Do you think Microsoft should approach mobile carriers for selling through them Surface Pro LTE?

[Cosmin Petrenciuc]

Hi Dan,

As I asked in the title, do you think it would be a good idea for Microsoft to start selling its Surface Pro with LTE through them?

I for one, because I'm from Romania and we do not have a Microsoft Store in our country, wouldn't mind to have to preorder the device at my mobile carrier (Vodafone) and wait a few weeks to have it delivered.

I think one more sales channel wouldn't hurt Surface Pro sales.

What do you think?

Thank you,
Cosmin

 

[Chintan Gohel]

Hi Dan,

As I asked in the title, do you think it would be a good idea for Microsoft to start selling its Surface Pro with LTE through them?

I for one, because I'm from Romania and we do not have a Microsoft Store in our country, wouldn't mind to have to preorder the device at my mobile carrier (Vodafone) and wait a few weeks to have it delivered.

I think one more sales channel wouldn't hurt Surface Pro sales.

What do you think?

Thank you,
Cosmin

And if you imported it yourself from the nearest country getting the surface pro?

 

[Cosmin Petrenciuc]

The nearest Microsoft store for me that can provide a Surface Pro with an English keyboard would be the one from Ireland.

The whole idea of buying the LTE version through a mobile carrier would be that you would buy it together with a data plan and you might get some discount from the mobile carrier if you make a two years contract. Or you can pay for your Surface monthly by putting it on the monthly data plan bill.

I think there could be some advantages when buying the device through the mobile carrier.

Vodafone Romania and I think this applies also for Orange and Telekom Romania haven't been interested in reselling Windows devices mostly because those didn't have a mobile modem in them, and because of that the mobile carrier couldn't also sell its services together with the device. They could have tried to sell such devices together with a USB LATE modem but I don't think there would have been many buyers to that combination.

 

[Chintan Gohel]

The nearest Microsoft store for me that can provide a Surface Pro with an English keyboard would be the one from Ireland.

The whole idea of buying the LTE version through a mobile carrier would be that you would buy it together with a data plan and you might get some discount from the mobile carrier if you make a two years contract. Or you can pay for your Surface monthly by putting it on the monthly data plan bill.

I think there could be some advantages when buying the device through the mobile carrier.

Vodafone Romania and I think this applies also for Orange and Telekom Romania haven't been interested in reselling Windows devices mostly because those didn't have a mobile modem in them, and because of that the mobile carrier couldn't also sell its services together with the device. They could have tried to sell such devices together with a USB LATE modem but I don't think there would have been many buyers to that combination.

That's an interesting idea but then they also need to check whether there's a lot of demand for the surface devices - otherwise they would be left with slow moving stock

 

[Cosmin Petrenciuc]

I guess that at the beginning they should not provision any stock at all for the mobile carrier. When a mobile carrier asks for some devices they could provide those devices from the stock of the closest Microsoft Store. If the mobile carrier has an increase in demand then Microsoft can provide that mobile carrier with a small stock just to satisfy the temporary demand.
If this proves to be a very lucrative business and the carrier sells Surfaces at a high rate then they should give him a stock similar to the stock a Microsoft Store has.