Dell, HP to resell Microsoft's Surface Pro tablets
Microsoft is expanding its distribution of Surface Pro tablets and making enterprise services for them available via new partnerships with Dell and HP. — A day ahead of Apple's expected launch of new iPads for business users …
Context & Ripple Effects
Microsoft is moving Surface Pro beyond its own stores by putting the tablet into Dell's and HP's reseller channels, complete with enterprise services delivered through those partners — an odd arrangement given both OEMs sell their own convertibles, including Dell, whose leaked XPS 12 slides show a direct Surface Pro 3 competitor in the works. The timing matters: it lands a day ahead of Apple's expected launch of iPads aimed at business users, making enterprise distribution the battleground.
The move reads as the opening act of a services-first device strategy rather than a one-off channel deal; within a year Microsoft formalized the approach with its Surface as a Service program to push devices into enterprises on subscription terms.
First-order effects
- Enterprise buyers gain a second procurement path for Surface Pro — through Dell and HP account teams they already use — while Microsoft gets reach into corporate fleets without building that sales force itself.
Second-order effects
- Dell and HP now monetize a rival's hardware through attached services even as they field competing convertibles like the XPS 12, blurring the line between partner and competitor in the 2-in-1 market.
- Apple's business-iPad push faces a channel where Microsoft's tablets arrive pre-wrapped with enterprise support; the rivalry later showed up inverted too, with Apple selling Office 365 alongside the iPad Pro to neutralize Microsoft's software advantage.
Third-order effects
- If hardware margins keep compressing, PC makers' economics shift toward reselling whoever's device carries the richest services attach — a structure that persisted a decade later when Microsoft was still positioning Surface lines explicitly for businesses with the Intel-powered Surface Pro 11 for enterprises.
The trend: PC hardware is becoming a distribution wrapper for enterprise services, with erstwhile rivals like Dell and HP paid to carry competitors' devices because the services attach, not the box, is where the value sits.