Microsoft Slashes Prices On Surface

Price Adjustment by Oysterville · 2013-07-14 08:12 · Score: 5, Informative

I doubt that Microsoft will do much of anything for those early adopters, but check with your place of purchase. Frequently they have a price guarantee that will cover price adjustments both at that store and with competitors.

Re:Price Adjustment by Jeremiah+Cornelius · 2013-07-14 08:25 · Score: 5, Funny

"I wonder what Microsoft will do for customers who purchased a tablet right before the price drop?"
Salute them as 'early adopters' and congratulate them for getting in early to avoid the rush.

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Re:Price Adjustment by hairyfeet · 2013-07-14 08:44 · Score: 5, Informative

Meh if you were dumb enough to buy one early? Sorry but you kinda deserved the wallet ding for failing to pay attention. Pretty much all of the media had already panned the thing, they were selling it for MORE than an iPad, the Surface had giant FAIL written all over it almost from the start so anybody with any common sense should have figured they'd either have to take a hell of a price drop or end up with a warehouse full of shit they couldn't sell. Folks forget that computer chips have a shelf life, if you don't move the units its soon badly outdated compared to what is on the market and nobody will buy it.
Honestly I wouldn't even buy it at the current price, the tegra 3 was never that great a chip to start with and thanks to bad design on the part of MSFT the Surface can't even take advantage of the fifth core on the tegra 3 so the battery life will be worse than Android on it. Maybe if it hits below $145 it might be worth playing with, but considering we are talking about a company with a history of abandoning products that don't become hits (Zune, Sidekick,Kin,WinPhone 7) do you REALLY want to take the chance?
Mark my words by xmas these things will either be on woot! at $100 or less like the Touchpad or they'll end up in a landfill somewhere, Anything to do with WinRT seems to be destined to fail, hence why nearly all the OEMs canceled their WinRT offerings.

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Re:Price Adjustment by Billly+Gates · 2013-07-14 08:56 · Score: 4, Interesting

So the more intellectual question is what is next if the surface fails?
I do not know of any ARM rt devices out there. I heard a rumor about an Acer but have never seen it.
Will this mean Windows 9 will be part of the WIndows 7 lineage and not WIndows 8/Windows mobile? Or will MS try a surface 2 and keep blowing money into it like they did with Bing and xbox for over a half a decade before they broke even? (Does bing make money yet?)
Personally I kind of got excited when it came out as Apple has a monopoly on the tablet market since they banned Samsung and other droid tablets out of the market here in the US for using icons and rounded corners. I have seen 1 android tablet in my lifetime by someone and that is it as everyone loves their ipads. But the surface lacked even a GPU unit and no cell phone service WTF. How usefull is this POS if I can not even get a map and weather reports if I am on the road? Seriously.
The surface pro still doesn't have either making it just a laptop and not a tablet and no disk space

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Re:Price Adjustment by roc97007 · 2013-07-14 08:57 · Score: 5, Insightful

> the Surface had giant FAIL written all over it almost from the start
Well, the RT definitely did. I don't think it's clear yet whether the "Surface Pro" (or whatever they called it -- the one on Intel that actually runs Windows) is worthy of the FAIL sticker just yet.
It's important to keep the RT (WinCE warmed over) and the Pro separate. They're distinct products. Although, I wonder whether the RT is dragging the Pro down with it.

--
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
Re:Price Adjustment by ericloewe · 2013-07-14 09:21 · Score: 4, Interesting

I firmly believe that the Surface Pro has, at the very least, a decent niche with only two competitors: Samsung Ativ Smart PC/Smart PC Pro and Sony Vaio duo 11/13. The former has atrocious build quality (keyboard connector has one pin covered by plastic) and shows signs of being rushed to market (Even the official screen protector film is labeled inside-out). The latter is heavy, has an inferior digitizer (Wacom on Surface Pro/Samsungs vs. N-Trig) and in my experience, Sony does its best to sneak out of paying for warranty repairs. Additionally, both have questionable software at best (Horrible Samsung drivers, traditional Sony bloatware).
Re:Price Adjustment by RulerOf · 2013-07-14 09:50 · Score: 4, Insightful

I firmly believe that the Surface Pro has, at the very least, a decent niche with only two competitors
I'm typing this from a ThinkPad Helix, which I decided to purchase as I felt it offered me a little bit more of what I was looking for than the Surface Pro did. It's definitely got its faults, but it's worth pointing out that they're Lenovo's faults rather than anything to do with Windows.

