Interest for Surface RT Dropped After Launch, Study Reveals

[exfileme]

Holiday shoppers will prefer the iPad over all other tablets, a report claims.

Interest for Surface RT Dropped After Launch, Study Reveals : Read more

 

[kawininjazx]

The surface seems like a cool product, but it really should have been $399 with the keyboard.

 

[jay2tall]

I knew a lot of people, including myself that had a HIGH level of interest in this product. I do not own a tablet and was considering this one as my first. When their pricing came out we ALL said no. Microsoft released a NEW product at a premium price. The iPad and many Android tables have been in the market for years and people generally know what they are getting when they buy one. What genius at Microsoft thought they could jump right into the game without proving themselves to the consumer? If the RT came out at $399 WITH the keyboard, every person I know would have bought one instantly. We all talked about it and were hoping for that pricing. But no. Microsoft wanted top dollar for their product and no one wants to gamble on it. Here is an idea taken from other successful products. Take a hit on your first generation and get it into the marketplace. Then with the second gen, add more goodies and up the price. Microsoft, you killed the Surface yourself.

 

[Ragnar-Kon]

I was basically sold on the Surface once I first heard about it. But then they released the price point, and how Microsoft opted to charge an extra $100 for the model with the keyboard. At that point the Surface was no longer appealing, especially considering the relatively juvenile Windows Store compared with the Apple Store and the Android Market.

The Surface Pro is still somewhat appealing, although I admit that the recently released pricing dramatically reduces my excitement for it. I would have bought a Surface Pro with a Core i3 processor at a lower price point ($599-$749), but at $999 I might as well buy a laptop instead.

 

[somebodyspecial]

Knock $100 off and change it to a Tegra3+ 1.7ghz instead of the slower 1.3ghz now and they might start flying off the shelves (of course selling it all over the place will help too). Barring that, these won't sell. Too expensive and the Nexus10 is better. I still can't believe they put in the older 1.3ghz.

 

[rebel1280]

I agree with all above comments, though i want to see what the % of interest there in the Nexus 7. I just bought one for my brother for Christmas.

 

[CaedenV]

Surface should simply have a lower entry price point, and have more differentiation between the lower and higher end models. On the mac and Android platforms you can get away with selling the same unit with just a storage difference... but Windows users that WANT the Windows platform tend to be relatively cheap, as well as informed. Most of us know that the cost of the extra storage is not justifiable. Give us a slightly higher clock, or some other differentiating feature, and I think more people will jump onboard.

Also, I do not understand why MS refuses to open up the desktop to app developers. You can still have a closed system and tie everything to the store for installation, but a lot of business users (read: Bulk Sales!!!!) use programs that do not translate well to MetroUI, or are programs that naturally require heavy multi-tasking, or the program spans several individual windows. I understand wanting to move to metro, and I actually like Metro better for some things (especially media players), but for work the desktop paradigm simply works best.

Lastly, moving to selling Surface in other stores is a good move. There is no intelligent life at my local MS store. I went in looking at phones a few weeks back, and the sales person was all stoked because of the color variety of the different phones. Just one look at me would give a pretty clear sign that I am not exactly a 'trendy' person (not that I am a complete slob), and there are probably some other marketing strategies to pursue. And to top it off, when I am asking questions about features there is a point where you need to stop trying to sell the bright green phone that I am obviously not interested in. But that is what he was trained to do, and he stuck to that line quite well, but it isn't about to sell me anything.

 

[brushrop03]

Surface RT has a higher profit margin than the iPad. $297 vs $266.15. This is just to manufacture. Doesn't take into account R&D cost.

Either way, this thing should have been $100 cheaper or came with the keyboard. I have a Surface, and love it, but I do think it's overpriced. Apps are rolling in slowly. Performance is still being tweaked with updates. Microsoft was full of themselves when they decided to release at that price.

 

[spasmolytic46]

RT being locked into the Microsoft store makes it a no go. At least until its $100 and comes with a keyboard.

