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No availabilty because of popularity or problems

CreativeLemming

Active Member
The 256GB is the most popular one as most want the 8GB of RAM. 64GB is the worst deal, and easier to find. 512GB is too pricey.

I was looking earlier trying to find some breakdown of surface sales, where did you get this information? I would have thought that the 128GB was more popular as 8G is overkill for most people (says the man with the 512/8G). If you have a breakdown of sales that would be most interesting as I don't think MS release this.
 

Rvacha

Member
Lots of good guesses here, but I'll add a couple more:
1. Pissed off partners. Some of MS's key hardware partners made it clear in public that they weren't too happy with MS being a competitor. Might be limiting supply as a favor to these guys. Just look at Google's sale of Motorola to Lenovo and the nearly simultaneous Android/Chromebook announcements from Samsung. Suddenly they are getting married and planning to have kids
2. Magnesium case supply issues forcing a need to prioritize versions to be produced. It is fact that MS had supply issues during the early days of the SP1 launch - perhaps they are having trouble producing enough (i.e. more) now?
3. There might be actually be high demand. Unlike the SP1 launch MS aggressively launched the SP2 around the globe - just before Christmas season
4. Already mentioned, but quality problems, especially firmware. Might be holding off a bit until this is fixed
5. Quality problems, take two. I get the impression from this forum and others that MS is aggressively replacing units that have botched firmware - a lot of them it seems. Replacement demand might actually be putting a dent in retail supply
6. Quality problems, take three. MS might have added some aggressive (i.e. time-consuming) production screens in an attempt to weed out problem units before they are boxed
7. Component supply issues. Perhaps they simply can't get enough high capacity SSDs or LCDs - or something

In the end my best guess is that MS is struggling with a combination of smaller issues resulting in a large issue
 
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Raggarkungen

New Member
A guess could be that the production volume is very low due to a change of construction design adjusted to the manufacturing of a very soon upcoming new Surface Pro 2 3G.
 

GoodBytes

Well-Known Member
I was looking earlier trying to find some breakdown of surface sales, where did you get this information? I would have thought that the 128GB was more popular as 8G is overkill for most people (says the man with the 512/8G). If you have a breakdown of sales that would be most interesting as I don't think MS release this.

My own investigation when trying to get it since October. Spanning the Microsoft website, and asking retailers when and how much they'll get of each.When you continuously see 256GB disappear in a flash, while the 128GB usually takes a full day, then the 64GB disappear after 2-3days, and 5days+ for the 512GB. on Both retail stores and Microsoft online store (looked like the warehouse is shared with Canada and U.S as my Surface Pro 2's all come from the U.S.
And the r3esults are continuous, and that Microsoft quarterly results hows sales of Surface (sadly it's not giving any run down of each.. so its a combination of Surface 1, 2, Pro 1, and Pro 2, shows that sales has doubled since gen 1) , you can see where you can safely fall to my conclusion.
 

GoodBytes

Well-Known Member
Lots of good guesses here, but I'll add a couple more:
1. Pissed off partners. Some of MS's key hardware partners made it clear in public that they weren't too happy with MS being a competitor. Might be limiting supply as a favor to these guys. Just look at Google's sale of Motorola to Lenovo and the nearly simultaneous Android/Chromebook announcements from Samsung. Suddenly they are getting married and planning to have kids
2. Magnesium case supply issues forcing a need to prioritize versions to be produced. It is fact that MS had supply issues during the early days of the SP1 launch - perhaps they are having trouble producing enough (i.e. more) now?
3. There might be actually be high demand. Unlike the SP1 launch MS aggressively launched the SP2 around the globe - just before Christmas season
4. Already mentioned, but quality problems, especially firmware. Might be holding off a bit until this is fixed
5. Quality problems, take two. I get the impression from this forum and others that MS is aggressively replacing units that have botched firmware - a lot of them it seems. Replacement demand might actually be putting a dent in retail supply
6. Quality problems, take three. MS might have added some aggressive (i.e. time-consuming) production screens in an attempt to weed out problem units before they are boxed
7. Component supply issues. Perhaps they simply can't get enough high capacity SSDs or LCDs - or something

In the end my best guess is that MS is struggling with a combination of smaller issues resulting in a large issue

1. That is what Microsoft did for the first one, it started as limited supply and locations only, but the poor sales (which is normal), lead to bad press, so Microosft opened up and mass produced (too much), and that lead to further bad press

2. Magnesium case is not the problem. I have seen many OEM products with magnesium casing, and never had any problems. All I know, is that I never saw a dyed magnesium cashing, always painted... which suggests that perhaps you can't dye magnesium.. at least not with good/nice results, like you can with aluminum.
Maybe Microsoft will switch to aluminum if they are able to shrink teh battery a bit, and offset the weight increase due to the aluminum.

