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Want to try the Surface Tablet? Find a Microsoft store, if you can
CNET ^ | 06/22/2012 | by Brooke Crothers

Posted on 06/23/2012 9:03:28 PM PDT by SeekAndFind

Microsoft Store in Century City, Calif. Finding a local Microsoft Store will be a challenge for hands-on consumers looking to try out the Surface tablet

Microsoft Store in Century City, Calif. Finding a local Microsoft Store will be a challenge for hands-on consumers looking to try out the Surface tablet. (Credit: Brooke Crothers)

After all of the hoopla this week, you would think the Surface tablet was the end of the PC industry as we know it.

Not so fast, say analysts. What we know so far is that Surface will be sold through Microsoft Stores only in the U.S. -- the online store and brick-and-mortar outlets.

Ever been to a Microsoft Store? Didn't think so. There just aren't that many. I count about 20.

Compare that with the long list of Apple Stores in the U.S.

Here's the challenge: to be a hit, a product has to have sell-through (units shipped that actually sold) in the millions per year, according to analysts.

Microsoft Surface Windows 8 Pro, powered by Intel Ivy Bridge silicon.

Microsoft Surface Windows 8 Pro, powered by Intel Ivy Bridge silicon.(Credit: Microsoft)

So, even if Surface is a good design -- which it appears to be -- it's not clear whether Microsoft can sell that many.

"Just getting them is going to be an issue," said Roger Kay, principal analyst at EndPoint Technologies.

"Clearly availability would need to be expanded," IDC wrote this week in a research note.

But it's not clear that Microsoft even wants to sell millions -- at least initially. "They want to have distribution, but they don't want it to be superbroad," said NPD DisplaySearch analyst Richard Shim, who thinks Microsoft is sensitive about competing too directly with its customers, i.e., PC makers.

And what's a hit product according to Shim? "Back in the day, a million represented a hit product. And now it's shifted an order of magnitude."


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Computers/Internet
KEYWORDS: microsoft; surface; surfacetablet; tablet

1 posted on 06/23/2012 9:03:35 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

There is ONE Microsoft Store in Illinois and it is in the same shopping center as one of the nine Apple Stores in Illinois.


2 posted on 06/23/2012 9:11:17 PM PDT by reg45 (Barack 0bama: Implementing class warfare by having no class!)
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To: ShadowAce

Tech list ping.


3 posted on 06/23/2012 9:17:41 PM PDT by CedarDave
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To: reg45

I don’t have any inside information, but I would be shocked if you can’t buy this at Best Buy or any of the other large electronics chains. It’s not going to be limited to Microsoft stores only any more than iPads are.

That said, the Microsoft stores are great, so if you do have one near you definitely check it out.


4 posted on 06/23/2012 9:19:18 PM PDT by Scutter
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To: Scutter
My understanding is that MS doesn't want to alienate the PC makers it sells Windows, therefore MS has made the decision to not sell it where it competes one-on-one with their products.

A cynic might say MS doesn't want end users to unfavorably compare the Surface to real devices side-by-side.

5 posted on 06/23/2012 9:27:54 PM PDT by null and void (Day 1250 of our ObamaVacation from reality - Obama is not a Big Brother [he's a Big Sissy...])
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To: null and void

I think that’s an interesting theory, but it doesn’t sound right to me. The MS stores sell products from those same PC vendors, and I’m sure that will continue. I think that Surface is more about making sure that the initial launch of Windows RT was running on some innovative hardware that will get good press. Also, it will set a quality bar so the 3rd-party vendors will have a reasonable baseline and won’t be tempted to ship low-end junk.

One of the problems that Microsoft has historically struggled with, is that people form their opinions on the whole platform, not just the OS. If someone goes to BestBuy and picks up some junky PC that is unstable or underpowered, it’s going to be Windows that gets the blame, not the PC. Intel has tried to fix this problem by providing integrated chipsets, recommended configurations, and even reference platforms - but it hasn’t worked. Apple doesn’t have that issue, as they control the hardware and the OS.

If that’s the strategy, it definitely has some risk. Microsoft has always emphasized its strong partner/vendor ties, and that it doesn’t (as a general rule) compete with them. There’s definitely a chance of alienating them with this approach. I guess less so now that all the other OS vendors are also hardware competitors (Google/Android with their purchase of the Motorola Droid, and of course Apple).


6 posted on 06/23/2012 9:54:56 PM PDT by Scutter
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To: null and void

You know, love or hate Apple, they did a lot of things right.