 

[bluekoala]

Tablets are a gimick. I bought a tabletlast year while I was travelling and that's all it's ever been good for really. I'm very satisfied with it but after I'm done gaming, checking my facebook and watching a few youtube videos, I go to bed and don't want to pull out my tablet to waste some more precious ZZZ time. And for everything else I have my handy dandy Nexus phone. There's just no place for a tablet for me. Maybe if I watched TV I would use it during commercial breaks, but I don't watch TV.

On the other hand, I can't wait to go on a trip again just so I could have a use for my tablet again.

In my opinion, tablets are far from being a necessity. It's more of a status symbol these days.

 

[Niavlys77]

I have to agree with everyone here. For a first gen product, MS was idiotic to release it at this price...especially when you still have to pay extra for the keyboards. I was telling everyone about the Surface, and everyone was really excited for it to come out. But once the price was known, not a single person I know ended up getting one. Just absolutely idiotic, MS.

 

[house70]

" According to the firm, the $5,000 report "details consumer intentions to purchase consumer electronics devices..."

Does this mean the report cost $5,000 to fabricate, or does it cost $5,000 to access it?

 

[killerclick]

Hey fanboys, I told you so, I told you so, I told you so, I told you so, I told you so, I told you so, I told you so, I told you so, I told you so, I told you so, I told you so, I told you so, I told you so, I told you so, I told you so, I told you so, I told you so.

Now get ready for bad news about Windows 8 and WP8. I'm telling you now, so you're not surprised later.

 

[wlachan]

The consumers have never lost interest in the RT as there was none to begin with. RT will fail, so will W8.

 

[atikkur]

so it's clear.. PC is PC (productive stuff).. and tablet is tablet (consumer stuff). both will exist supporting each other.

 

[therogerwilco]

Did consumers really lose interest once Microsoft revealed the Surface RT's pricing and hardware specs? Only Microsoft knows the real numbers right now

Exactly, so articles like this are worthless. I own a Surface RT, sent my 32 back for a 64, still love it. Sure, it's the first revision of the hardware and I wasn't happy about the price, but I will support the effort because Apple is worse, and droid tablets don't interest me in the least. I will buy a Pro for sure.

 

[Guest]

Does anyone believe MS would not be happy with 21% of the tablet market?

 

[traumadisaster]

I want one i can play my steam games on, the current mobile games are pretty useless unless your waiting two hours at the dmv with no service

 

[killerclick]

[citation][nom]traumadisaster[/nom]I want one i can play my steam games on, the current mobile games are pretty useless unless your waiting two hours at the dmv with no service[/citation]

I wasted 62 hours on Jetpack Joyride so far... all played three feet away from my PC where I have Sleeping Dogs, Black Ops 2, Xcom and Skyrim installed. I don't know what is it about that game... it's stupidly simple

 

[jabliese]

Not a single MS shill. Guess there is not pay for posting about RT anymore.

 

[bigdragon]

I would love to know how they arrived at the idea of Surface tablets besting Nexus tablets. That doesn't make a lot of sense to me. Maybe it's because of Microsoft's more aggressive marketing?

Personally, I was all set to buy a new tablet this season. Unfortunately, the right combination of form factor, specs, and price failed to materialize. Now I'm waiting to see what CES has in store.

 

[bystander]

Maybe it is not as high as it could have been, but for an entry product into the market, 21% seems pretty good to me. I was expecting it to be lower.

 

[g00fysmiley]

T was excisted abotu a m$ tablet.. then price annoounced and i laughed.. at 299 i would have bought 2 one for me and the wife. at $399 we would have bought one and seen who liked it the most... at $499 sorry but compared to other things on the market the m$$ tablt was just ... bad

 

[kyuuketsuki]

[citation][nom]jabliese[/nom]Not a single MS shill. Guess there is not pay for posting about RT anymore.[/citation]No, but apparently there are still idiots who think that anyone who likes a platform besides their own is a "shill" or "fanboy".

 

[Shin-san]

I actually am more interested in the Core i5 model. Then again, I prefer touchscreen laptops