
Microsoft’s 128GB Surface Pro Sells Out At Online Store Just Hours After Launch - talhof8
http://techcrunch.com/2013/02/09/microsofts-128gb-surface-pro-sells-out-at-ms-online-store-just-hours-after-launch/
======
robomartin
OK, time to inject some reality here, particularly in light of comments akin
to "they sold all <something less than 10>" on this thread.

I don't own one but will buy one eventually. Surface Pro is a significant step
forward in the world of tablets for a number of reasons. I won't go into all
of them here --and I probably haven't recognized them all yet anyway.

1- it's a design that is far more open than iPad. You can move files in and
out of it and have full control of the user directory structure. Want to move
a bunch of your spreadsheets, recipes, python scripts and chess games into it.
No problem. You don't have an Apple-like overlord prohibiting any of that.

2- Need to install XAMPP, Python and other dev tools? No problem?

3- Want to install VMware and boot Ubuntu 12.04 LTS on a VM for a full
command-line dev environment and even virtual host a few sites? No problem.

4- and, after all that work, do you want to create a restricted user account
for your 5-year-old to be able to play some games and educational apps? No
problem at all.

5- How about accounts for guests and friends so that they don't accidentally
mess with your stuff? Yup.

6- Need more hard drive space? How about attaching an external USB hard drive
and, perhaps keeping all your dev work there for easy transport to your
desktop? Yup.

7- Can you use that really cool RC Flight Simulator that comes with a custom
USB interface to your JR9505 transmitter? Of course you can.

8- Or, how about that receipt or business card USB scanner?

9- That neat Logithech keyboard you use on all your PC's? Of course.

10- can you run SolidWorks, AutoCAD, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Dreamweaver,
CuteFTP, Komodo, WinForth, Keil, Eclipse, Photoshop, Chrome, Firefox, Safari,
Fritz and a whole host of other software you might already be using for fun
and work? Sure looks that way.

Yeah. Exactly. Just like an iPad.

~~~
forman
It's a compromise between an ultra book and a tablet. If you tout its ultra
book qualities you can make it look like it trumps a tablet. If you tout its
tablet qualities you can make it look like it trumps an ultra book.

The real issue is that as an ultra book it compares poorly to other ultra
books and as a tablet it compare poorly to other tablets.

~~~
rlu
Gonna go ahead and say that I've almost completely stopped using my Samsung
Series 9 (amazing, beautiful ultrabook) ever since I got my Surface RT.

It works fine on my lap and it's a great computer (Pro of course even MORE
so). The _only_ use case that a normal laptop runs circles around it is when
you're laying in bed and need to use the keyboard.

I agree with grandparent, though I do see what you're saying. Yes: there is
compromise when getting a Surface. But, I honestly have a great laptop
experience _and_ a great tablet experience. I'm perfectly happy with it and
wouldn't go back to using two separate devices.

~~~
trimbo
How do you get it to work fine on your lap? I've tried it with the kickstand
and it's very unsteady. Did you buy an accessory?

~~~
rlu
I didn't really have to try...it just worked? I usually have the kickstand be
at the end of my knees - any further and it would be close to falling off(!)
but that places the keyboard in a good spot.

And sure, it's more unsteady than on a table and perhaps I look a little silly
- but as far as typing speed is concerned, it's really a non issue.

------
zalzane
This is an interesting article, and I think it's the product of microsoft
marketing.

After the lukewarm sales of the surface last fall, I bet microsoft would be
keen to stock stores with less surface pros on release to provoke articles
like this. After glancing at this article title, the first thing I thought was
"Maybe there might be something good about the surface that I had
overlooked?".

It's a bit of a stretch, but isn't unreasonable for a good sales team.

~~~
firefoxman1
My local Staples received a shipment of exactly two: One display model and one
in box.

~~~
mtgx
It seems you're not the only person reporting that they've only had the
display devices on stock. I wonder if they did that for most of the stores to
say they sold out quickly. It's not easy to take Microsoft at face value these
days. So I remain skeptical until we get more data.

