Staples Australia and New Zealand is one of the fortunate authorised resellers for the Surface range. The company's head of technology solutions, Karl Sice, confirmed that resellers outside the club of 14 have purchased units from Staples.
He added that he was delighted with the success of the tablet for Staples. "It's one of the most explosive products in recent memory – a very successful undertaking.
"I expected a much narrower market of attraction, but I've been proved wrong. Education, federal government, mining, all sorts of sectors are going for it.
"Microsoft has done an impressive job with the branding and the launch… We've even had number of meetings where customers have told us to put together other solutions married with the Surface," said Sice.
The gulf between his enthusiasm and the feeling among those locked out could not be greater.
In a comment posted on the CRN website, Queensland's Dennis Evans said: "While Microsoft continues to ostracise their smaller partners, their Surface Pro will never reach the heights as it would otherwise reach. When will Microsoft learn? It is the thousands of small resellers that push the sales of tablets and notebooks."
Greg Williams is another reseller with strong feelings about Microsoft's strategy. The owner of 30-year-old South Australian company Lincoln Computer Centre told CRN that he voiced his frustrations to high-level Microsoft executives.
"In my discussions with South Australia state director of Microsoft Brian Kealey, he suggested [the restricted channel] was because Microsoft wanted to 'control' the marketing of the Surface range," Williams said.
"I put it to Brian, and to the Australian managing director Pip Marlow, that Microsoft had built its business on the backs of traditional resellers and it seemed somewhat arrogant – not to mention unfair – to shut out its traditional reseller base."
Williams said he has made a conscious shift from a sales- to a services-dominated company due to the obstacles in reselling devices such as the Surface.
He told CRN that a Harvey Norman store is coming to town in March: "They will have the Surface Pro and we won't."
Williams is disenfranchised with the vendor.
"I don't trust Microsoft any more, give me Google any day – and I told both Brian and Pip this. They were a bit dismayed but then again they have never walked a mile in my shoes."
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