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A Radical Plan For Saving Microsoft's Surface RT
Nerval's Lobster writes "Last week, Microsoft announced that it would take a $900 million write-off on its Surface RT tablets. Although launched with high hopes in the fall of 2012, the sleek devices—which run Windows RT, a version of Windows 8 designed for hardware powered by the mobile-friendly ARM architecture—have suffered from middling sales and fading buzz. But if Microsoft decides to continue with Surface, there's one surefire way to restart its (metaphorical) heart: make it the ultimate bargain. The company's already halfway there, having knocked $150 off the sticker price, but that's not enough. Imagine Microsoft pricing the Surface at a mere pittance, say $50 or $75 — even in this era of cheaper tablets, the devices would fly off the shelves so fast, the sales rate would make the iPad look like the Zune. There's a historical precedent for such a maneuver. In 2011, Hewlett-Packard decided to terminate its TouchPad tablet after a few weeks of poor sales. In a bid to clear its inventory, the company dropped the TouchPad's starting price to $99, which sent people rushing into stores in a way they hadn't when the device was priced at $499. Demand for the suddenly ultra-cheap tablet reached the point that HP needed weeks to fulfill backorders. (Despite that sales spike, HP decided to kill the TouchPad; the margins on $99 obviously didn't work out to everyone's satisfaction.) In the wake of Microsoft announcing that it would take that $900 million write-down on Surface RT, reports surfaced that the company could have as many as six million units sitting around, gathering dust. Whether that figure is accurate—it seems more based on back-of-napkin calculations than anything else—it's almost certainly the case that Microsoft has a lot of unsold Surface RTs in a bunch of warehouses all around the world. Why not clear them out by knocking a couple hundred dollars off the price? It's not as if they're going anywhere, anyway."
I believe E.T.: The Video Game provides a better example for what Microsoft should do with its surplus Surfaces.
Everything is better with chainsaws.
Illegal, no?
well, dumping what you have is not illegal.
the 900 mil writeoff may well be taking it into account that they would get rid of the stock at price of 150... or whatever.
however here is the point..
"(Despite that sales spike, HP decided to kill the TouchPad; the margins on $99 obviously didn't work out to everyone's satisfaction.)" who the fuck cares if it flies off the shelf for a very limited amount of time? stupid article is stupid and even knows it. make a buttload of loss on every device and make up for it in scale of your inventory..
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
in the hands of resellers who will promptly put them on eBay and Craigslist for $199-$250
isn't that what happened with the majority of the TouchPads that went for $99?
I like microcars
Dumping generally refers to a foreign company
'In economics, "dumping" is a kind of predatory pricing, especially in the context of international trade.'
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dumping_(pricing_policy)
Good-bye
That bootloader is locked and won't allow you to disable UEFI Secure Boot or change the keys on it, so Surface RT (the hardware) is still dead to me.
I went to eat some animal crackers and the box said, "Do not eat if seal is broken." I opened the box and sure enough..
HP's approach was monumentally stupid. WebOS was a really nice system (I still prefer the UI on my TouchPad to my TransformerPad Infinity StupidName), but it lacked developers. They were giving them away to developers at the end (which is how I got mine), but then they killed the platform so there was no incentive to write a single line of code for it. I ported Objective-C to work on it, but then gave up on the platform when it became clear that the TouchPad was the last device ever to use it.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
Excuse me... pay attention.
Windows RT. No UEFI key available to the user. No alternative boot. No way to even develop your own non-Metro application.
It renders the Surface RT table a glorified rock... unless you happen to want to run software from Microsof't's app store. Even then... $100 may be overpriced.
Imagine Microsoft pricing the Surface at a mere pittance, say $50 or $75 â" even in this era of cheaper tablets, the devices would fly off the shelves so fast, the sales rate would make the iPad look like the Zune.
1) And then Apple could sell theirs for $1! :-|
2) MS would be taking a HUGE loss on them. They make OK money at $500. $400 might be break even. I'm pretty sure they don't want to lose $300 or more on each sale. That would lead to...
- raising the price 5-10x on the next release to return to profitability -- which no one would like if they were used to them being so cheap.
- leave them cheap forever, lose money forever.
There's a historical precedent for such a maneuver.
Yeah, it's called a "fire sale", and it's a final grasp at a few bucks, not part of a long-term strategy.
In 2011, Hewlett-Packard decided to terminate its TouchPad tablet after a few weeks of poor sales. In a bid to clear its inventory, the company dropped the TouchPad's starting price to $99, which sent people rushing into stores in a way they hadn't when the device was priced at $499.
Because they were retarded. They could have dropped to $349 and made a LOT more money and still sold every one, but in a much calmer fashion. Believe it or not, there is a sweet spot between "Sell none at $499" and "Sell thousands in hours at $99." It's called "supply and demand" and it's covered in the first 5 minutes of your first economics class.
Despite that sales spike, HP decided to kill the TouchPad...
No, the decision was already made. They decided to leave it dead because a) the CEO that day wanted out of that business and b) there was at least ONE person in the company who realized the million-percent spike in demand was due to the crazy price.
... the margins on $99 obviously didn't work out to everyone's satisfaction.
NO FUCKING SHIT. But that would be totally different with the Surface because... um...
Why not clear them out by knocking a couple hundred dollars off the price? It's not as if they're going anywhere, anyway.
Sure. We might see that. Though MS would want to save more face than HP would -- HP was leaving the business, period, whereas MS still a) sells the OS and b) needs for their to be hardware for that OS to run it on. Whether that hardware is made my MS or someone else, Windows can't be seen as a daed-end brand, like WebOS.
I'm guessing they'll either do incremental lowerings to clear out stock, or one good (but not ridiculous) price drop, like maybe $349. Possible $329 to directly compete on price with the smaller iPad mini. A lot depends on if MS is going to release another Surface RT. If so, it will be a small lowering, a typical "hey, last year's model is cheaper now." If not, it'll drop a bit more to clear them out in a reasonable time, but don't expect HP-like prices.
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
SecureBoot is no big deal, at least I haven't had too many problems with it. I'm running Linux right now on a 13" Pro Retina, and UEFI wasn't too much of an issue.
Apple laptops don't use secure boot. EFI does not imply secure boot.
Oh get real. What are the odds of finding a security exploit in the Windows kernel?
They just assume that they could steam roller the world into liking a product that no one wants. They were told repeatedly during the beta cycle that metro was problematic at best. MS refused to listen because they to have the damn tiles. MS forget that they are no longer in the same space as apple and Google. Not only was it totally unacceptable to Businesses who are their primary clients and purchasers but to the general public. the people who like it are those who would have liked it regardless and are so small in number that its not economically feasable to do so as we all saw.
As for dumping a built unsold product that they have already taken a write off for, any more is better than no money. Sell for $99 would hurt but people would buy them. Unfortunate RTs are a locked ecosystem so they would be still half useless.
Microsoft needs to accept the fact that their code is way to large now but they can't change it either. The windows 7 style is the only way it will sell. (actually had they flips it. Had default to the desktop, turned Metro into a new start bar and allowed the live tiles to be a choice, it would have flown off the shelf. IT is very stavble and has a host of good updates. Its just Metro is in the way. Since surface RT is all metro, that is the cheif problem.
That will only dignify ARM Restricted Boot. There's no reason to let Microsoft (or Apple and friends) allow some architectures to be useful and others to be outright sealed to their hardware; this will just embolden them to make all PCs jailbreak-required. Best to just not purchase RT, and wait for a real ARM alternative.
Also, Ubuntu. So there's 2 reasons I can't support. Sorry.
You can hold down the "B" button for continuous firing.