IDC: MSFT Shipped Nearly 900,000 Surface Devices in Q1
Microsoft now rubbing shoulders with the likes of Amazon and Apple as it breaks the top five tablet vendors.
Sales of Microsoft's Surface line of tablets may not have been very strong, but the company has shifted enough of the Surface RT and Surface Pro to bag itself a spot on the list of top five tablet vendors for Q1.
IDC says that based on preliminary data from its own Worldwide Quarterly Tablet Tracker, Surface shipments for the first quarter of 2013 topped nearly 900,000 units. IDC says 'many' of those units were the Surface Pro, which Microsoft only started shipping in February of this year. Figures for Q1 2013 put Microsoft at number five on the list of the world's top tablet vendors with 1.8 percent of the market. Slipping in ahead of Microsoft at number four is Amazon with 1.8 million units or 3.7 percent of the market. Apple, Samsung and Asus made up the top three, shipping 19.5 million, 8.8 million, and 2.7 million units respectively.
Recent rumors have suggested Microsoft may strengthen its push into the tablet market with smaller Surface devices. However, IDC's Ryan Reith is critical of the idea that such action would be a 'saving grace.'
"Recent rumors have circulated about the possibility of smaller screen Windows RT and Windows 8 tablets hitting the market," said Reith, Program Manager for IDC's Mobility Tracker program. "However, the notion that this will be the saving grace is flawed. Clearly the market is moving toward smart 7-8 inch devices, but Microsoft's larger challenges center around consumer messaging and lower cost competition. If these challenges are addressed, along with the desired screen size variations, then we could see Microsoft make even further headway in 2013 and beyond."
For now, Microsoft will have to make do with the Surface and Surface Pro, which the company is working on bringing to the rest of the world. The Surface Pro has been available in the United States, Canada and China since February. Earlier this month, Microsoft announced that the Surface Pro would be shipping to Australia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom before the end of May. Additional countries will get the Surface Pro the following month, in June, while the Surface RT heads for Mexico, Korea and Thailand.

I would absolutely love a Surface Pro if it was in the 600-700 range with a 120+GB SSD, but unfortunately that's not going to happen anytime soon. Shame, I'd love a full Windows OS on a tablet.
While Surface sales were meh, Windows 8 tablets overall sold approximately 1.9 million in 1Q (IDC article). This really isn't much worse than when Android tablets debuted, at least as far as numbers go (http://bgr.com/2011/01/31/android-tablets-finally-dent-ipad-market-share/). While demand is certainly higher than it was in 2010, the market is also much more crowded. Point is it's not quite as doom-and-gloom for Microsoft as many would have us believe.
MS shot win8 in both feet. They shot Surface RT in both feet (price and wrong chip). They're looking like shooting Xbox720 in both feet (no used games, always on internet). Are they trying to fail on purpose? I'm not complaining mind you, I really don't want them dominating anything new. I like they're killing a console off, and want win8 to fail quicker than FISTA. So all things considered I'm happy all around...LOL.
I'll be triple happy if DirectX dies in favor of OpenGL/OpenCL/HTML5/WebGL. I don't care which wins or if they all play a part as long as DirectX is dead so Linux/Chrome/Android etc will become far better than they are today and maybe we'll end up in FREE OS land...Yeehaw. Instead of an update every 2-3 years that just pisses us off and goes further into the DRM//Hollywood back pockets.
At this point I hope google puts them out of business. Like them or not, google is giving us lower prices on SUPERFAST internet (if they get their way in more cities), a few GREAT free products (android, chrome, apps etc) and are driving down hardware prices as fast as they can on some great stuff. Will google screw us in the end? Probably, but I only care about how I'm being treated now as they will all screw you in the end. For now google is better than Apple or MS.
Like the overprice OS? Like overpriced products? Root for the last two. Like cheap prices and great products on top? Vote for google until they turn into the last two...ROFL.