Microsoft (MSFT) is opening its Surface tablet reseller program to more channel partners, the company announced at its Worldwide Partner Conference today. The move continues the company's phased approach to bring Surface to VARs and other IT solution and service providers.
“We found we had partners with an interest in selling [Surface] and customers who weren’t happy that there were so few partners they could buy from,” said Gavriella Schuster, general manager of Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Group. “So we are moving to add a few thousand partners globally in the next few months.”
Surface hit the market in 2012, and Microsoft announced Surface partner programs for resellers and ISVs just before the 2013 WPC, giving tier 1 partners access to sell the device. But that left a lot of tier 2 partners in the cold.