Surface had a high return rate?

sinime

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I wouldn't be surprised if people bought it, then found out about the Surface Pro and returned the RT.... Pro is so much better, but so much more expensive it might scare people away.
 

stephen_az

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So Microsoft says Surface RT was a contributor to its 40% increase in non-OEM revenue and a market research firm that has no access to Microsoft sales data comes out with numbers and no supporting evidence stating something else. I am sorry but I never believe these sorts of numbers anymore than I believe what Microsoft or Apple or Google, etc. claim. It is always somewhere in between. I also would invite anyone who wants to see a bona fide high return rate to check the open box listings for a few BestBuy stores. At least across the Phoenix metro area, the most commonly returned tech product is the iPad. No one, including this market firm that coincidently uses the lowercase i in its name, ever seem to report on that fact.
 

stephen_az

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I wouldn't be surprised if people bought it, then found out about the Surface Pro and returned the RT.... Pro is so much better, but so much more expensive it might scare people away.

Surface Pro has not yet been released so in what way is it so much better?
 

thecaringkind

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Bottom line: the device is too expensive & certainly not worth it when you consider the lack of functionality. If the Pro does everything the RT can't or should do then what was the point?
 
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Bottom line: the device is too expensive & certainly not worth it when you consider the lack of functionality. If the Pro does everything the RT can't or should do then what was the point?
Surface RT is awesome, but you are very correct about how much it costs. They are charging iPad prices, roughly, for something that is new. Android will crush them since they have devices as low as $200 like the Kindle Fire.

Also, the UI is a tad confusing since it looks exactly like Pro. There should be a bit more to differentiate the products.
 

stephen_az

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Bottom line: the device is too expensive & certainly not worth it when you consider the lack of functionality. If the Pro does everything the RT can't or should do then what was the point?

That is your bottom line but certainly not mine. Surface RT is an entry into the ARM tablet market. That market makes up most of tablet sales and will never include full function machines that can run everything. That applies to Apple's tablets and all the Android ones. None offer full desktop level functionality - they give you a subset. Those processors struggle under anything more complicated than the simple apps that dominate the ARM world. Actually, I find the fact that Microsoft has managed to get Office applications to run comfortably on an ARM processor to be an impressive achievement.

It would really be nice if people would stop trying to put Microsoft in a class by itself where it needs to offer additional functionality no one else will ever provide. In my opinion, as an ARM tablet it is a great device that does bridge a gap by offering Office and familiar desktop components people have used for years. It is still an ARM tablet though with the limitations that accompany that platform. Ignoring ARM processor devices, however, would mean ignoring most potential tablet sales....
 

tekhna

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It would really be nice if people would stop trying to put Microsoft in a class by itself where it needs to offer additional functionality no one else will ever provide. In my opinion, as an ARM tablet it is a great device that does bridge a gap by offering Office and familiar desktop components people have used for years. It is still an ARM tablet though with the limitations that accompany that platform. Ignoring ARM processor devices, however, would mean ignoring most potential tablet sales....

Microsoft did that to themselves by making Windows 8 and Windows RT indistinguishable to the average consumer. A consumer looks at it and figures its Windows, not a stripped down version of Windows. No one picks up an iPad thinking it's running full OS X or a Nexus 7 thinking it's running desktop Ubuntu. It really doesn't help that when I stopped by the local MS store, the salesperson couldn't explain Windows 8 vs Windows RT to me.
 

prlundberg

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I can see a high return rate, but maybe not that high. I did a lot of research and spent over an hour at Best Buy before buying mine, but even so I can't help but be somewhat disappointed with all the bugs and unfinished feel of it. And that's coming from a guy with an EVO3D phone. Windows RT is not nearly as intuitive as iOS or Android or even Windows 7. Well, I suppose Windows 7 to a first time Windows user could be intimidating. But I've been using it for a week now and I still don't really like Win8/RT. A lot of it has nothing to do with the functionality but just rather the look and feel of it, which is rather plain and offers little customization compared to Android.

The specs and price aren't the issue (although I think the price should drop by $100). People can see that easily enough before they buy and Apple has proven most people don't care about specs. And the build quality and features are great. Returns happen after the purchase, and are most likely due to Windows RT and the poor quality and selection of apps. The latter will improve, but I'm not so confident in the former.
 
