Friday, 01 February 2013 10:51
Surface RT plagued by high return rates, slow sales
Written by Peter Scott
Still short of one million units
Sales of Microsoft’s Surface RT tablet remain weak and according to IHS iSuppli return rates are extremely high.
Total shipments of the Surface RT to the channel amounted to about 1.25 million units since launch, but sales were significantly lower. IHS iSuppli analyst Rhoda Alexander says just 55 to 60 percent of the devices were actually sold. This means Redmond managed to sell between 680,000 and 750,000 tablets since launch.
Rhoda claims the low “sales out” percentage is nothing unusually when it comes to newly introduced Android devices. However, Apple’s sales out figures are a lot better, as it usually manages over 90 percent.
What’s more, Alexander said she sees little evidence of Surface RT production in Q1, which means Microsoft is still trying to sell off inventory accumulated last year. Return rates are high, too. Alexander said there is a steep learning curve involved with Windows tablets and many consumers simply can’t be bothered.
Another problem for Microsoft is the lack of interest from other device makers and Windows RT devices are still few and far between.
More here.
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