Microsoft touts Surface success, claims more MacBook switchers than ever

Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited December 2016
Calling the new MacBook Pro with Touch Bar a "disappointment," Microsoft claims that more users than ever are switching from Apple's MacBook lineup to its competing Surface lineup of hybrid laptop tablets.




In a new blog post, the Redmond, Wash., company claimed more people are switching from Macs to the Microsoft Surface than ever before. No actual sales figures were shared, however.

"Our trade-in program for MacBooks was our best ever, and the combination of excitement for the innovation of Surface coupled with the disappointment of the new MacBook Pro -- especially among professionals -- is leading more and more people to make the switch to Surface," wrote Brian Hall, corporate vice president for Microsoft Devices Marketing.

The Windows maker claims that its Surface lineup --?including the Surface Book and Surface Studio --?is having its best holiday season ever.




For years, Apple boasted of taking market share away from the larger Windows platform, well before Microsoft stepped into the hardware business with its own lineup of tablets and laptops. Now, Apple mostly focuses on switchers from the Android platform to iPhone, reflecting the fact that the iPhone is its major revenue driver.

Microsoft expanded its Surface lineup in October with the new Surface Studio, an all-in-one desktop PC that takes on Apple's iMac with a unique adjustable touchscreen.

For its part, Apple claims that the new MacBook Pro is anything but a disappointment at launch. Last month, marketing chief Phil Schiller claimed that initial orders for the new Touch Bar-equipped models exceeded any other pro model that came before.

"We are proud to tell you that so far our online store has had more orders for the new MacBook Pro than any other pro notebook before," added Schiller. "So there certainly are a lot of people as excited as we are about it."
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 86
    spice-boyspice-boy Posts: 1,450member
    I'm not worried for Apple after all xmas sales of the Apple Watch 2 will more than make up for lower MacBook sales. 
    goodbyeranchbdkennedy1002baconstanglostkiwistarwars
  • Reply 2 of 86
    genovellegenovelle Posts: 1,480member
    So basically. If they had 15 people switch last year and now they have 20, the can say more and more people. The problem is they can't disclose the numbers because you would just laugh at them. Report the actual sales if you want to show how much better people like your product. 
    Metriacanthosauruseideardwilliamlondonericthehalfbeechabigpscooter63frankiewigbyfraccwingrav
  • Reply 3 of 86
    genovelle said:
    So basically. If they had 15 people switch last year and now they have 20, the can say more and more people. The problem is they can't disclose the numbers because you would just laugh at them. Report the actual sales if you want to show how much better people like your product. 
    Exactly this. 

    Report sales numbers if you want us to believe any of it, Microsoft. All we actually know about these two products is: Apple has seen more launch orders for the new MBP than any other computer they've ever released, and Microsoft has written off the last 3 generations of Surface at a loss.

    Not buying it. Literally or figuratively.
    chabigcalidysamorialostkiwiam8449gilly017r00fus1watto_cobrachiaredgeminipa
  • Reply 4 of 86
    Well, it wont take more than a few MacBook persons to make that headline true, I guess. Notice, they say MacBook, not MacBook Pro.
    calir00fus1jony0
  • Reply 5 of 86
    Did AI use a super-blurry photo of the MBP to accentuate the effect?
    randominternetpersoncali
  • Reply 6 of 86
    wood1208wood1208 Posts: 2,905member
    I highly doubt Macbook user would convert to Windows including surface.
    coolfactorwilliamlondonpscooter63calilostkiwiwatto_cobrastarwarsredgeminipa
  • Reply 7 of 86
    Agree with other posters, they are just making numbers do what they want. I have never known a true Mac user to switch back to a windows platform.
    chabigcalilostkiwiredgeminipa
  • Reply 8 of 86
    How about sharing some sales figures then? 
    calilostkiwi
  • Reply 9 of 86
    wood1208 said:
    I highly doubt Macbook user would convert to Windows including surface.

