Microsoft is gearing up to launch its exotic Surface with Windows 8 Pro in a couple of days, and the company has already made clear that for this first phase, the tablet is going to be available only in the United States and Canada.
This exclusivity aside, the only thing Redmond has confirmed up till now is the minor detail that new markets for the device are set to be announced at a later date.
Seemingly, this mum attitude is irking the Old Continent —users and retailers in the United Kingdom in particular are frustrated by this secrecy. A local distributor talking to ITPro had this to say:
“We’ve received no further marketing materials, pricing or anything, which is strange considering how much they were pushing it to us at the start of the year.”
Another retailer added that unless some more concrete information comes from Redmond in the near future, customers are very likely to turn their attention to other tablets running Windows 8, instead of Surface Pro:
“We’re getting a lot of questions about it from customers but we are having to tell them the same thing we were a couple of months ago, and it’s getting to a point where customers are getting tired of asking and us telling them we don’t know anything.”
Sure, Redmond, for now, is completely focused on the vital and important launch, but one thing is certain that Microsoft will be looking to expand the availability of its tablet in other markets beside North America very soon.
Specifically in the countries and markets where Surface RT has already launched, are very likely to get the Pro in the coming months, if not weeks.
Surface RT is already available in the United Kingdom, not only from Microsoft’s official website, but also at John Lewis. But I can totally see how this silence from Microsoft nags people looking to buy the company’s tablets in these countries.
Even on this blog here, we have had several readers inquire about the launch date of Surface Pro. Here’s hoping we hear some good news from Redmond soon.
In the meantime, do let us know what you feel if you are outside North America and looking to grab a Surface Pro. The comments section below is always open for business, 24 by 7.
All Comments
I’ve been patiently waiting for the release of the Pro version ever since the RT was released. Even at times considering the RT contemplating could I personally live with no x86 compatibly but end up saving the money for the Pro. I work in the IT industry and the company I work with (thanks to me going on about the Surface Pro so much) are very interested in these. Now though I’ve been asked to look at other alternatives (getting sick of me repeating should be soon) as its getting close the end of the financial year so the money will need to be spent on Windows 8 Tables whether that will be the Surface Pro or not depends on if its out in time. I don’t know why MS cant give us a date and price in the UK and even if its going to still be a while (really hope not!) let us pre order them! You would have thought they would have learnt from the release of the RT!
Agree about the pre order bit, that’s the least Microsoft can do.
I personally think an announcement could be coming our way in the next few days after launch, about which countries are next on the list and when will they be getting the Surface Pro.
as always MS is shooting themselves in the foot. saturation is key at this point for MS since they are so behind.
Hello i am in the UK and all this lack of information from Microsoft has lead me to end up buying the Surface Pro on eBay and get it shipped to me from the USA.