Microsoft has reportedly sold just 1.5 million Surface RT and Surface Pro tablets according to Bloomberg, who claim to have received the figures from sources with knowledge of Microsoft's sales figures.

If true this will be significantly less than the 2 million Microsoft Surface RT tablets which Microsoft had predicted it would sell in the last quarter of 2012. According to the sources Microsoft has sold a little over a million of the Surface RT and just 400,000 Surface Pro models.

The Surface tablet is Microsoft's first real piece of hardware since the Xbox 360 and was designed to reinvigorate the idea of using Windows 8 on a tablet as well as on a computer.

Whilst enthusiasm was initially high it now appears as though third-party hardware manufacturers are also feeling the pain when it comes to Windows 8 tablets with Samsung reportedly pulling its ATIV 8 tablet from Germany.

The RT tablet didn't make it to the US and with distributors reporting poor sales the tech giant has reportedly decided to pull the tablet from German shelves.

Microsoft had hoped that the Surface RT would be able to take on the likes of Apple and Android but with Apple reporting sales of 23 million iPads in that same quarter it appears as though Microsoft still has some way to go.

Source: Bloomberg