The technology giant has put its weight behind the its PC lineup, saying it clear and loud that they stand behind Surface. This, after the nest was shaken real hard yesterday.
Basically, Consumer Reports announced that it was removing its recommended status for all Microsoft Surface devices — a decision that was based on their survey of 90,000 table and laptop users, where about 25% said they experienced problems by the second year of ownership.
Redmond was quick out the gates with statements to Reuters and USA Today refuting those claims.
But now the man himself, Panos Panay, the Corporate Vice President for Microsoft Devices, released a full response in a blog post, confirming that the company stands firmly behind the quality and reliability of its Surface lineup:
“We are proud of our products and the amazing things our customers are doing with them. We stand firmly behind the quality and reliability of the Surface family of devices, and I can confidently tell you there has never been a better time to buy a Surface.”
Panos termed the Consumer Reports survey as disappointing, while providing some numbers of his own.
The company’s own metrics for failure and actual return rates for Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book are significantly lower than 25%, which admittedly does not inspire much confidence.
But what does is that incidents per unit have improved from generation to generation, with a current rate below 1% right now.
So, basically the company is learning from its mistakes.
Panay also alluded to the study conducted by research company IPSOS, from January to June 2017 in markets like the US, UK, Germany, France, China, Japan, and Australia, where it found that 98% of Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book users are satisfied with their devices.
Now, obviously, these are cases of extremes — Consumer Reports pulling out their recommendation for the entire line, while at the same time Microsoft admitting that mistakes were made.
But it just goes to show that the Surface line could do with better quality control, which it looks like Microsoft is working towards. Reliability, for many buyers, is the most important factor. More so, when you are investing in expensive hardware like this.
Let’s just hope things pick up from here and improve notably in future.
Your thoughts on this here episode?
All Comments