Microsoft to hand Surface to all resellers - rumours

All VARs in Australia thought to now be able to sell the tablets, but Microsoft UK insists it is happy with just nine

Microsoft UK has insisted it is happy as it is with its commercial Surface distribution plan, despite strong rumours circulating that all resellers in some other regions will get to flog the devices soon.

Yesterday, ZDnet posted a screen grab of a blog post from Australian reseller New Lease's cloud boss Stephen Parker. In the post, which has now been taken down, he claimed that in a meeting in Redmond with Microsoft, it was decided that every VAR in the country would be able to sell Surface soon as part of a trial.

"At one of the meetings today (7 October) it was decided that as of today ALL Australian Microsoft resellers will be able to buy Surface devices through distribution channel (Ingram Micro and Synnex)," the post said.

"This is an extension of the earlier programme with a limited set of Authorised Resellers. Australia is being used as a pilot geography by Microsoft."

Microsoft did not unveil its Surface channel strategy for months after the first RT machine launched last year, but eventually named a handful of companies in each territory which are authorised to sell them.

In the UK, Computacenter, Phoenix Software, Softcat, CCS Media, SoftwareOne, SCC, Kelway, Insight and Misco are the chosen ones, along with disties Ingram Micro and Tech Data.

Microsoft offered no official statement on the matter when contacted by CRN, but a spokesperson said UK bosses had no plans to change its Surface strategy here and were happy as they are.

Last month, Microsoft's UK Surface boss Peter King told CRN that SMB resellers desperate to sell the deviced should not wait for the Surface to become available, and advised them to look at building a business selling other Windows 8 devices.

Back in August, when the nine UK resellers were named, an official Microsoft blog post hinted that more resellers would be brought on board in time.

"The partners we've activated today represent just the first phase in our approach to these international markets. While we continue to expand our channel, we'll stay focused on ensuring the best experience for our partners and customers. But we're not stopping here," said Microsoft.

"As we've said before, we're committed to authorising a select set of additional partners in these markets, and in additional markets, in the coming weeks."