablets – June 20, 2012
Apple’s revolutionary iPad vs. Microsoft’s anti-tablet ‘Surface’ – June 20, 2012
Microsoft’s Surface tablets provokes ‘sense of betrayal’ among Windows PC assemblers – June 20, 2012
Fox News: Copier Microsoft is doomed to fail with Surface tablet – June 19, 2012
Microsoft’s Surface tablet destined to be as successful as the Zune – June 19, 2012
Surface: Why Microsoft’s big mystery turns out to be a big mistake – June 19, 2012
Microsoft’s Suicide, er… ‘Surface’ – June 19, 2012
ZDNet Sr. Tech Editor Perlow: Microsoft’s Surface has catastrophe written all over it – June 19, 2012
Microsoft previews own ‘Surface’ tablet – June 18, 2012
Microsoft touts ‘major’ June 18 event said to showcase Windows RT tablets – June 15, 2012
ZDNet’s Kingsley-Hughes: Microsoft’s Windows 8 is an awful, horrible, painful design disaster – June 8, 2012
Analyst meets with big computer maker, finds ‘general lack of enthusiasm’ for Windows 8 – June 8, 2012
Dvorak: Windows 8 an unmitigated disaster; unusable and annoying; it makes your teeth itch – June 3, 2012
The Guardian: Microsoft’s Windows 8 is confusing as hell; an appalling user experience – March 5, 2012
More good news for Apple: Microsoft previews Windows 8 (with video) – June 1, 2011
Ha ha ha
If I want a toaster, I’m not going to buy a cheap refrigerator.
Now if the toaster was in the refrigerator…
BWAHAHAHAHA!!!!!! MUAHAHAHAHA!!!!!! *snort* *ga-fortel* *wheeze* heh-heh… The cruelest of chuckles IS the most satisfying, especially in Microsoft’s case. Once again today shuffling the deck chairs on the MS Titanic.
No surprise. Plus, their commercials were maddening.
Maddening AND Tiring, what with all that hopping and backflipping around… Click!
That was the essence of their problem. No one could relate to the action in the Surface ads. Everyone relates to the action in Apple ads.
But I thought Stevie B was a marketing genius. What’s with this?
Ballmer is doing a fine job, a very fine job …..
Hope he remains at least 10 more years ……
Dr. Jobs, MD: “Hmmm….yes, I think I see the problem here. Your product sucks, you have no taste and there’s a huge outgrowth coming out of your ass. I think it’s a haemorrhoid.”
Baldy Ballmer: “Hey doc, how long do you think I got to live? I mean, come on, make a prediction here. I can take it. My bald pate can take it. Just hit me with it doc.”
Dr. Jobs, MD: “Tell you what, since you’ve been a patient of mine, have I ever lied to you? I’ll give you these haemorrhoid pills. Take a couple of them a day and come back and see me in a couple of weeks’ time. We’ll see what happens.”
Baldy Ballmer: “Hey doc, I’m back! Listen, I’ve been taking those haemorrhoid pills you’ve given me and I’ve gone and done a colonic rinse. Oh yeah, I feel better now baby.”
Dr. Jobs, MD: “It appears that you’ve flushed the good stuff down the toilet and left the shit inside you.”
Better punch line:
Two weeks later the haemarhoid comes back in and says “thanks doc, I feel much better now”
Failure for Surface equals failure for Windows 8.
Nonsense. Microsoft shares up 18% YTD. They’re killing it. Apple down 19% YTD. Being killed. Just saying to put reality into perspective.
Century to day, AAPL is up about 2000% and MSFT is actually down. There is room on the downside for AAPL, because it has climbed so far so fast. Remember when AAPL dropped from over $200 to under $80, and that was only about FOUR years ago? What happened after that? A relentless climb to $700. For stagnant Microsoft, there is always room for fluctuations on MSFT’s mostly flatline ride.
And what does that have to do with Windows 8? Surface Pro is Microsoft’s showcase for Windows 8. Microsoft is profitable despite Windows 8, NOT because of it.
