Microsoft (NASDAQ:
MSFT
) CEO Steve Ballmer told
French daily Le Parisien
that sales of the company's first tablet "are starting modestly."
Ballmer also said that the supply shortages were a "good sign."
He added that Microsoft will "fix this problem quickly" as the
company increases capacity, which is part of its overall
strategy.
In July, Ballmer said that Microsoft's goal was to sell
a few million units
in the next 12 months. His latest comments indicate that
Microsoft will be able to meet that goal.
No specific sales figures were provided. But
USA Today
might have some additional insight into how the tablet space is
evolving. According to the publication, Apple's (NASDAQ:
AAPL
) market share has dropped to 50 percent. This is a far cry from
the more than 60 percent market share that the company commanded
in 2011. Samsung, which was scraping by last year with only 6.5
percent of the tablet market, is now a growing contender with
18.4 percent.
Worldwide, Nexus 7 sales are approaching
one million units per month
. Domestically, Amazon (NASDAQ:
AMZN
) acquired
22 percent of the tablet market
after releasing the original Kindle Fire.
This shows that while Apple has sold the most tablets (more
than 100 million iPads worldwide), consumers are interested in
lower-cost alternatives.
Surface RT is not a low-cost alternative, however. It is
essentially the baby brother of a fully-featured tablet PC that
Microsoft plans to release next year. At $499 for the 32GB model,
the device provides a little more value than most competing
tablets. But iPad users have access to the App Store, which
contains hundreds of thousands of apps. This gives Apple a
distinct advantage, as evidenced by sales of the company's latest
tablets. The iPad Mini and iPad 4 sold a combined total of
three million units
during their first weekend of release.
In addition to its first tablet, Microsoft is celebrating the
worldwide launch of Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8. Earlier this
month, Ballmer
told reporters
about his expectations for its mobile platform.
"With the work we have done with Nokia, HTC, Samsung and
others ... there is now an opportunity to create really a strong
third participant in the smartphone market," he said. "We are
still relatively small ... I expect the volumes on Windows Phone
to really ramp quickly."
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