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brentsota
I checked online inventory at all Minnesota Best Buy and Staples locations at
8:30 and all were out-of-stock for the 128. I was also at the Microsoft store
this morning in Minnesota for the 'launch'. There were about 40 people in line
before the doors opened. Even before the doors opened, they came to each of us
and told us that the 128 was already sold out and that we would be 'first' in
line on the waiting list. It seems to me that the only 'stock' at any of the
stores were the display models.

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jmduke
This is kind of empty without knowing how much the online store stocked.

~~~
rm999
Also the RT saw 'very high' rates of return, the pro may have similar issues.
I think the most useful measure will be the number sold (after returns) after
a a few months.

[http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-57566759-75/microsoft-
surf...](http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-57566759-75/microsoft-surface-
sales-well-below-shipments-says-isuppli/)

~~~
Livven
It's safe to assume that the overwhelming majority of those returns are
because of buyers who saw "Windows" and thought it'd run existing desktop
applications.

~~~
rm999
I wouldn't call that a safe assumption, but I can see how that would be part
of it. From the article:

>Why the high return rates? "It seems to be linked in a lot of cases to a
steep learning curve of the [Windows 8] OS -- which is not necessarily
intuitive," she said.

As I understand it the full version of Windows 8 is even more complex and less
intuitive. Surface pro is in a tricky spot because it's competing both with
traditional tablets and laptops, both of which consumers are entirely used to.

~~~
anonymfus
Half of laptops now ships with Windows 8, there are no reports about high
return rates of them.

>As I understand it the full version of Windows 8 is even more complex and
less intuitive.

The only difference in UI for regular customer is that Windows 8 can run
third-party desktop applications.

------
sigkill
I guess I'm the only one who isn't surprised that the 128GB sold out. Do you
guys remember that when they made the Xbox 360 originally it launched in the
Core and Premium (I had initially written Arcade and Pro here, but my
intention was Core and Pro)versions with none and 20gigs HDD respectively? If
my memory serves me right, they had higher sales of the 20 gig model rather
than the arcade model.

Holding that thought train did anyone else compare this to the Dan Ariely's
'Predictably Irrational' chapter of human choice. Given A, A-, and B, A looks
better than B precisely because our minds compare A with A-, over which it's
clearly superior and applies that to B as well. Only, here they don't need a
B. They've made it work fantastically with just A and A- options.

~~~
evoxed
IIRC the Arcade came about a year after the original X360. I had one of the
originals, chrome disc drive and 10GB HD (maybe that was usable space). ...
Okay, looked it up and you're right, except it was the 'Core' model. Arcade
was two full years after launch.

Difference: Premium cost only $100 more than the Core ($400 vs $300) but came
with basically over $200 worth of upgrades incl. HDD, wireless controller,
headset, and memory card. You also needed the HDD to play Xbox Live.

~~~
sigkill
Yes, my fault. I actually indeed meant Core and Pro. Totally slipped my mind
that Arcade was actually an official edition and had 4GB SSD or something.

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bnegreve
Wow, although I don't care much about the Surface (I use Linux and laptops) I
am _very_ surprised how fast everyone is at bashing the Surface.

It looks like if was a lost cause before even it was lunch.

~~~
nivla
Its the same old fanboyisms, brand loyalty, hivemind hatred all mixed into
one, ie a weakness of human trait to look at things subjectively. Remember
when Nexus 4 got sold out? You din't see comments like "ohh look they
intentionally put < X units as a marketing strategy".

Never make a hivemind decision the sole reason for buying or avoiding a
product. Try them first, be it chromebook, macbook or a windows ultrabook, you
will be surprised how reality differs.

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PedroBatista
All 30 of them?

It would be nice that these "news" sites refused to publish this kind of
information unless Microsoft (in this case) revealed the number of units sold.

~~~
UnoriginalGuy
Yeah. Or at least gave us a ballpark figure. I mean if they said "over 30K
units" for example, that is good enough for me.

~~~
Ralz
It probably was around that number, I doubt MS would make 300 units for their
launch.

------
Kiro
What's with the negativity? Nothing beats the Surface Pro at the moment so I'm
not surprised it sells out.

