Microsoft's Surface tablet attracts crowd of first customers in Beijing

25.10.2012
Microsoft's newly launched Surface tablet attracted hundreds of buyers at a Beijing electronics store at midnight Friday morning, with customers stating they had high hopes the device could offer an innovative user experience over rival tablets including Apple's iPad.

Among those waiting in line was 25-year-old Chen Shi, who got a Microsoft certificate for being the first in the world to receive the Surface tablet. Chen waited first in line for 30 hours, and said he was especially interested in Windows RT, the OS that runs on the device.

"The tablet supports more software features for office work, things that you would actually use," he said. "Basically, Microsoft is reinventing the tablet, because now people are used to using their tablets as toys, and only use them to play games. These tablets lack features to do work for the office."

Microsoft is launching its Surface tablet in China in order to tap into one of the world's largest markets, where PC and smartphone shipments have already overtaken the U.S. But the company will have to go up against Apple, which had a 69 percent share in China's tablet market in this year's second quarter, according to research firm IDC.

Google's Nexus 7 and Amazon's Kindle Fire tablets, already available in the U.S., have yet to officially arrive in the country. But have been made available through Chinese PC maker Lenovo, which had the second largest tablet market share in the country, at 12 percent. Samsung is the third largest tablet vendor in China with a 4 percent share.

Along with its own online sales channel, Microsoft is using Chinese retailer Suning Electronics, which has hundreds of stores in the country, to sell its Surface tablet. The prices for the device are also comparable with Apple's iPad.