It's the right product for me, but the thing holding it back is---of course---the price. Microsoft has a huge advantage with x86 being on their side, but unless they can get the platform down to a price that's competitive with other products in the same market, at the rate things are going that advantage provided by the platform itself will likely evaporate as other platforms' app catalogs close the gap and render the advantage of "being Wintel" completely moot.

That's not to say that we're not at least halfway there already. An iPad is a paradoxically capable device in a world that Microsoft has ruled for decades on compatibility and ubiquity alone, especially given the limitations of the hardware and form factor itself.

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Re:Price Adjustment by tnk1 · 2013-07-14 09:52 · Score: 4, Interesting

I have an android tablet. I like it just fine. Apple was not an impediment to me buying one.
I generally end up with iPhones, but that's mostly because work keeps giving me them, and I see no reason to buy an android phone simply because it isn't Apple. For a tablet, though, I prefer something I can play with (and root if need be) and not have to deal with Apple getting in my way.
The RT stuff was doomed from the get-go. MS was offering a product for a need that no one has, and they didn't provide anything better than the existing products in the market.
Re:Price Adjustment by mysidia · 2013-07-14 10:10 · Score: 4, Interesting

If the direction of the price change was the opposite; say a $150 price increase. Could they reasonably expect every buyer to come in and pay the difference?
Re:Price Adjustment by RulerOf · 2013-07-14 10:25 · Score: 4, Interesting

Sorry... the point I'm making is that the real competition for Microsoft is the tablet itself. Excellent attempts to shoehorn the Windows on Intel platform into the tablet form factor have been done, and some of them such as the Surface Pro and the ThinkPad Helix have done a really good job at it given the constraints of the technology itself---the bound of which is mostly the Intel chips themselves.

The fact that my Helix has an Intel chip in it is enough for me to want it as the device that fits my needs as a tablet---aided greatly by the fact that it actually IS a tablet. With the catalogs of apps available on iOS and Android being so comprehensive, the benefit of the Helix's or Surface's pedigree doesn't shine as bright as it would have even a year ago. That benefit of course is that I can run damn near anything on it if I need to, "Full Windows" included. If that benefit itself becomes wholly irrelevant by the time Windows becomes cost-competitive in the tablet platform, then its market in that platform will cease to exist.

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Boot Windows, Linux, and ESX over the network for free.
Re:Price Adjustment by Anonymous Coward · 2013-07-14 17:04 · Score: 4, Funny

> Will this mean Windows 9 will be part of the WIndows 7 lineage and not WIndows 8/Windows mobile?
We can only dream. Hey, if Intel could admit Pentium 4 was a horrible mistake, Microsoft can do the same with Metro.
One of my coworkers put it well... Microsoft has turned so many people so vehemently against Metro by virtue of fucking up Windows 8 in its name, if you forced him to choose between:
a) walking around the mall wearing a leather jockstrap and high heels, or
b) being seen at DefCon or BlackHat using a Surface tablet,
he'd sigh, put on the leather jockstrap, and try to not break his neck walking in heels... because he values his good name and reputation too much to be seen in public with something as scorned and taboo as a WindowsRT tablet.
Re:Price Adjustment by davester666 · 2013-07-14 18:28 · Score: 5, Funny

What are you saying you heretic!
Bill says that in order to do serious Enterprise work, you need a stylus, a keyboard and Microsoft Office. The Surface RT has all three [well, you need to spring for the keyboard and stylus, but oh, that satisfying 'click' when you attach the keyboard to the Surface]!
And Bill knows!

