Microsoft is now dancing on 6 million unsold tablets

Hands on the Surface tablet, Microsoft built a pretty good device. But recent news shows that it was not it was not as successful as expected. Price slashes may boost sale but its clear that the surface will not be taking over the world.

What went wrong

How can a perfectly good device like the tablet fail? It has a beautiful design, powerful hardware and an ever increasing app market. When Microsoft first announced it, I was very excited and was ready to purchase one just because it sounded like in the world of tablets this would be the first one that wouldn't be just a toy.

Marketing was all done wrong.

The price was already confusing. Some places said $499 others said $899 and I thought it was just false rumours going around. But as time went by there were talks about the RT version and the Pro, and difference between the two were very confusing. Even Microsoft store employees couldn't explain clearly what the difference was. Most people were turned off when it was officially announced that the RT will not be able to run all desktop application.

Then comes the tv commercial.

This maybe a matter of personal taste but whether you like the iPad or not you have to admit that their ads are very appealing. They show the device a cool app that runs on it and its very simple. Maybe Microsoft wanted to appear as cool and the new kid on the block by relating to the youth, but that did not do it for me. It was just a bunch of kids dancing, and this powerful device appeared as a toy. I love the ad on its own but I think it was completely wrong for this device. At some point during the ad you expect to see the jcpenny or old navy logo. Where were the parts that showed the devices features or cool apps that can run on it? A little Office demo perhaps?

Here is an unofficial Microsoft surface ad that in my opinion would have driven more sales.

Technologicaly I think it was an amazing device that simply had a very poor marketing strategy. Maybe Microsoft should dip into its deep pockets and hire a better marketing firm to handle release of new products.

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