Microsoft Store Black Friday Traffic Not The Greatest?

Black Friday traffic, but unfortunately it paints a somewhat grim picture. Their analysts also visited a nearby Apple Store location for a bit of a comparison. What they found was that at the Microsoft Store there was about 47 percent less foot traffic than Apple over the course of time they were monitoring the locations. That’s not a great sign, but worse was the Surface sales rate. While Apple was selling about 11 iPads every hour, the two hour period saw NO Surface RT sales. Doom and gloom, right? That’s what Piper Jaffray and many others want to paint, yes. The truth is that this is ONE store and it is only TWO hours of time that was monitored. These might have been bad hours for the Microsoft store, it might not be telling the “full day” picture. Also, Apple iPad is an established product, the Surface RT is not. We’d be crazy to think that the Surface RT would be selling at the same rate as the established iPad at this point. Not to mention that many out there (myself included) are waiting to see the Surface PRO before they make any real decisions on what to buy. To be fair, Piper Jaffray just reported its findings, they weren’t exactly negative about it or forecasting the death of Microsoft like some analysts have in the past. Still, we just need to remember that Microsoft needs to build up its market and its ecosystem (apps). It’s too early to pass judgment. Based on numbers though, yah, it might not have been the greatest Black Friday for Microsoft, at least at the Mall of America. Do you own a Microsoft Surface RT, are you happy with the purchase or not? [ source ]]]>