The Microsoft Surface with Windows RT is a great tablet (read our review here), but until now, the device has only been available at Microsoft’s sixty-six retail and pop-up stores in the US and Canada. While it was certainly possible to purchase the device through the store’s website – in fact, this was the only option for people in Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, and the UK - it made it difficult for people to get some hands-on time before handing over a few hundred dollars. In response to customers and retailers, Microsoft has decided to widen availability to a number of retailers like Best Buy and Staples. Naturally, production is being intensified to meet the increased demand.
According to Microsoft Retail Sales and Marketing corporate vice president Steve Schueler, this move is being done a few weeks ahead of schedule. The original plan was to “expand the retail presence for Surface after the first of the year,” but you’ll actually start seeing Surface tablets in stores in the United States and Australia as early as tomorrow, with additional countries coming soon.
Staples is the first retailer to announce that it will be carrying the Microsoft Surface “at all Staples locations and Staples.com as early as December 12.” Best Buy is also reportedly on the list has the Surface listed as “coming soon”, and Harvey Norman, JB-HiFi, and Officeworks in Australia are reportedly on the list as well.
This is excellent news for customers, as it means that they’ll be able to test the device’s standout features like the integrated kickstand and Touch or Type Covers for themselves, but it will also increase the Microsoft Surface’s exposure exponentially. One has to wonder how many customers walked into their local store after seeing one of the Surface commercials or reading a review, only to find out that it wasn’t available. This should rectify that problem.
Your last point is a good one. The surface advert is on quite a lot here in the UK but it doesnt make it completely clear that you can’t get it in standard brick and mortar stores.
Kinda seems like wasted advertising money, and they’re potentially inadvertantly encouraging customers to buy other products. Someone goes into store looking for the surface, its not there so they buy something else instead because now they want a tablet.
I’ll be looking forward to being able to play with one of these in person. Kinda makes me wonder if everyone’s theories about Microsoft not caring about the number of units they sell aren’t quite right…
I’m sure Microsoft cares about sales to some extent, since I can’t see any company being disappointed or ambivalent about selling a lot of devices. But I guess the question is whether or not selling a lot of devices is the end-goal or just a nice bonus.
I’m not so sure if I want to buy one quite yet, but I am interested in checking out the Surface in a store. Who knows, perhaps it will be good enough to replace the Chromebook I’m currently considering for my next laptop.
I’ll be curious to know what you think of it once you get a chance to go hands-on.