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Linux? by frisket · 2013-07-14 08:12 · Score: 4, Interesting

Can I install Linux on one of these? Android?

Re:Linux? by supersat · 2013-07-14 08:21 · Score: 5, Informative

No. The bootloader is locked down, and since there are code signing requirements for apps, you can't even run a VM.
Re:Linux? by sjames · 2013-07-14 09:20 · Score: 4, Informative

I have seen that done actually!
It seems that neither Ford nor Chevy go out of their way to make that any harder than it naturally is, unlike Microsoft.

Still overpriced by waddgodd · 2013-07-14 08:12 · Score: 5, Funny

It's a first-gen hardware product from Microsoft, they should have to pay you for the headaches you're inevitably going to have

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Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get you

Re:Still overpriced by roc97007 · 2013-07-14 08:59 · Score: 4, Insightful

Agree. The best thing for these devices is land fill. They have no purpose existing.
The hardware is interesting; it's the OS (Windows RT) that's sinking it. If we could figure out how to install something else, the device might get a new lease on life.

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Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.

They are in such demand by hsmith · 2013-07-14 08:12 · Score: 4, Insightful

That microsoft has to slash the price to fight off people wanting to buy them?

Is that the correct spin?

Lets face it. Microsoft has tried to push the "Convertible laptop / tablet" on the market since 2000 (even before maybe?) - and no one wants it. They simply cannot grasp that it isn't what the consumer (even enterprise wants). People want tablets to consume content, not create it.

Re:They are in such demand by supersat · 2013-07-14 08:25 · Score: 5, Informative

The only content you can create on the Surface are Office docs. And only personal content -- use of the included Office software for any organization (including non-profits) requires a separate, full Office license.
Re:They are in such demand by Dupple · 2013-07-14 08:34 · Score: 5, Insightful

While it's quite possible to 'create' and do 'useful work' on a tablet it certainly seems more geared towards consumption. What Microsoft hasn't understood is that people use their software because they have to at work.
Office is not compelling. IE is not compelling. This is Microsofts attempt to move their monopoly to a new computing sector. It won't work. People don't want to use their software.

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Watch those corners
Re:They are in such demand by Blaskowicz · 2013-07-14 08:49 · Score: 4, Funny

Well, I want coke to cost 1 euro per gram, also retail Windows 8 should cost 10 euros and Windows Server 2012 Datacenter would cost 80 euros at most (granting you a license to install on 15 physical machines).
That's not possible yet, so an option is to get drunk with red wine and use linux.
Re:They are in such demand by markdavis · 2013-07-14 09:50 · Score: 4, Insightful

>"This is Microsofts attempt to move their monopoly to a new computing sector. It won't work. People don't want to use their software."
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^THIS^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Microsoft simply does not understand that their "popularity" in the computing market is mostly due due to their proprietary lock-in, and not due to free market choice and preference.
I bet if they offered IDENTICAL hardware to all the Android and IOS tablets for an IDENTICAL price, they still would not be able to sell enough to matter.
Re:They are in such demand by AmiMoJo · 2013-07-14 10:26 · Score: 4, Insightful

Who else does a reasonable spec tablet with 128GB of storage for $300?
You should be comparing it to cheap laptops, not cheap tablets. That's basically what you want - a small laptop with touchscreen and detachable keyboard. Finding a reasonable quality one with 128GB of storage for $300 may again prove challenging.

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serious problem by phantomfive · 2013-07-14 08:16 · Score: 5, Insightful

I wonder what Microsoft will do for customers who purchased a tablet right before the price drop?"

Really, if those people joined together they might be able fill a Starbucks. Imagine if they started a protest against Microsoft, the damage they could do......

Microsoft will do the same thing they did when they came out with the Zune to help all those people who bought "Plays For Sure" music, nothing at all.

