Channel Availability of Microsoft Surface Now Includes 17 Countries
Channel Availability of Microsoft Surface Now Includes 17 Countries by UCStrategies Staff
In addition to the U.S. commercial channel, Microsoft Corporation expands the availability of its Surface RT and Pro tablets to channel partners in 17 countries, including Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.
Every country will get at least one reseller for the Windows 8 devices. Larger countries, the likes of France and Germany, will get several resellers.
“Our plan has been to expand commercial distribution for Surface in a thoughtful way,” wrote Cyril Belikoff, director for Microsoft Surface, in a Surface Team blog post. “This expansion continues to be via a select ecosystem of established channel partners with the precise geographical reach, tablet selling experience and commercial value-added services capabilities to deliver the type of business experience our customers need.”
In the United Kingdom, authorization was given to Phoenix, Softcat, SCC, and Kelway. In Canada, the Microsoft Surface resellers were Long View Systems and Softchoice. Only Atea and Betchel/Comsoft were given authorization to sell the Microsoft tablets in more than two countries.
Before the Surface channel expansion, the Surface RT and Surface Pro devices were only available through Microsoft stores, as well as from certain outside resellers, such as Best Buy and Staples.
Sales of the Surface tablets were sluggish. In July, Microsoft wrote off $900 million to account for the Surface RT backlog. The company also discounted the price from $349 to $150 for the entry-level Surface model. Then in early August, the price of the Surface Pro model was temporarily discounted to $100. In addition, Microsoft’s traditional OEM partners, such as Acer, Hewlett-Packard, and Lenovo, did not adopt the RT platform. Only Dell had a device running on Windows RT.
In October, updates to Surface RT would come with the new version of Windows 8. It would hopefully provide a boost to Microsoft. The forthcoming Windows 8.1 would restore features, such as the Start button, and offer new enhancements. (KOM) Link. Link.