Surface and W8 area was abuzz at Best Buy. What have you seen?

[Neo Nuke]

Was pleasantly surprised to find the Surface and Windows 8 area with high traffic in a best buy in the Galleria area of Houston Texas. I was looking for a touch cover 2 and could't find anyone to help me (typical Best Buy) and 2 people ahead of me had questions as well. The guy finally shows up and the guy before me asks the question I wanted answered: where can I get a backlit touch cover 2? We waited in the area for responses and I watched in amazement to see people go from the tablet section to the Surface and iPad section and speak of Windows 8 and Surface right alongside Apple's iPad. One man even tried to get his wife an iPad with Bluetooth keyboard case as she furiously stated. "You want me to get that, but I want this *points to Surface Pro 2". This runs real programs and has a touchscreen." Touchscreen laptops, hybrids, and all-in-ones were the only thing I saw being sold along with gift cards and TV's. I'm glad to see that I already have the future in my hands and Microsoft is probably playing the tortoise-and-hare game again - taking losses and slowly usurping an industry by being patient and listening to consumers. I don't feel like my choice in tech product is validated by having people choose as I do, or like a hipster because I'm a beautiful unique snowflake and no one is like me because I have such a niche product, but getting these people on board is great for bringing developers for more and better quality apps to the ecosystem and we could all benefit from that.

Comments? Seen anything Similar? Negative observation?

 

[TheJoester09]

I pop in to my local Best Buy every now and then, and I usually see a decent amount of interest in the Surface section. When I bought my Pro, I played dumb to let the rep tell me what the advantages were over the RT and the iPad, and he nailed just about every point. I think it was the first time in history that a BB employee knew what he was talking about! I was very impressed.

Also, I'm not sure how many they had in stock to begin with so this might not mean much, but I'm finding it really hard to find a Type Cover 2 because they're sold out every time I go in! Hopefully that's a good sign.

 

[g808]

Bought my Surface 2 from Best Buy this past Friday evening. The demo units were getting a workout by a few people, but not packed by any means. I walked up to the cashier station they had in the tablet section and asked for a Surface 2. The BB employee asked what size and I told him the 32GB version. He came back pretty quickly with the device and a Type Cover 2 ,saying they just got them in if I wanted one (I didn't ask since they showed sold out online). Of course I got them both and calmly walked out. No fuss, no muss. Not very eventful, but more pain-free than I was anticipating.

 

[Neo Nuke]

That's what I have been experiencing here. Only a Fry's on the other ide of town had touch cover 2's and they wouldn't tell me what colors they had. I've grown quite tired of my black original touch cover and need some POP to go with this new Magnesium Surface 2. So far, I'm loving it so much more than the original surface. The speed and fluidity of the 8.1 apps on this machine make me so much more productive.

 

[rebornempowered]

I saw a guy who brought in an external hard drive to test out some stuff. He was on the only Surface 2 they had so I walked around waiting for him to get done so I could see it.

I came back and he was still there looking confused. He didn't understand that you couldn't install x86 programs on it. I explained that he should get a Pro. The salesperson came over and he had apparently asked a question previous to my coming over.

The salesperson said "Sorry, I asked my supervisor and it will just play your 4K videos as 1080P because that is all the screen is." He says "No, I want to know if I can edit it?" I butted in and explained that the Pro can run any regular editing program he is used to.

The salesperson then tried to sell him a Surface Pro 2. I started to look and it was the original Surface Pro with a sign for the Pro 2 by it. The salesperson walked away and I told the guy not to buy any of the Pro devices they had thinking it to be a Pro 2 as they didn't have any in stock and I knew it because a friend of a friend had tried to by one the day before and ended up ordering one from Microsoft.

I was rather frustrated with how inept the employees were. They have the nice Microsoft store set up but the people working there are clueless.

I got to check out the Surface 2 and had to back out of of his searches in the Store. He search for apps for Google, torrent, and video editing. This actually discouraged me because it would have seemed that this guy seemed to be rather tech savvy and clueless about RT vs. Pro. I must now assume everyone is confused.

 

[berty6294]

Well the salespeople I find are hit or miss. They are indeed salespeople first and experts second. I'd suggest just walking over to Geek Squad, they actually enjoy staying up to date on the latest products. They will indeed know the difference, and if they don't they will get somebody who does.

 

[HeyCori]

I'm running my own Best Buy today. A lady asked me about doing research and saving pages offline for viewing later. She didn't want anything too expensive, so I started with the Nexus and then I told her about the iPad. Then she asked if there was any tablets that had USB, Bluetooth and was more geared towards productivity. You know, there's a tablet just like that. It's called the Surface RT/2. Let me spend the next 10 minutes telling you about it.

 

[WillysJeepMan]

The Surface area of my local Best Buy has been a ghost town. I've personally benefited from that because the Purple Type Cover 2 is in extremely short supply and they had 2 of them on the rack... one of which which I gladly took off their hands.