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"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."

What Microsoft will do about previous customers? by cold+fjord · 2013-07-14 08:18 · Score: 5, Insightful

Cash the check.

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much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell

Bad math by Dan+East · 2013-07-14 08:23 · Score: 5, Informative

the price of the 32-gig Surface RT plummeted by 42%

That's wrong - the price has been reduced by 30%. The new price of the 32 gig Surface is $349. The original price was $499 (the price of all models is being reduced by $150). You divide the discount by the original price, not the new reduced price, to find the percentage reduction. 150/499=30% (150/349 is indeed 42%, but that is meaningless in this case)

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Re:Is it possible to run Linux on these? by phantomfive · 2013-07-14 08:23 · Score: 4, Informative

After the price cut, it still costs $349 for the cheapest model. Might as well get a ipad mini, or Galaxy Tab if you want Linux.

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"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."

Cough.. HP Touchpad Cough... by maudface · 2013-07-14 08:24 · Score: 5, Insightful

This remind people of anything much?

Entirely unsurprising, good riddance.

Better idea - inform the consumer by Picass0 · 2013-07-14 08:25 · Score: 5, Insightful

Right now MS adverts for the surface are nothing more than hipster dipshits dancing on a boardroom table and spining the Surface around. There is nothing infomative, nothing to tell the consumer why they might consider purchasing this vs. an Ipad or a decent Android tablet.

MS can't act like Apple. People already know why they might like to have an iPad. They either own one or have a fiend who does. Surface doesn't have familiarity to fall back on. It looks like an overgrown Zune and unless MS tells people otherwise they will assume it's just an "also ran" in the tablet race.

Slashing prices it nice but it reaks of desperation. I might be tempted to think they are dumping existing inventory prior to dropping the product line.

Re:Better idea - inform the consumer by jfruh · 2013-07-14 08:53 · Score: 5, Insightful

Right now MS adverts for the surface are nothing more than hipster dipshits dancing on a boardroom table and spining the Surface around ... MS can't act like Apple.
iPad and iPhone ads are actually pretty good about showing you in succinct ways what you can do with the product. They're usually made up of quick, targeted clips of apps in use. It's kind of flabbergasted me that Microsoft hasn't done the same thing with their TV ads, especially when it comes to Office. It's almost as if their marketing dept. came to the conclusion that "We have to fight Apple on their own terms" without actually sitting down to watch how Apple markets its products.

How about a free brown Zune? by dottrap · 2013-07-14 09:28 · Score: 5, Funny

"I wonder what Microsoft will do for customers who purchased a tablet right before the price drop?"

Microsoft has great products they can use to compensate those early adopters.

How about a brown Zune?
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zune#Sales)

Or maybe a WebTV?
(http://slashdot.org/story/13/07/07/1224244/microsoft-says-goodbye-to-webtvmsn-tv)

Well Zune Pass has got to work (ForSure)!

Microsoft wants to be Apple by readingaccount · 2013-07-14 13:06 · Score: 5, Insightful

Microsoft desperately wants to be Apple, that much should be obvious by now. With all the dancing hipster ads for Surface trying to appear cool and in touch, it just... doesn't... work.

Microsoft still has something of a business/corporate reputation. They make operating systems to run Office on, to perform spreadsheet work, boring but necessary work. That's their image. Apple deliberately target non-business customers in the vast majority of their products and marketing - they have for a while now and that is THEIR image. Microsoft can't just try to perform a 180 and appear like Apple - that's like a 50 year old Steve Buscemi trying to act hip to young people by saying "How do you do, fellow kids?" It's comedic when done by an actor - but embarrassing when done by a corporation.

They say a business must grow or die. Microsoft have reached the limits of desktop operating systems - they've owned their sector for so long that they can't grow in it. That's fine, go for it. But emulating Apple when there already IS an Apple is not a strategy for a leader to take.

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Microsoft Slashes Prices On Surface

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