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shn'g

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Wow I thought maybe this whole surface Rt sucks cause its too expensive and doesn't do enough for the price, would be over by now in the forums. I don't know why a lot have such a problem with this device and understanding it. I'm done explaining why I enjoy my surface! If you don't get it or are too ******ed not to try it out for a long enough time to see its potential than don't talk about something that you have only read about!... I think they would have canned the product by now if it has a 40% return rate. Its laughable..
 

palandri

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....and a market research firm that has no access to Microsoft sales data comes out with numbers and no supporting evidence stating something else.... .

Exactly, I read a lot of different tech sites and I have never heard of iSuppli or of iSuppli being some type of market research guru.
 

tekhna

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Exactly, I read a lot of different tech sites and I have never heard of iSuppli or of iSuppli being some type of market research guru.

Microsoft purposely doesn't break down its sales by type. And if you stick their name into Google News you come across them plenty. They're not the hugest name, but their work seems respectable.
 

forzahog

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Where are you getting 40% returned? I read the article and the only mention of return was this...

But the most troubling news, perhaps, is that “very high” return rate: iSuppli claims that that return rate, coupled with the sales issue, is “indicative of a problem.”

They did say that sales were 55-60% of their shipping number, but that doesn't translate to 40% being returned. All in all, I find that "report" very suspect and I'm very surprised Paul is playing the copy and paste blogger.
 

msdugn

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I love my RT.

While my iPad worked great for games and social networks, I was always struggling to get real work done on it. The Surface fixes that.

With a real keyboard, the Office suite (real Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel), and intergrated cloud for both personal (SkyDrive) and work (SkyDrive Pro), the ipad doesn't compare. And I'm so satisfied with the RT, I don't have a need to move up to a Surface Pro. I'd also be worried about battery life.

Even though it's not out yet, I can't imagine the i5-based Surface Pro can come close to the battery life of an ARM-based machine. And there's no way I'll start carrying a power adapter for a Pro since I'm so spoiled with Surface RT.

Sure, the learning curve is steeper for Win8/RT. But having snap screens to view two apps at once, real Word/Excel/PowerPoint, a keyboard and long battery times, I couldn't be happier with my Surface RT.
 
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shn'g

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I love my RT.

While my iPad worked great for games and social networks, I was always struggling to get real work done on it. The Surface fixes that.

With a real keyboard, the Office suite (real Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel), and intergrated cloud for both personal (SkyDrive) and work (SkyDrive Pro), the ipad doesn't compare. And I'm so satisfied with the RT, I don't have a need to move up to a Surface Pro. I'd also be worried about battery life.

Even though it's not out yet, I can't imagine the i5-based Surface Pro can come close to the battery life of an ARM-based machine. And there's no way I'll start carrying a power adapter for a Pro since I'm so spoiled with Surface.

Sure, the learning curve is steeper for Win8/RT. But having snap screens to view two apps at once, real Word/Excel/PowerPoint, a keyboard and long battery times, I couldn't be much happier with my Surface RT.

My thoughts to!
 

Keith Wallace

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Surface RT is awesome, but you are very correct about how much it costs. They are charging iPad prices, roughly, for something that is new. Android will crush them since they have devices as low as $200 like the Kindle Fire.

Also, the UI is a tad confusing since it looks exactly like Pro. There should be a bit more to differentiate the products.

The Kindle Fire also runs that ugly Amazon skin and lacks the actual Google Play store, doesn't it?
 

dkp23

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If true, not surprised. The RT is not great and easy to use out of the box. YOu really had to optimize it through settings quite a bit to get it running smoothly and most people dont go to xda to do that. They want to turn it on and use it and be able to activate things very quickly. Even after the first update, IE10 was slow, flash whitelist prevented vids from playing, 1st party apps took a bit more seconds to open, 1st party apps crashed and was very sluggish i.e. xbox music.

It is not a fun experience. You really have to tweak it quite a bit. Throw in the storage issues when people expected close to 32gb, but only able to use 10-14 gb out of the box, average consumer would return it.

Not surprising if true.
 

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