    Agreed. It's not just about the hardware, but also the software. As a website developer, I could not see myself being nearly as productive on a Windows-based machine. In fact, I lived that test for several months years ago. Nothing compares to macOS when it comes to great development applications that work seamlessly together, not to mention the application-based switching (vs document-based switching on Windows) with Cmd-Tab (akin to Windows-Tab). Right now, I work on a team where everyone else is Windows-based and watching them work with their clunky software is painful, but they do get the job done, so I have respect for that. I'm just spoiled with a better OS. :)
    jkichlinebaconstanglostkiwiration alsingularitywatto_cobrachiaredgeminipajony0
  • Reply 10 of 86
    And when Apple's new file system (APFS) rolls out early next year, things will change dramatically. Let's hope that this new system is ready for mass adoption. Macs will catapult beyond consumer Windows and Linux machines in terms of pure file-system performance.
    calilostkiwiwatto_cobraredgeminipa
  • Reply 11 of 86
    The problem with Microsoft's sales numbers is that when they do report them, they report sell-in, not sell-through, meaning that stock sitting on shelves in stores is reported as sold, and that skews the numbers hugely, especially when the actual sell-through numbers aren't as high Apple laptop sales.
    edited December 2016 chabigpscooter63calilostkiwir00fus1watto_cobraredgeminipa
  • Reply 12 of 86
    macxpressmacxpress Posts: 5,801member
    And how many turned it back in and switched back? I wondering if users were just willing to give it a try and then if it didn't work out like they thought (or the Surface wasn't what they thought) they returned it and went back to a Mac.

    And what are the sales numbers compared to what Apple does? I know that last one will be hard because Apple doesn't break down sales by Mac like they used to so either way we'd never know. 
    edited December 2016 williamlondonlostkiwiwatto_cobraredgeminipa
  • Reply 13 of 86
    blastdoorblastdoor Posts: 3,256member
    wood1208 said:
    I highly doubt Macbook user would convert to Windows including surface.
    If it was a just a choice between those two specific products then I would agree. 

    In the broader context, though, I think it's plausible that Microsoft might be doing more than just blowing smoke here. 

    There's a lot of dysfunction in Apple right now and that undermines the appeal of the ecosystem. For many Pro users who need a Pro desktop along with a Pro laptop, a change in platforms is becoming almost unavoidable. 
    bloggerblogentropyszimmermannsingularity
  • Reply 14 of 86
    We'll know just how poorly the Surface line did when Microsoft reports their revenues. Last quarter it was something like $900 million. Based on the selling prices for Surface devices they wouldn't have even come close to a million sales and probably barely hit 500,000.
    williamlondonration alwatto_cobrachia
  • Reply 15 of 86
    Microsoft must be pretty desperate to publish an article like this with no hard data  to back it up.  Just click bait. 
    StrangeDayslostkiwiwatto_cobraredgeminipa
  • Reply 16 of 86
    jkichlinejkichline Posts: 1,369member
    Hey, one user is better than none, right?

    A fool is born every minute, so this really isn't surprising. Anyone that's trading in a MacBook for the prices Microsoft is offering is an idiot. Resale value on those things is pretty darn great.  I have a late-2013 rMBP that was fully spec'd out that's going for about $1,000.  Not too bad for a 3 year old computer.

    I'm still waiting on my 2016 MBP (which should tell you something right there about demand) and after trying one out at Best Buy and the Apple Store, I can tell you the Touch Bar isn't a gimmick or a fad.  It works pretty dang awesome for a lot of things and many apps I use are updating with support for it.  I want to use a laptop as a laptop and use a tablet as a tablet.  Surface fails as a tablet in my opinion although Microsoft does have some nice hardware in the laptop category (at Apple prices of course)

    The biggest problem with the Surface is it runs Windows.
    pscooter63baconstanglostkiwiwatto_cobramainyehc
  • Reply 17 of 86
    I really want to live in a world where it is a requirement to validate your statements with facts. This could be true but the number of conversions is left out so we do not know if it is a major deal or fluff...
    lostkiwiwatto_cobra
  • Reply 18 of 86
    NY1822NY1822 Posts: 621member
    calling Macbook a disappointment...lol....how would he even support this...
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 19 of 86
    tmaytmay Posts: 6,309member
    We'll know just how poorly the Surface line did when Microsoft reports their revenues. Last quarter it was something like $900 million. Based on the selling prices for Surface devices they wouldn't have even come close to a million sales and probably barely hit 500,000.
    I'd venture that Apple will generate more revenue, and certainly more profit in FY2017, from AirPods alone than MS generates from the entire Surface product line.
    StrangeDayslostkiwir00fus1watto_cobra
  • Reply 20 of 86
    wood1208 said:
    I highly doubt Macbook user would convert to Windows including surface.
    They might convert but for how long?
    Windows 10 is just indescribably bad (IMHO).

    Disclaimer
    I wrote my first paper on Operating Systems in 1975, written device drivers for at least 5 different OS's and lots of other OS releated stuff over the years.
    r00fus1mainyehc
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