Bad numbers were expected, the demand was weak since the beginning. iPad/iPad mini demand is strong, Samsung got a nice chunk and there is two low cost alternatives with string demand (Kindle Fire that has Amazon backing it and Nexus 7 that has specs similar to Surface but with less than half of the price).

Surface Pro? Well it will cost more, so that should affect sales. 

Sold only in MS stores?  No, that was MSFT's original plan as they wanted to make it a hard to get item like the old Beanie Baby craze, if you remember that, but I guess they decided that the demand wouldn't be there, so they've let several more kinds of stores sell the Surface.

I don't think the Surface Pro will change anything. It has all the problems of Windows tablets of the past ten years (size, weight, battery life, cost), except this one actually has a proper touch interface now. There's a very limited market of maybe a million people per year who want full Windows running on a powerful processor in a tablet format.

It's a niche which is perhaps worth holding onto and serving, but it's never going to set the world on fire.

1 million is a respectable amount. 600k or less would've been a disaster and over 2m would've been a miracle (given its limited availability).

Can't wait till next weeks earnings release...

The one thing keeping me way from a Surface is it's Aspect Ratio.  Its just to skinny..

"As a point of reference, Apple’s iPad was projected to reach sales of up to 14 million units in the fourth quarter of 2012."

lol...well, not the best start.

Get ready for a low profit margin on whatever numbers are out.  MS had to offer a lot of discounting for Windows 8, which decreased revenue.  They also advertised the hell out of windows 8 which increased expenses. 

between the two, the profit margin will be horrible.

I do not see the point of being sarcastic in your title (should you get banned for that?).
1 million is obviously "not" awesome when we all know Microsoft manufactured at least 5M of them and I think you perfectly know that...

Back on topic: those are "estimates" so I hope the real numbers will get better but with people waiting for the Pro. I would not expect anything higher than that.
Let's see :)

I personally think that sales of 1M are awesome.   A million is more tablets than anybody could shake a stick at!  And I dont appreciate what sounds like your suggestion of me getting banned.

If I were to buy a tablet right now. The choice would be Surface(The one with W8 not Wrt).

Price is higher than competitors,but specs justify it.