The first time I saw a surface commercial with all the attractive young people jumping around and dancing on office furniture in perfect synchronization, I thought it was the most contrived and ridiculous thing I’d seen in a long time. Surface is failing because M$ cannot figure out how to start over from scratch, something Apple has done 3 times now. Inefficient and hopelessly bloated, M$ needs a visionary, not a sweaty monkey-boy.
Certainly not more contrived and ridiculous (or more painful to watch) than this…
you’re too right, NOTHING in the history human communications is worse than that thing.
played it again…made it to 1:08 before first seizure.
HAHAHAHA that’s where I stopped the first time through.
1:41 when they got to “Host Notes”
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzz
Yes there is…
I messed up:
My gag reflexes kicked in right away.
That one always brings a smile to my face. 🙂
I always love how people praise Surface Pro for being able to run full Office ( and omit that RT only runs a home version). Jobs that require a lot of work in Office do not need a tablet. Mostly they work at a desk where a desktop or large laptop is a better tool. If you need to look at a screen for long periods of time the more real estate the better, and a good keyboard mouse/trackpad. Small screens hurt you eyes. The Surface keyboard sucks, it doesn’t stay shut on the tablet when picking it up. Jobs that are great for tablets: don’t require looking at the screen for long periods of time, software that does not need a full keyboard most of the time, need long battery life, and portability. Pilots, salespeople, doctors, are just a few examples. That’s what MS doesn’t get, tablets are for jobs that desktops and laptops are bad at, if not impossible.
Exactly.
Their advertising doesn’t make sense. Dancers and hip hop and techno effects are cool, but they don’t demonstrate anything about the product. Remember that one commercial for Windows years back where the woman wanted to photoshop in a picture of a person into another picture. She says, “To the cloud!” That was so stupid because the cloud had absolutely nothing to do with manipulating the picture. More reasons why, they just don’t get it. (Of course, the failed Apple genius commercial was like this, but they pulled it)
They were hoping that associating disparate and desperate cool concepts and unrelated arts & visuals (dancing, klicking music, good looking people) the product will osmotically appeal to consumers. But nobody was fooled but the usual blindsided lovers of klunky Redmond technology.
That’s exactly why there were dancers. Microsoft did NOT want to show the actual product, because that would have done more harm that good.
If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bull s**t!
Apple did not pull the trigger. This fatal wound was self-inflicted.
Apple did pull the trigger in that M$ was desperately trying to remain relevant in the post-PC area.
Every negative prediction about the MS Surface has come to pass. MS is adrift at sea having already been swamped by the title wave that is iPad (and a touch of Droid thrown in).
While MS’ continued missteps and shockingly out-of-touch efforts are satisfying in one sense, more importantly they are very sad on a number of levels.
I love Apple but I do want MS to succeed. We need competition and we need someone else to actually innovate rather than fire up their copiers.
As long as Ballmer is at the helm the MS Titanic will continue to sink.
“adrift at sea” and the iceburg is just over the horizon.
icebErg I meant to type.
Wait the Surface is a computer I thought it was a prop for flash mobs.
I posted this comment to the Information Week article:
Rust belt software companies will keep the Surface alive. For instance, we access our school’s clinic information system through Citrix terminal services. The Citrix client works perfectly on a Surface Pro, and their iPad client is horrendous. So, even though we are a nearly 100% Mac shop, Citrix’s pathetic iPad programmers are driving us to buying Surfaces.
Somebody help, please.
Surprising, after the Surface’s auspicious debut!
Their demo’s never work right because the products never work right.
The only “click” you will hear is the sound of RT users pressing the off button
Things that are good at some things, and great at nothing get lost in the dust of time and progress, while things with focused greatness go whizzing by.
Shipments….If those numbers disappoint…imagine how bad the actual “sold” numbers are..
“proof that you can’t please everybody with one device”
Actually it’s two devices. The RT and the Pro. Microsoft couldn’t decide what to do so they put out two incompatible devices that compete with each other. Customers (and developers) saw this as a lack of commitment and decided that supporting either one would be too risky.
You pay for 32G memory; they let you use 16G. You can only do landscape, not portrait. It is a no brainer. This type of product only damage a company’s reputation.
Any tablet that is 16:9 aspect ratio is just crap in portrait mode. What MS focus group made that decision?