As Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer admitted in an interview with the French newspaper Le Parisien, sales of the Surface tablet “started modestly.”
The CEO of Microsoft explains the slight interest in the device for several reasons. First: a shortage of Surface in the minimum configuration at a price of $ 499. According to the CNet resource, the device could not be bought in the Microsoft Store online store for more than a week.
The second reason for modest sales: the availability of devices in retail only in the USA. And not in all retail chains.
Now the company plans to increase the supply of the device. Recall that of the two tablets announced in June, only one went on sale: Surface on ARM at a price of $499 for 32 GB and without a keyboard included (it can be purchased separately) and at a price of $699 with 64 GB and a keyboard.
UPDATE: As it turned out, both we and the American journalists who spread the news incorrectly translated Ballmer’s words from French. “Modestly” did not refer directly to the sales of the device, but to the company’s approach to distribution, to the fact that the tablet was not available at all sites at the time of release. The reception, in turn, was “fantastic”.