The Case for Microsoft Surface Pro

Surface RT, Microsoft’s (NASDAQ:MSFT) tablet designed for consumers, is not flying off the shelves as fast as the Redmond, Wa.-based software company would probably like. New reports out today set the sales number at 1 million units for the period including the holiday shopping season. Compare that to Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPad (which had been expected to reach unit sales of 14 million in Q4) and it may not seem like much.  Is Surface doomed? Hardly.

Microsoft has pitched its first tablet to a consumer market, selling it at Microsoft retail stores (which look very much like a knock off of Apple retail stores) and more recently at big box retailers such as Best Buy and Staples.  It was at such a Microsoft store that I first encountered and was seduced by Surface RT and its Office integration (with the exception of Outlook).

And that’s why it was smart for Microsoft to introduce its first tablets in a place where anyone could take a test drive, not just IT pros. Critics point to Microsoft’s lack of distribution so far as part of Surface’s sales problem. Certainly more consumers would have likely taken Surface RT for a test drive if it had been at multiple retail stores during the holidays. Think Target or Walmart. But Microsoft’s ultimate target is likely business, small and large. Here’s why leading with the consumer sale (albeit a wider retail distribution plan) may just be the right approach.

First, Surface RT’s lackluster sales numbers aren’t really surprising. Apple’s iPad pretty much created the tablet market and has an enormous head start on Microsoft here.  Apple accidentally stumbled across this approach of winning business customers by first winning over individual users (particularly those in at the C-level). Steve Jobs later said that Apple was surprised by how businesses had embraced iPad.

But where Surface RT has failed to gain significant momentum so far, its higher-priced sibling, due out next week, may enjoy more success. Microsoft Surface Pro promises real native Office integration, and this time with Outlook, too. That’s something that iPad, right now, can’t beat. And it’s something that makes a tablet a real productivity tool instead of an expensive video game and web browsing machine. And that will mean real opportunity to any MSP pursing a mobile device management business.

Consider what our opinionated inhouse blogger, The VAR Guy, said about Microsoft Surface Pro and the channel:

“Thousands of VARs and MSPs offer Apple iOS managed services for iPhones and iPads. Most of those solutions providers don’t actually sell Apple’s hardware. Instead, they support it in the field and generate recurring revenues from customers.

“Soon, the same will be said for Surface Pro,” he concludes, pointing to New York Times tech pundit David Pogue’s characterization that Microsoft’s forthcoming tablet is a “home run.”