3. Correct.
4. Perhaps, but all the complaints I read, are NOTHING compared to other OEMs where it's usually packed with people complaining about issues. Surface Pro 2 seams to have a good track record. I think the only big problem is the bent stand.
5. Perhaps. But it would be a mix of refurbished and new.
6. A possibility. But the stand issue should not exists, but it does.
7. Possible. Usually OEMs uses multiple manufactures for every part not specified in the system specs or customized by the user (wirelesses card, and CPU for example). But maybe Microsoft doesn't do that to simplify (as they are new) support, which Microsoft is already having a hard time (device has a few bugs here and there, and they are having trouble fixing hem. It will probably takes 2-3 gen before getting a near perfect experience).

Another thing that was not mentioned is the CPU upgrade. The 4300U was not released at the same time as the 4200U (when the Surface Pro 2 was in development). Microsoft picked the 4200U because it was the closest performing one in term of speed in GHz of the Surface Pro 1. They would not put a 1.3GHz in, is what I am saying. The rest consumed more power, or too pricey.
As every OEM are using the 4200U for their Core i5 model, and possibly larger orders than Microsoft, and done (contract sign) before Microsoft, means priority gets to them. So, Microsoft, switch to the 4300U after seeing that the situation of the 4200U is not getting better. Since the switch I am seeing more delivery of Surface Pro 2's, but it's hard to say.. it could be selling faster than I when I checked as it was the holiday season.
 
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We're all just speculating, but MS did report a very good quarter and implied good surface sales.

I'm guessing that they were too pessimistic with their forecasts because of how hard they got burned on the first SP versions and they have a long lead time or constraints in production that are the reason why it's taking so long for them to catch up.

They also decided to change processors and had a disastrous firmware update that might both be factors (supply issues and lots of returned devices)
 

CreativeLemming

Active Member
My own investigation when trying to get it since October. Spanning the Microsoft website, and asking retailers when and how much they'll get of each.When you continuously see 256GB disappear in a flash, while the 128GB usually takes a full day, then the 64GB disappear after 2-3days, and 5days+ for the 512GB. on Both retail stores and Microsoft online store (looked like the warehouse is shared with Canada and U.S as my Surface Pro 2's all come from the U.S.
And the r3esults are continuous, and that Microsoft quarterly results hows sales of Surface (sadly it's not giving any run down of each.. so its a combination of Surface 1, 2, Pro 1, and Pro 2, shows that sales has doubled since gen 1) , you can see where you can safely fall to my conclusion.

Makes sense, if MS understock their most popular model and overstock their less popular - guess they're just not too good at predicting demand.
 

GoodBytes

Well-Known Member
Right, But I think it's not a miss prediction. But rather being ultra safe, and potentially lose some sales.
'1.5 million sold', sounds better than: '1.7 million sold, but near a million in warehouse'.

Also, back in Wii success days, where the Wii was sold out everywhere, there was talked about production lines. Basically, from my understanding, a company can't say: 'I want 845 896 of my product'. They have to order in batches several hundred of thousands.
So, if the number that Microsoft predict is between 2 batches number, well they'll either get too much, or too little. And it doesn't help, that for making products like this, you work with contracts... so you can't say in the middle... 'yea make more' or 'stop everything'. You have a contract for 1 year or so, for a certain amount. That is why it took time for Nintendo to start producing more per delivery, in the case of the Wii.
 
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NGC

Member
I started this thread and am so impressed with the knowledge I have gained on reasoning for Microsoft lack of product for sale. Thank You. Like others have pointed out it looks like MS has a winner with the Surface Pro 2. Now I guess I search and search hoping that stocks will be replenished.
 

GoodBytes

Well-Known Member
Do like what I did.
Just monitor Microsoft online store about 4, 5 times a day. At any times stock can appear.. even on Sunday!
To simplify the process for me, I booked marked the page. So I just click on my bookmark, click on the model I want, and see if that buy button shows up.
That is how I was able to finally get my Surface Pro, the exact model I wanted.

Be sure to get a screen protector too, especially if you plan to use the pen. While the Surface Pro 2 has Gorilla Glass 2, it's still glass... In fact, It's tempered glass, meaning anything will scratch it at a micro level, BUT because it's Gorilla glass 2, it is able to get back it's strength loss during the tempered glass process. So it's like normal glass. Not scratch proof. Many have scratched their screen using the pen. Maybe Gorilla Glass 3 would be strong enough to not put one, but that got released after the Surface Pro 2 was made, so maybe 3rd generation of Surface.
 

Knuck111

New Member
As many have noted, Microsoft took a bath on the original Surface and in all likelihood only produced a limited number of SP2s. Bloomberg news reports that some major Microsoft shareholders are pushing for Microsoft to pull out of the consumer marketplace and are recommending a new CEO who will focus exclusively on the enterprise market. If this is true, say goodbye to Microsoft tablets and phones.
 
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