Microsoft's miserable Surface sales

I have just been reading an article on the Bloomberg website about Microsoft Surface sales figures. In a nutshell, they are awful. Sales of the cheaper Surface RT are thought to be just over one million and the more expensive Surface Pro, which hasn't been on sale as long, is said to be about 400,000. This compares to around 23 million iPads and probably a few million cheap Android tablets too.

These figures must be very disappointing for Microsoft, but it isn't hard to see why they are so poor. A major problem with the Surface is that it looks expensive. It costs the same as the iPad 4, but offers less. There are fewer apps, fewer pixels on the screen, and poorer battery life. A unique selling point is the combined keyboard/cover, but this raises the price by so much it puts people off. Here in the UK you're looking at £399 for the Surface RT plus £109 for the Type cover making a total of £508. Compare this to the iPad 4 at £399, which is not just a bit cheaper, it's a lot cheaper. And the iPad 2 is £329 and the Mini is £269.

Another big problem with the Surface is that it was initially impossible to find. No stores stocked it in the UK when it was launched. It was available only through Microsoft's website and we had to wait one and a half months before we got our hands on it to try it out. I went to the one store that had it (initially only John Lewis in the UK) and tried it.

There was one Surface demo model among several iPads. Someone had gone to the desktop and opened Office apps - Word and Excel. I wondered how long it had been like this and whether any potential customers trying it knew how to get out of desktop mode and back into the Start screen. It took me several attempts to work it out and I had been using Windows 8 on my desktop PC for over a month. Navigating the Surface isn't quite the same as a Windows 8 PC with a mouse. When I eventually got to the Start screen I tried a few of the bundled apps, but they all failed because there was no internet access. This is a complete disaster as far as trying to persuade potential customers to buy it. There were several people playing with iPads, but no-one tried the Surface while I was there.

The Surface is available at more stores now. Not as many as the iPad, but the situation isn't quite as bad as it was. I went along to a store to try the Surface. However, it was stuck at the log-in screen, asking me for a user name and password. I suppose I could have gone and found a member of staff and asked him to log in so I could try it, but I couldn't be bothered. The demo model did nothing. I'm sure potential customers would just move along to the iPads, which were on display just two feet away.

Contrast these Surface shopping experiences with what you find at the local Apple Store. There is no comparison and there are lots of iPads to try, they all work perfectly and there are lots of staff around to help you try it and demonstrate it.

Microsoft needs to do two things. Firstly it needs to reduce the price. It should be more like £349 for the Surface RT and £399 including the Type cover. Even that isn't really low enough for some people. Secondly, it needs to get the Surface into stores so that people can try it and it needs to make sure they work. Demo models that display error messages when apps are run because there's no internet access and models that are stuck on the log-in screen simply aren't good enough.

The Microsoft Surface isn't bad, but version 1 of anything is rarely the best that is possible. Even the original iPad, although popular, is nowhere near as good as the iPad 4 and I never bought one. I waited until the iPad 2 because this had the features I wanted (a camera, faster processor, etc.). The Microsoft Surface is OK, but it isn't outstanding and version 2 will be better. Let's hope it will be cheaper too.