Few days before, Microsoft’s chief marketing and financial officer for Windows announced that the company sold 40 million Windows 8 licenses since its launch on October 26. But considering the demand of Windows devices in the matured markets like U.S., where throughout the year, the demand of the Microsoft’s devices remained lackluster. The country has seen 21% drop Y/Y in demand in 2012; demand of laptops and desktops declined 22% and 9% respectively Y/Y in 2012. More importantly, till date, sales of Surface Tablets have been almost non-existent (less than 1%) of all Windows 8 device sales.
Sales Of Surface Tablets Will Surpass 1 Million Figure
Despite of this, marketers have still faith on sales of Surface Tablets. According to IHS iSuppli’s recent prediction, sales of Surface Tablets will surpass 1 million units figure in Q4 this year. The firm has estimated that the sales of the devices will hit 1.3 million figure by the end of this year. In comparison, Apple already sold 14 million iPads in the last quarter, and expecting to sell 26 million units in Q4. On the other side, Asus has reported that 1 million units of Galaxy Nexus 7 are being shipped every month. However, a sale of 1.3 million tablets in a quarter is momentous especially for Surface Tablets, which is still nascent in the market.
Meanwhile, Microsoft really needs to take care of few issues related to the adoption of Surface Tablet and Windows 8.
Overpricing Of Surface Pro Tablet
The company will launch Surface Pro (commonly known) in early next year, most probably in January. But the price of the device (laid down by the company) is too high—with the starting price of $899 and users will have to pay an additional $100 for the keyboard. Indeed, the device is quite expensive in comparison to Google Nexus 10, Kindle Fire HD and even Apple’s iPad 4.
However, the price of Surface RT is somehow lower to Surface Pro, but the device (RT) is confined with the problem of Windows app support. Yes, the device will not support existing Windows apps, available for Windows PCs.
Challenges To Upgrade Windows 8
Microsoft offers Windows 8 to its existing users (currently working on Windows platform) for $40. However, those who are currently working on Windows 7 are quite satisfied with their present OS and also, they want to continue with the same OS due to high upgradation cost of Windows 8. Working with Windows 8 on touch screen is really incredible, but on normal screen, Windows 7 is flawless. On the other side, enterprises are still reluctant to upgrade their device to Windows 8 because they want to wait till the dust settles down.
Microsoft Should Focus On Enticing Developers
Recently, IDC conducted a survey on developers and found that just 33% of developers were willing to write applications for Windows 8 Tablets, while 21% wanted to develop apps for Windows Phone 7. More importantly, 83% of developers were interested to develop apps for iPad and 66% for Android Tablets.
Of course, majority of app developers are still unlikely to develop apps for Microsoft’s Surface Tablet, but are willing to write applications for iPad and Android Tablets. Really, it’s matter of consideration for Microsoft.
However, Microsoft’s recent decision, lowering the entry fee (of Windows Store) for app developers by 92%, has succeeded to entice the mind-boggling number of app developers towards the Windows platform. Despite, Microsoft aggressively needs to work on its vulnerabilities in order to compete with potent rivals such as Apple and Google.
