@John Robson
Not only did they choose the launch month for the new Surface Pro, they chose the month BEFORE the iPad Pro started selling which would be a slow month as those who wanted it would be sitting on their hands buying nothing from Apple.
That, along with counting only internet orders from their own list of retailers leaves out all the orders from apple.com, from Apple Stores, and foot traffic in Walmart etc. (though to be fair any stores selling the Surface Pro on premise would not have those sales counted either)
I agree with those who think this reads very much like something Microsoft cooked up to make the Surface Pro look like a massive hit. Try to get that message out when people are making Christmas purchase decisions..."oh, I don't want to buy an iPad for junior, I just saw an article that it is on the way out and everyone is getting Microsoft's tablet!"
Someone who wants "a tablet" for Christmas probably doesn't want Microsoft's product that is really more of a laptop in disguise. They want a traditional tablet which is either an iPad (not the 12.9" monstrosity, either) or Android, that does tablet stuff and runs tablet apps.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
