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The Surface Pro has been met with a plethora of demand today as lines have been spotted around the US with hopeful consumers who are looking to get their hands on the device today. We have nabbed a few pictures from twitter to show that while some may have written the Surface off as another Microsoft failure, consumer response seems to indicate the opposite.

Image via Alan Kimmer, Twitter

If you were hoping to get your hands on a Surface Pro today, you may need to search far and wide as it is being reported that many Microsoft stores have sold out of the devices. This is not a surprise as there was plenty of pent up demand for the device and even the Surface RT sold out at launch. Reports are indicating that the 128GB Pro has sold out completely at most places (including the Microsoft Store) and that some locations are out of the 64 GB version too. We have heard that Microsoft is looking to quickly backfill these outages, but we don not have a timeline on when that will occur.

Line wraps around the Microsoft Store in San Jose, image via Rakesh

The Surface Pro represents Microsoft's future direction for the company and is the first full PC to don the company's name and go head to head with the with other OEMs in the laptop category. The the 64 GB version starts at $899 and the 128 GB version selling for $999, neither of those models will come with a keyboard cover, so expect to tack on an additional $100+ to the purchase price.

Microsoft Store in Bellevue, Twitter via Java Junkee

Microsoft is also offering a $20 discount on a one year subscription to Office 365 Home Premium if you buy it alongside the Surface Pro. If you want a longer two year warranty, Microsoft will sell one with a $50 discount for a limited time.

Image via Geekwire

Images don't load up but you can just click the links and see, Anyway nice, looks like their is moderate demand for the Surface.

This will play out exactly like the Surface RT ...

Line-ups on launch day followed by disappointing sales because few people are interested in a non-Android/non-ios tablet.

I never quite know what to think of these pictures from people waiting in line before Microsoft stores.

Most of them are taken from angles where it's impossible to judge if there were 20 oder 2000 people waiting.
And the few that are not (like the last picture) somehow completely fail to impress, because everyone has seen pictures of the lines in front of Apple stores when they release new products.

My thoughts exactly.  I don't think they've even broken the 5% point in marketshare, even with all the photo like these in the past, so I doubt hey will know.  Though, if MS is still making money off of this, more power to them.

Even the Wii U launch had lines ....

that could mean they sell 25k or 5m first week^^

For Surface RT the launch day line-ups were created by Microsoft giving away $100 of Xbox Music credit to the first 100 customers.  I haven't heard about a similar promotion here yet; probably there is enough "sight unseen" demand that such pandering isn't needed.  My impression is that a lot of people have convinced themselves that Surface Pro is the tablet they've always wanted, and they will get decent initial sales.

But Microsoft's products have tended to be better at satisfying feature checklists than satisfying actual users.  Not every good idea on paper translates into a good experience (conversely, everyone in 2007 thought it was stupid not to have a keyboard on the iPhone, until they tried one in person).  From the reviews it appears that to achieve their "no compromise" tablet/computer hybrid, Microsoft had to compromise on battery life, CPU, weight, price, storage capacity.  The real question is what aspects do consumers value most in a tablet?  Will people be happy with the actual product rather than just the hope of one?

I'm no fan of Microsoft but I'd be happy to see at least modest success for the Surface; it isn't just a brainless imitation of the market leader like Galaxy Tab was, and they deserve a lot of credit for that (last I heard, Windows Phones rate very highly in customer satisfaction).  However, they have also done some undeserving things like backstabbing their hardware partners only to arrive late to the game.  In 2007 when they should have been working on this, Microsoft Surface meant something vastly different.

Lines seem to form for any launch nowadays. Next thing you know, American Standard is releasing a new Toilet and there are huge line ups outside Lowes and HomeDepot just because people had to have it.

Windows tablets will be popular, once there are awesome tablets on the market...

Many are coming this year, it will pick up and Hybrids will be extremely popular, im getting one :D

Surface is just the beginning, now 3rd parties need to step up.

Android sells because its cheap.