Sales of Microsoft Surface RT Weak, Samsung Losing Interest in Windows RT

Microsoft hasn't released any specific figures on sales of its Surface RT tablet, but an analyst says the company sold about 1 million in Q4. This lackluster demand is making Samsung re-think making products with Windows RT.

Brent Thill from UBS made the sales estimate, which shows that the best-known Windows RT device is definitely getting off to a slow start. At one point, Thill expected Microsoft to sell twice as many units the first quarter it was on the market.

Samsung Won't Release Its Windows RT Tablet in the U.S.

Weak interest in devices like the Surface that run Windows RT has caused Samsung to decide to not release the previously-announced Ativ Tab in the U.S.

Mike Abary, who heads up Samsung's U.S. PC and tablet businesses, told CNET that his company saw a significant hurdle to get past if it released the tablet: explaining to consumers the differences between Windows RT and Windows 8.

Abary said:

There wasn't really a very clear positioning of what Windows RT meant in the marketplace, what it stood for relative to Windows 8, that was being done in an effective manner to the consumer. When we did some tests and studies on how we could go to market with a Windows RT device, we determined there was a lot of heavy lifting we still needed to do to educate the customer on what Windows RT was. And that heavy lifting was going to require pretty heavy investment. When we added those two things up, the investments necessary to educate the consumer on the difference between RT and Windows 8, plus the modest feedback that we got regarding how successful could this be at retail from our retail partners, we decided maybe we ought to wait.

Another Option

Microsoft hasn't put all its eggs in one basket. It will soon be introducing a version of the Surface running the full version of Windows 8. Samsung is also making tablets with this version of Windows.

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