14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft launched several special deals on Black Friday, including one that allowed customers to purchase the 32 GB version of the Surface RT for no less than $199 (€150).
Now a new report published by Digitimes claims that the Surface RT with 32 GB was actually a very successful product on Black Friday and together with the Retina iPad mini, they sold in high volumes at all retailers offering discounts.
Microsoft hasn’t issued on a statement as to how successful the Surface RT was on Black Friday, but the company clearly wants to sell as many tablets as possible in an attempt to clear out inventories.
The Surface RT was Microsoft’s first tablet in history and was officially launched on October 26, 2012, together with the new Windows 8.
Running Windows 8 and featuring an Nvidia Tegra 3 processor, the Surface RT proved to be a rather disappointing product, with Microsoft even announcing a $900 million (€660 million) write-down in order to adjust unsold inventories across the world.
Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer himself admitted that the Surface RT performed below expectations, saying that Redmond had actually ordered more devices than it could sell.
“We built a few more devices than we could sell,” Ballmer said during an internal meeting with employees earlier this year. “We're not selling as many Windows devices as we want to.”
The Surface RT can also be updated to Windows 8.1 in order to benefit from Microsoft’s latest improvements in the OS market and recently received Outlook 2013 RT that provides users with new means to manage their emails from the desktop.
A second-generation Surface is already up for grabs, coming with upgraded hardware and the new Windows 8.1 operating system in either RT or Pro form. Both are already available via Microsoft’s stores or retailers in a number of 21 countries worldwide.