Barnicle now sees the company selling just 600, 000 Surface units in the quarter, down from a previous forecast of 1.4 million units.
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Unfortunately many online reports on these sell-outs are pointing out that the sold-out locations received only a handful of units, and in the case of some chain stores just one or two Surface Pro units were supplied for the launch of the device.
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According to a recent report from Digitimes, Microsoft was only planning on having an initial shipment volume of one million Surface Pro units.
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Controlling units in the vastness of space must have been a challenge for Relic -- there's no surface for your units to bounce along -- but Relic was up to that challenge.
And what prevents soil and surface water contamination from countless units that ultimately wind up in landfills?
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Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer recently said that he expects Surface to sell a few million units in the next year.
It pointed out that Microsoft, a relative newcomer to the tablet market, was making modest yet promising progress with its Surface range of tablets - 900, 000 units were shipped in the first quarter.
The Surface RT likely sold only 900, 000-1 million units in calendar Q4, while OEMs have pulled back on tablet builds and it may be difficult for MSFT to reach much more than 10% tablet share in calendar 2013.
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This is obviously less than what Microsoft planning with the Surface RT, which had an initial shipment volume of four million units.
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Certainly Surface as a brand is nowhere close to the sales of the iPad (over 23 million units sold).
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Microsoft entered the market during the quarter with its Surface with Windows RT tablet, but failed to reach the top five after shipping just shy of 900, 000 units into the channel.
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