Microsoft Authorizes Surface Resellers Added in Canada and Europe
Microsoft Authorizes Surface Resellers Added in Canada and Europe by UCStrategies Staff
It was recently announced that Microsoft had taken a charge of $900 million on Surface RT, and has decided to lower prices on Surface Pro. Microsoft is now moving forward with plans to use resellers to sell the tablet outside of the U.S.
Microsoft's director of Surface marketing, Cyril Belikoff, said that last week, Surface RT and Surface Pro began to be sold through resellers in Canada, U.K., France, Spain and 13 other European countries.
However, the company is broadening the reach of its commercial distribution for Surface tablets "in a thoughtful way," meaning that in each country, similar to the U.S., only a small number of resellers are allowed to sell Surface tablets.
There are five Surface resellers in France, trumping any other European country; the U.K., Spain, Belgium and Austria have four. Canada has only two Surface resellers: Calgary-based Long View Systems and Toronto-based Softchoice. The latter is also one of Microsoft’s 10 large account resellers (LARs) which can sell Surface in the U.S.
Last month, Microsoft partners which are based in Canada stated that they were expecting Microsoft to authorize five Surface resellers in that country.
Partners of Microsoft are keen to reap the benefits of services opportunities with Surface tablets, rather than sell devices to gain what would probably be thin margins.
There is no information on international interest for Surface RT, particularly because OS is not able to operate classic Windows apps; as a result of this, OEMs are seeking to distance themselves from it. Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft is also at present addressing a legal challenge which was presented to the company by investors who claim they were misled about Surface RT’s sales.
The channel may be more interested in adopting Surface Pro, but it has a short battery life, which is a problem for partners. An enhanced version of the product with Intel's Haswell chips should rectify that error, but no further information about the timeframe for the product has been released.
TekLinks is a Microsoft partner based in Homewood, Alabama. The vice president of managed services for that company, David Powell, believes that the main issue Microsoft has to address with regard to Surface sales is the lack of must-have features and functionality, rather than pricing.
Powell said: “Is the Surface good enough to get people to put their $500-plus iPad in their desk drawer and not use it anymore? The answer, from Microsoft's reported sales figures, is a resounding 'no'.”
Last month, Forrester analyst Tirthankar Sen commented that Microsoft may be limiting channel distribution so that Surface does not become a commodity product.
Sen stated: “If Microsoft were to open up the resale market in the enterprise space to all the partners, most in the long run would start seeing shrinking margins. With less competition, Microsoft's selected partners are more likely to remain both healthy and wealthy.”
By the end of September, Microsoft hopes to distribute Surface in another 28 countries. Belikoff said: “As we've said before, we're committed to authorizing a select set of additional partners in these markets, and in additional markets, in the coming weeks.” (CY) Link