Microsoft is pinning its hopes on corporate customers for UAE sales of the latest version of its Surface tablet.
The company, which has struggled to gain ground in the Middle East’s tablet market, yesterday announced the start of pre-orders from UAE commercial clients for the Surface Pro 3, officially unveiled in New York last month.
Microsoft will start taking pre-orders in mid-June via its authorised resellers Alpha Data and Mideast Data Systems. General availability of the devices is to begin in August.
Microsoft declined to discuss the exact pricing details of the Surface Pro 3, saying that it would be roughly in line with international pricing models. The company last month said that the model would retail at US$799, although this does not include a keyboard cover, which sells for about $129.
Pricing for the tablet’s predecessor, the Surface Pro 2, starts at Dh4,599, with its keyboard cover costing Dh649.
“Today’s announcement that Surface Pro 3 is now available in the UAE for commercial customers serves as the next step of our journey to empower organisations to do more,” said Samer Abu Ltaif, Microsoft Gulf’s regional general manager.
“I am confident that Surface Pro 3, the tablet that can replace a user’s laptop, has the requirements to support the increasing mobility that UAE businesses require today.”
The Surface Pro 3 has a 12-inch full HD display with up to 8GB of RAM, offering up to nine hours of web-browsing battery life. Microsoft notes that the new device is 30 per cent thinner than an 11-inch MacBook Air, although this is without its cover keyboard.
“So many people carry both a laptop and a tablet but really want just one device that serves all purposes,” said Somanna Palacanda, business development director for Surface. “Surface Pro 3 is the tablet that can replace your laptop – packing all the performance of a fully powered laptop into a thin, light and beautifully designed device.
The Surface Pro 3 also boasts a redesigned pen device for taking notes.
Mr Abu Ltaif declined to comment on when the Surface Pro 3 will be made available for non-corporate customers.
Focusing on the corporate segment is a shrewd move, according to Fouad Charakla, research manager at IDC, a market research company.
“In the consumer segment, key functions that people use on a tablet, like email, games, surfing the internet and so on, don’t require Microsoft software, so they don’t need to shell out big money for programs like Office,” he said.
“In the commercial segment employees are much more used to working in a Windows-based environment, and so the Surface is likely to prove far more attractive.”
Mr Charakla says the increase in screen size to 12 inches from the Surface 2’s 10-inch display is a key move, although it still might not be quite enough for corporate users, who are used to a minimum sized display of at least 13 inches.
Microsoft has struggled to break into the fast-growing tablet market in the Middle East and Africa, hitherto dominated by Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS platforms.
Shipments of tablets running Microsoft Windows, including Surface devices, accounted for about 3 per cent of total tablet shipments in the Middle East and Africa in 2013, said Mr Charakla, although that represented more than treble its market share the previous year.
jeverington@thenational.ae
Follow us on Twitter @Ind_Insights
