Report: Surface Pro off to a slow start due to supply issues

AdDuplex, the advertising publisher for developers on both Windows and Windows Phone, has released data for Windows 8 and Windows RT devices in the month of February 2013. Microsoft's Surface Pro tablet has only been available for a short while and already the product has sold out (but has since been made available once again). So how does this translate to usage?

We'll make a start on top hardware worldwide where we can't see any clear changes, apart from the Surface RT share shrinking slightly and the ASUS VivoTab dropping out of the top 10 devices. What's interesting to see in the chart below is the absence of the Surface Pro - which is billed as the more powerful brother of the popular Surface RT tablet.

AdDuplex Windows Hardware Worldwide

So is this the case where the Surface Pro is in 11th position? Unfortunately, this is not what we're witnessing here. AdDuplex reports the tablet is sat comfortably in position 52. Comparing both Surface tablets together, here's what the picture looks like:

AdDuplex Surface Pro RT

We weren't expecting the Surface Pro to overtake the RT version of the tablet and steam ahead with 99% of the pie, but we did believe Microsoft had the opportunity to push its more powerful, full Windows 8 tablet out to consumers. Walking away from both charts above, we can firmly assume that the reason for the lack of stock available for consumers at launch was due to insufficient supply.

We're almost looking at a repeat of the Surface RT launch. If the product remained in stock, we could then start to look at consumer concerns, including pricing concerns and more, but we'll be eagerly awaiting improvements next month with Microsoft fixing up the issues with Surface Pro supply.

The AdDuplex report is based on usage data accumulated from 132 Windows Store apps running the AdDuplex SDK over the period of 24 hours (February 15th). The full report will be available over at AdDuplex soon.

Rich Edmonds
Senior Editor, PC Build

Rich Edmonds was formerly a Senior Editor of PC hardware at Windows Central, covering everything related to PC components and NAS. He's been involved in technology for more than a decade and knows a thing or two about the magic inside a PC chassis. You can follow him on Twitter at @RichEdmonds.