~~~
mtgx
Nothing beats it at what? As a tablet, it's not that useful. It's heavy, low
battery life, and not even close to having many good "tablet" apps. As an
ultrabook I suppose it's alright, but I wouldn't find it useful myself, as I
watch movies from bed a lot with the laptop on a desk, and the angle of the
Surface with its dock would make watching a movie on it like this impossible.

~~~
ChuckMcM
"Nothing beats it" get it? If you've got "nothing" your in a superior position
to someone who owns one. Wink wink.

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dotjosh
This sounds like the technique that bands use when they first come to a new
city. Use a smaller venue so everyone hears the show was sold out.. then the
next time they come back, they can play a bigger venue and fill it.

------
jonknee
Yes it would be better if there were inventory figures, but that doesn't stop
the exact same stories to come out about Apple launches.

~~~
Scorponok
Which are usually followed by Apple saying "We're delighted to have sold [a
crapload] of [whatever] this weekend, a record amount etc etc". That's why
Apple sellouts are interesting, because they actually tell you how many
they've sold. If Microsoft does the same thing, kudos to them, but for the
surface RT launch they didn't (IIRC).

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chmars
1\. Buyers apparently know that they have to go for the 128 GB version if they
want to have sufficient storage for their own data.

2\. The headline reminds my of book editions: '1st edition sold out!'
'Interesting, how many books were printed for the 1st edition?'

~~~
UnoriginalGuy
#1: Or just install an SD card...

~~~
codinghorror
Perf will not be great to the card though. Depends what you install or store
there, or if it even can be installed there. SD cards are fine for general
media storage, but anything perf intensive you don't want there.

~~~
pbhjpbhj
Presumably the SD port will cope with Class 10 or UHS-I and so transfer at HD
video rates. There can't be much call for higher rate transfers for most
users; it's not like you're going to use it for data gathering from a hadron
collider.

------
falcolas
Most of the physical stores (read the 4 major retailers I visited earlier
today) in my town sold out as well.

~~~
beagle3
Some people who actually asked in stores that have sold out were told that the
store got 2 (a display item and an inventory item).

It would not be surprising if this is engineered to make it sell out quickly
and seem more desirable than it really is.

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frozenport
Theory: MS had low stock due to Surface RT sales.

~~~
anonymfus
Problem is, RT had low stock at start too.

------
Tloewald
Whether or not this represents a lot of sales, the fact is there are plenty of
Microsoft fanboys. They don't get ridiculed by the press the way Apple fanboys
do, but the fact that people would queue for a new release of Windows back in
the day is testament to it. Just as Apple can sell a buttload of products on
day one but ultimately have a flop product, although we haven't seen such a
flop in some time, so can Microsoft (Vista!).

------
jiggy2011
It's a shame the keyboard cover isn't stiff enough to not require the stand.
In that picture the stand makes it look sort of awkward.

~~~
Encosia
You don't spend any time looking at it from that angle when you're using it,
but the stand and cover make it just as usable as a real laptop as long as
you've got a tabletop. I'm able to type as fast/accurate on my RT with the
Type Cover as I can on my MacBook Air.

------
6ren
It's hard to believe they sold both.

------
petrel
Now or then, everyone will go to the surface, also those who make jokes out of
it.

------
MaysonL
Interestingly, the 128 gig iPad is not in stock in Apple's online store,
various models indicating shipping in 1-3 or 3-5 business days.

------
eurodance
To me, this is a marketing tactic.

------
dragontamer
I'm somewhat excited about the "Convertible" concept. But technically, I don't
think convertibles are quite ready yet for mainstream adoption.

Frankly, the real problem is that Intel / AMD chips are not ready to compete
in this form factor. Intel is making bold new moves with Haswell however, and
AMD is making big moves with Kabini, Temash and Kaveri.

In this generation, the lowest TDP chips are 17-Watt Ivy Bridges and 10-Watt
Atoms / AMD Brazos. For whatever reason, AMD Brazos aren't getting used in
tablets (they seem like a nice chip though...), the Clovertrail Atoms are too
weak (lacks out-of-order execution, performs mediocre even compared to ARM
chips, extremely poor GPU performance), and the 17-Watt Ivy Bridges use too
much power compared to the 5-Watt Arm chips competition.

