The subject line is “Is the Surface really failing?” to which the answer is “no” – I think it’s widely exceeded Microsoft’s expectations.
A more relevant question for Microsoft would be “Is Windows 8 failing?” Given that they’ve shipped 100m licenses, and that’s not much below the Win7 trajectory, then the performance would be disappointing, but not disastrous. Lastly, it’s pointless comparing every random tablet out there to Windows 8. It’s just as pointless as looking at every embedded system, or any other random category. Windows 8 isn’t going to compete with Samsung Note II or the Kindle (well Windows RT might, but I think we all know that this has been a failure to-date). Microsoft has Windows Phone, Windows Embedded, and a bunch of other offerings to those other markets. Cheers Ken From: ozdotnet-boun...@ozdotnet.com [mailto:ozdotnet-boun...@ozdotnet.com] On Behalf Of mike smith Sent: Thursday, 9 May 2013 9:18 AM To: ozDotNet Subject: Re: Is Surface really failing? On Thu, May 9, 2013 at 9:04 AM, Ken Schaefer <k...@adopenstatic.com<mailto:k...@adopenstatic.com>> wrote: Since I obviously was not making my point clear: Microsoft’s not aiming to be a hardware vendor. So, for them, 1.8% is probably exceeding all expectations. As a company. they are not aiming to dethrone anyone. What they are probably more worried about is overall Win 8 sales. Remember, Microsoft’s a software company - not a hardware vendor. They have Dell, Acer, HP, Asus, Lenovo, Fujitsu etc. etc. etc. to make and ship hardware. Even when you look at the OS breakdowns on that link you provided.
