Microsoft is sharing the Surface products' successful start to the holiday season. Writing on the Windows Blog, Microsoft Devices Marketing CVP Brian Hall talks about the excitement in the team, reinforces the key points of the Surface Book, Surface Pro, and Surface Studio, and reminds everyone of the enterprise-focused Surface Hub.
November was our best month ever for consumer Surface sales. The Best Buy-exclusive Surface bundle sold out on the first day. The momentum was seen worldwide. In the UK, we had the best single week for Surface ever and in Germany the Surface Pen became the best seller in PC Accessories on Amazon.com for over 12 hours.
Surface Studio is shipping and people love it.
Microsoft is also leaning heavily on the idea of MacBook users switching away from macOS powered devices and joining the Windows 10 ecosystem. If there's a message to take away, it's that Redmond wants the direct comparison to Cupertino's computers.
Take note in the rhetorical flourishes used by Microsoft that have delightful echoes with Apple's statements - never give out absolute numbers on the sales and always phrase you accomplishments as 'best ever', 'more and more people making the switch' and 'proving to be a success.' Not only does it validate the device without offering the opposition any immediate easy comeback, it also validates the choice made by consumers who have backed the brand.
The cynical reader may wish to compare the language used to promote the Surface sales to the language from Cupertino about the support and popularity of the Apple Watch in this year's holiday season.
If should come as no surprise that Microsoft is choosing many of the right plays from the underdog marketing book. A cursory glance at any representation of unit sales figures shows that the MacBook Pro family is not only magnitudes ahead of the Surface range of computers, but far and away the best-selling laptop of 2016 (if not of all time).
But if you were to ask people to consider the alternatives, if you were to stop and think what other strong PC brands are out there who are seen as innovative and challenging, if you were to ask who Apple's biggest competitor was... the answer you would get back would be Microsoft.
Well played, Microsoft. Well played.