( Part of the reason is that Intel Atom chips are second-class citizens of
Intel. They don't get access to the latest process, and were instead seen as a
cheap cost-effective chip for netbooks, as opposed to a premium power-
efficient but powerful chip that you'd expect in a tablet. )

With a power disadvantage, this generation of convertibles just ain't gonna
cut it in terms of battery life / portability / weight. The CPUs require too
much power, which require bigger batteries.

Next generation stuff from AMD / Intel however is looking quite exciting, and
the potential standardization of widespread adoption of DDR4 for more power
savings helps this form factor greatly.

In fact, Intel has introduced new instructions to Clovertrail Atoms and
Haswell specific to new low-power states of the CPU. Intel's willing to change
their instruction set to get better power savings.

True, Tablets will benefit from DDR4 (and already have the power-saving
instructions Intel is only now implementing). But the real benefit of battery
life stops being useful past around 8-hours or so. (With exception of
e-readers and their 30+ days of battery life. Those things are amazing on
vacation).

Furthermore, ARM chips are growing in a different direction in the near
future... they're aiming at the server marketplace. The innovations of ARM
64-bit don't really translate to smartphones / tablets. Exciting for the
server market, but I don't really see major innovations occurring for Tablet-
space ARMs in the near future.

If the convertible concept survives till next year, then we'll see some real
competition. In 2014, ARM chips will grow into the server market and attack
Xeons / Opterons. And simultaneously, Intel / AMD solutions will have their
first real salvo into the ultra-portable market.

\---------

That said, the Surface needs to be made. Microsoft needs to innovate from the
software side and figure out how to update Windows 8 to be more palatable for
everyone. So even if Intel / AMD chips aren't ready to compete, Microsoft
gotta move forward here. They're clearly falling behind in this race and need
to put something out there.

------
wilfra
They learned from Apple to artificially limit supply so they sell out quickly,
thus increasing demand in the long run. Not much else to see here.

~~~
Samuel_Michon
_"Apple [artificially limits] supply so they sell out quickly"_

Citation needed.

Whenever Apple launches a new iDevice, it sells millions of units within days.
When stock is depleted that fast, that means it could've sold more if they had
the inventory, and they miss out on sales because of customers choosing
something that is in stock at the time.

~~~
pbhjpbhj
> _it sells millions of units within days_ //

How many of those are pre-orders? My point being if they sell out but only
have a small % more products than they have pre-orders for then it _suggests_
they are indeed using scarcity for marketing purposes.

Like you note there's not real point in speculating on it without firm stats.

~~~
Samuel_Michon
_"if they sell out but only have a small % more products than they have pre-
orders for then it suggests they are indeed using scarcity for marketing
purposes."_

I don't think that's the case:

* When Apple allows for pre-ordering, it's rarely more than two weeks in advance.

* On launch day, there are always long lines in front of the Apple Stores, APRs and other retail stores that sell Apple products. The people standing in line haven't pre-ordered, since pre-orders are fulfilled by mail.

* New iDevices are sold in only a few countries at launch. Other countries have to wait weeks (like mainland Europe) or months (like China and India) to get any stock.

~~~
rednukleus
Oh come on, Apple sell out _every time_ they release an iOS product - even
when they miss analysts' expectations. They are either really really bad at
estimating demand (which I seriously doubt), or they are intending to sell
out.

It's a perfectly sensible thing to do.

~~~
Samuel_Michon
_"really bad at estimating demand"_

I won't pretend Apple is bad at estimating demand, even though each new model
sells way more units than the last. Tim Cook is famous for his inventory
management [1].

I think Apple's manufacturing partners simply cannot produce enough of them
(partly because Apple keeps making them harder to manufacture, partly because
Apple demands the best prices). Of course, Apple could wait longer,
stockpiling units for months, before announcing the products but then
production units tend to leak and it allows competitors to catch up.

[1] <http://www.wired.com/business/2011/08/why-tim-cook/>

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p3nt3ll3r
Better build 10 more to sell. ;)

