Interest for Surface RT Dropped After Launch, Study Reveals
Holiday shoppers will prefer the iPad over all other tablets, a report claims.
The latest report from Parks Associates claims that consumers will purchase an Apple iPad over Amazon's Kindle Fire line this holiday season.
While that information really isn't all the surprising, the report claims that 44-percent of the holiday tablet shoppers will go with the older iPad 2 whereas 24-percent will purchase a Kindle Fire. The Surface RT tablet will come in third with a 21-percent tablet holiday market share followed by Google's Nexus tablets at 12-percent.
According to the report, Microsoft's ARM-based Surface with Windows RT was a desired product by 45-percent of the tablet seekers in 3Q12. But once the pricing and product details were announced, that desire to have a Surface RT tablet dropped to the current 21-percent level.
"Parks Associates’ holiday survey from October-November 2012 shows, for the first time, more U.S. broadband households plan to purchase a tablet than a laptop, netbook, or Ultrabook," the firm said on Friday. "33-percent of U.S. broadband households now own a tablet, up from 15-percent last year, and Parks Associates forecasts 66-percent of U.S. broadband households will have a tablet by 2013."
The report also claims that the just-released iPad mini may cannibalize some iPad sales, as 40-percent of the iPad "intenders" expressed an interest in the smaller tablet.
The numbers generated in this report stems from a survey conducted by Parks Associates, and don't reflect true retail numbers, but rather a level of interest by survey participants. According to the firm, the $5,000 report "details consumer intentions to purchase consumer electronics devices during the 2012 holiday shopping season. It profiles the most desired products and brands, budgets, and the purchase process. It also provides a deep-dive analysis on tablets—one of the hottest CE devices this year."
It will be interesting to see the final holiday tablet sales come January. Currently the iPad mini doesn't seem to be too much of a disruption, and Google is having a hard time keeping its new Nexus 10 "Jelly Bean" tablet in stock. That said, consumer dollars will speak more about desire than a simple survey.
Did consumers really lose interest once Microsoft revealed the Surface RT's pricing and hardware specs? Only Microsoft knows the real numbers right now, but the company is now releasing the tablet to retailers early rather than making the gadget a Microsoft Store exclusive until January. Current unit sales may have something to do with that.
Regardless, there's a genuine interest for tablets, as the Parks Associates report points out. That's a good thing, as it means Americans have the dollars to spend even if it may not be towards a monster desktop or a blazing fast laptop.
“Consumer purchase intentions continue to rise," said John Barrett, Director, Consumer Analytics, Parks Associates. "Concerns about the economy appear to be waning, and more households plan to purchase CE devices this year than last year. All of this will translate into a very Merry Christmas."
Agreed.
The Surface Pro is still somewhat appealing, although I admit that the recently released pricing dramatically reduces my excitement for it. I would have bought a Surface Pro with a Core i3 processor at a lower price point ($599-$749), but at $999 I might as well buy a laptop instead.
The Surface Pro is still somewhat appealing, although I admit that the recently released pricing dramatically reduces my excitement for it. I would have bought a Surface Pro with a Core i3 processor at a lower price point ($599-$749), but at $999 I might as well buy a laptop instead.
Also, I do not understand why MS refuses to open up the desktop to app developers. You can still have a closed system and tie everything to the store for installation, but a lot of business users (read: Bulk Sales!!!!) use programs that do not translate well to MetroUI, or are programs that naturally require heavy multi-tasking, or the program spans several individual windows. I understand wanting to move to metro, and I actually like Metro better for some things (especially media players), but for work the desktop paradigm simply works best.
Lastly, moving to selling Surface in other stores is a good move. There is no intelligent life at my local MS store. I went in looking at phones a few weeks back, and the sales person was all stoked because of the color variety of the different phones. Just one look at me would give a pretty clear sign that I am not exactly a 'trendy' person (not that I am a complete slob), and there are probably some other marketing strategies to pursue. And to top it off, when I am asking questions about features there is a point where you need to stop trying to sell the bright green phone that I am obviously not interested in. But that is what he was trained to do, and he stuck to that line quite well, but it isn't about to sell me anything.
Either way, this thing should have been $100 cheaper or came with the keyboard. I have a Surface, and love it, but I do think it's overpriced. Apps are rolling in slowly. Performance is still being tweaked with updates. Microsoft was full of themselves when they decided to release at that price.
On the other hand, I can't wait to go on a trip again just so I could have a use for my tablet again.
In my opinion, tablets are far from being a necessity. It's more of a status symbol these days.
Does this mean the report cost $5,000 to fabricate, or does it cost $5,000 to access it?
Now get ready for bad news about Windows 8 and WP8. I'm telling you now, so you're not surprised later.
Exactly, so articles like this are worthless. I own a Surface RT, sent my 32 back for a 64, still love it. Sure, it's the first revision of the hardware and I wasn't happy about the price, but I will support the effort because Apple is worse, and droid tablets don't interest me in the least. I will buy a Pro for sure.
I wasted 62 hours on Jetpack Joyride so far... all played three feet away from my PC where I have Sleeping Dogs, Black Ops 2, Xcom and Skyrim installed. I don't know what is it about that game... it's stupidly simple
Personally, I was all set to buy a new tablet this season. Unfortunately, the right combination of form factor, specs, and price failed to materialize. Now I'm waiting to see what CES has in store.