Leading brokerage firm estimates Microsoft Surface sales are tanking, will sell less than 1 million in Q4

A leading brokerage firm has released a note to clients predicting sales of the consumer version of Microsoft’s Surface tablet are tanking in the marketplace, with the company likely to sell well under 1 million units during the fourth quarter.

Late last month, sources in Microsoft’s East Asia supply chain claimed the tech giant had dramatically cut orders from 4 million to 2 million units for the quarter.

According to BGR, Boston-based brokerage firm Detwiler Fenton has published a note to clients predicting Microsoft is unlikely to make even its more modest internal target of 1 million to 2 million unit sales of the tablet, with sales expected to fall within the range of 500,000 to 600,000 units.

The firm cites uncompetitive pricing and the decision not to sell the device through key US retailers such as best Buy as key reasons for the weak sales, with the weak sales leaving Microsoft’s tablet strategy “in disarray”.