Surprisingly long lines

[stephen_az]

I ran by the mall in Scottsdale to pick up the Surface RT I reserved and was the 88th in line as of 10 minutes after the mall opened. They had two lines - one for reserved and one for general. It took about 90 minutes before I picked up the tablet. Very friendly crowd though and the store staff were constantly walking the line to answer questions, do demos, and hand out water and candy bars. By the time I left, the reserve line was getting shorter but the other line still stretched half way to Nordstrom's. BTW, I know I was the 88th to arrive because they handed out tyvek wrist bracelets with the number so that they knew who would be the last to get the Xbox live coupon. Based upon this morning, I would say 1) this certainly counts as a successful release if the same is happening elsewhere, and 2) while not the only one, the biggest reason people were in line for the tablet was Office 2013. Actually, Microsoft's long haul strategy of unifying the experience across all devices also does appear to have some traction. Comments were being made about the consistency across the new PCs, the tablet, Xbox, and what people knew about the Windows Phones.

 

[monotheist]

lots of pics posted on twitter of long lines across MS stores.

 

[dkp23]

San Jose, CA...not too much, was able to walk in and grab one at lunch

in the morning, only about 30-40 people at about 810..

 

[jwcdis]

San Jose, CA...not too much, was able to walk in and grab one at lunch

in the morning, only about 30-40 people at about 810..

Just came back from San Jose, line of about 30-40 during lunch took about a hour + 5 minutes to pay.

 

[sinime]

Good to hear!

Sent from my Lumia 900 using Board Express

 

[smoledman]

Definitely the strategy of having Microsoft Store is paying dividends. Before only Apple boasted long lines for a new device. Of course for Apple, they get 1000 people lined up for an iPhone.

 

[DocSc00teR]

Spent the morning at Tyson's Corner (Washington D.C.), and we were #3 & #4 in a line that grew to almost 100 by the time the store opened. (We arrived REALLY early because the store website said they would open two hours early for a "Breakfast Open House," but they decided to cancel that last night. So we had a LONG wait. But at least the brought us coffee and granola, and a couple of sales guys came out early to let us play around with a Surface and the touch & type covers while we waited.)

I have to say that I was VERY impressed by the staff at the store, not to mention the store itself. (The video walls all the way around are extremely cool!) They spent a lot of time with us, even though we knew what we wanted when we entered. Even after ringing up the sale, two people hung out helping my wife set up her new Surface, learn how it works, troubleshoot a problem (more in a moment), etc. They gave each of us the year's subscription to XBox Music, a full-color book on Windows 8 for Tablets, $20 gift cards for "being patient and learning with them" (and we thought WE were the ones learning), and more.

My wife and I love her new Surface! (I'm waiting for the Pro in a couple of months.) She went with the touch cover for lots of reasons -- as did just about everyone around us, especially after playing with the type cover. It only took a few minutes to get the hang of the new gestures and interface, and it's perfect for her.

One downside, though -- the problem we couldn't solve. The Mail app cannot connect to any POP3 e-mail server, such as Comcast. Bummer. So she'll be setting up a new e-mail address, forwarding from the old one, and slowly weaning all her contacts over to a new address.

 

[Jaymil]

Spent the morning at Tyson's Corner (Washington D.C.), and we were #3 & #4 in a line that grew to almost 100 by the time the store opened. (We arrived REALLY early because the store website said they would open two hours early for a "Breakfast Open House," but they decided to cancel that last night. So we had a LONG wait. But at least the brought us coffee and granola, and a couple of sales guys came out early to let us play around with a Surface and the touch & type covers while we waited.)

I have to say that I was VERY impressed by the staff at the store, not to mention the store itself. (The video walls all the way around are extremely cool!) They spent a lot of time with us, even though we knew what we wanted when we entered. Even after ringing up the sale, two people hung out helping my wife set up her new Surface, learn how it works, troubleshoot a problem (more in a moment), etc. They gave each of us the year's subscription to XBox Music, a full-color book on Windows 8 for Tablets, $20 gift cards for "being patient and learning with them" (and we thought WE were the ones learning), and more.

My wife and I love her new Surface! (I'm waiting for the Pro in a couple of months.) She went with the touch cover for lots of reasons -- as did just about everyone around us, especially after playing with the type cover. It only took a few minutes to get the hang of the new gestures and interface, and it's perfect for her.

One downside, though -- the problem we couldn't solve. The Mail app cannot connect to any POP3 e-mail server, such as Comcast. Bummer. So she'll be setting up a new e-mail address, forwarding from the old one, and slowly weaning all her contacts over to a new address.

I usually go to the Tysons corner store but we went to Pentagon City this time.. Walked in at about 1pm and picked up my 64gb surface and black touch cover. I wanted the type cover but I wasn't willing to go with the 32gb to get it. I really wanted an intel windows 8 tablet but apparently Sony is the only one selling one right now and theirs is a truck... powerful but very beefy.

 

[wheelsee]

Spent the morning at Tyson's Corner (Washington D.C.), and we were #3 & #4 in a line that grew to almost 100 by the time the store opened. (We arrived REALLY early because the store website said they would open two hours early for a "Breakfast Open House," but they decided to cancel that last night. So we had a LONG wait. But at least the brought us coffee and granola, and a couple of sales guys came out early to let us play around with a Surface and the touch & type covers while we waited.)

I have to say that I was VERY impressed by the staff at the store, not to mention the store itself. (The video walls all the way around are extremely cool!) They spent a lot of time with us, even though we knew what we wanted when we entered. Even after ringing up the sale, two people hung out helping my wife set up her new Surface, learn how it works, troubleshoot a problem (more in a moment), etc. They gave each of us the year's subscription to XBox Music, a full-color book on Windows 8 for Tablets, $20 gift cards for "being patient and learning with them" (and we thought WE were the ones learning), and more.

My wife and I love her new Surface! (I'm waiting for the Pro in a couple of months.) She went with the touch cover for lots of reasons -- as did just about everyone around us, especially after playing with the type cover. It only took a few minutes to get the hang of the new gestures and interface, and it's perfect for her.

One downside, though -- the problem we couldn't solve. The Mail app cannot connect to any POP3 e-mail server, such as Comcast. Bummer. So she'll be setting up a new e-mail address, forwarding from the old one, and slowly weaning all her contacts over to a new address.

I was also at Tysons this morning, I was the guy in the black North Face, #2 in the Reservations line. The staff there was great, they even took the time this morning to see if they could find a game that was Xbox controller compatible. I went with the 32GB and a red TouchCover.

I had to go right to work, so I'm still spending time learning my newest gadget, but excited to add the Surface to my mix(iPad 3, Nexus 7) of tablets.

 

[Oldmajor]

I was at Pentagon City (Virginia) this morning. There were two lines, one for reserved and another for general. I thought the team did a great job of handling the line at 10 although I was really close to winning the Xbox they raffled off. The reserved line wasn't too bad maybe a 45minute wait. There were nearly 100 people there this morning.

 

[SlickShoesRUCrazy]

I was there too lol. I was like number 10 in the non reservation line!

That **** took 2 and a half hours.

They were only letting in one person at time from that line!

though, I have to say. Anybody else notice that some of the lines were populated by Microsoft employees? I had at least three or four MS employees behind me. Saw another 4 or 5 come up to them and say hello.