Personally, I think that Microsoft has taken a lot of bad press for “crashes” where 95% of them, especially the last 10 years have been caused by:

-Overly-ambitious software that was very bleeding edge, put in the hands of inexperienced programmers (including those at Microsoft itself) and users. If you ever wrote software on anything less than a 386 and Windows 3.1, you know what I mean. It’s amazing that it actually worked at all, much less reasonably well.
-OE Manufacturers trying to stuff too much software on too little hardware.
-Buggy device drivers (at least with NT+ Windows, Microsoft could at least point a finger).
-Dicey hardware screwed together by high school students.

Apple makes or tightly controls it’s hardware; they have never tried to sell too little of a machine (at least in the last 10-15 years). And if Microsoft has reputation problems stemming from iffy hardware, especially in the past, check out an $80 Android tablet.

There are those who say “Apple has made a walled garden”. I actually like that metaphor. My wife lives in that garden, and I must say that it is a very nice, safe, and low maintenance garden although the real estate and shrubbery are a little expensive. Compare those with Android’s, whose garden is very cheap, but it’s sparse and what few nice plants grow there are interspersed with dangerous plant diseases and weeds that make you itch.

Microsoft’s garden consists of a very nice tulip in a pot, surrounded by razor wire.

A manager of mine put it best (perhaps he stole this? I don’t know, but it’s good):
“The pioneers take the arrows, and then the settlers just come waltzing in.”


7 posted on 06/23/2012 10:02:48 PM PDT by The Antiyuppie ("When small men cast long shadows, then it is very late in the day.")
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To: SeekAndFind

Just another reason for Microsoft to throw good money after bad


8 posted on 06/23/2012 10:23:00 PM PDT by Nifster
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To: Scutter

Counting on Best Buy to be around for very much longer is a dream


9 posted on 06/23/2012 10:24:17 PM PDT by Nifster
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To: The Antiyuppie

I’ve thought of it more as like cars.

Some people LIVE to squeeze that last 0.01 sec off their quarter mile time, the 1/4” of bounce off their hydraulics, the 1% improvement in top speed.

These people need a Windows box with all kinds of slots.

Some people just want to drive a car that gets them wherever they want to go with no muss and no fuss. The want to focus on the trip and the destination, not worry about the wheels.

Apple lets them do this.

The roads are plenty big enough for both.


10 posted on 06/23/2012 10:27:11 PM PDT by null and void (Day 1250 of our ObamaVacation from reality - Obama is not a Big Brother [he's a Big Sissy...])
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To: The Antiyuppie
A manager of mine put it best (perhaps he stole this? I don’t know, but it’s good): “The pioneers take the arrows, and then the settlers just come waltzing in.”

The early bird gets the worm, but it's the second mouse that gets the cheese!

11 posted on 06/23/2012 10:34:52 PM PDT by null and void (Day 1250 of our ObamaVacation from reality - Obama is not a Big Brother [he's a Big Sissy...])
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To: SeekAndFind

Oh I’m sure Worst Buy will have ‘em.


12 posted on 06/23/2012 10:37:29 PM PDT by Edward Teach
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To: The Antiyuppie

Microsoft demos don’t help their reputation for crashes...

http://www.wimp.com/newtablet/


13 posted on 06/24/2012 12:27:41 AM PDT by D-fendr (Deus non alligatur sacramentis sed nos alligamur.)
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To: Scutter
Apple doesn’t have that issue, as they control the hardware and the OS.

Apple buys their stuff from the usual suspects. But they're better at hammering on them than the other players. And doing themselves what their vendors are not up to.

Witness the new MacBook Pro with the Retina Display. Given a 2880x1800 display resolution, how do we display it on a normal 1440x900 15" laptop and realize the superior sharpness without screwing up all the existing software? Very cool! I hope it's not the last of the Jobs product pipeline.

14 posted on 06/24/2012 12:48:32 AM PDT by cynwoody
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To: Swordmaker

Ping


15 posted on 06/24/2012 2:01:20 AM PDT by Pontiac (The welfare state must fail because it is contrary to human nature and diminishes the human spirit.)
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To: cynwoody

Yes, and it all can be had for four times the price of the laptop I bought my wife a few months ago.

No thanks, I’m off the Apple train as soon as this MacBook Pro breaths its last breath - too pricey for what you get.


16 posted on 06/24/2012 6:09:56 AM PDT by Scutter
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To: SeekAndFind

I am revolted by the takeover by Apple of the mainstream technology, all the kids gotta have iPads, iPhones, Macbook Pros and Apple will not even deign to install a Microsoft program on their precious hardware. yech


17 posted on 06/24/2012 7:00:18 AM PDT by yldstrk ( My heroes have always been cowboys)
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To: D-fendr

“Microsoft demos don’t help their reputation for crashes...”

http://www.wimp.com/newtablet/

This is, of course, traditional.


18 posted on 06/24/2012 5:02:33 PM PDT by The Antiyuppie ("When small men cast long shadows, then it is very late in the day.")
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