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Microsoft Cuts Surface Pro Price By $100
SmartAboutThings writes "After discounting the Surface RT tablet worldwide by 30 percent, Microsoft is now cutting the price of its Surface Pro tablet by one hundred dollars. Steve Ballmer himself has recently declared that he was unhappy with the number of tablets Microsoft has managed to sell. The price cut offer is valid between August 4th and August 29th. It might continue or stop, according to the supply. The price cut is applicable to Surface Pro 64 GB & 128 GB models."
Sorry but that's not enough- not nearly enough.
Perhaps if they were between $350 and $550?
Otherwise, I can have a 10" tablet for $300 (or much less) or I can have a laptop for $450 (or much less).
The touch is okay but the price point isn't right.
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
At that price, the Surface Pro is more or less even with the Wacom stylus-input displays (of similar size, larger ones are substantially more expensive) that don't have a computer attached to them...
Unless the pen input is totally gimped, this seems like it would be a serious competitor to those for everyone except people whose photoshopping is serious enough that the Surface's specs can't handle it. Especially if your demands are at all mobile, it's hard to justify buying the Wacom when you could get the screen and stylus input with the laptop thrown in for free. It's a pity that the Surface can't act as a monitor/input device (optionally, while charging at your desk, for example, it could go from a waste of space to an extra monitor) for more powerful computers.
The Surface Pro is actually a really nice device. But at it's price point why would you get it over similar devices that have the haswell chips in them or the devices from Lenovo/Asus/Acer/Sony which each have differing advantages ranging from lighter, longer battery life, better screens or more powerful. I like the device but if you want a windows device their are better value/performance options.
Not interested. Won't buy it. No use for it. Wouldn't take one as a door prize if was bacon wrapped, dipped in milk chocolate and came with a free weekend on Martha's Vineyard with Warren Buffet's Gold Card. I'm confident that even if they were pulled back and sent to the crusher, the crusher wouldn't want them either. Ballmer isn't going to learn until losses like this start coming out of his lily white hide. Let the lesson begin...
Quick question:
I have a pile of bricks for sale. You're building a wood house. If I cut the price of the pile of bricks, does that make you more interested in buying them?
Of course not; You still have no use for a pile of bricks.
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
Little third-party developer support? You must live in some fantasy world where Windows 95-Windows 8 never existed. A tablet that runs every 32-bit (and 64-bit) application ever written for the world's most popular OS since the mid-90's does not have "little third party developer support".
Much ink has been spilled about the failure of the unloved RT model...One that other than it being severely crippled with Secure Boot was ARM, something I liked a lot...the pro has a fan! I don't see what is compelling about another Windows 8 Ultrabook (Pen input aside...that is great)
What we do know is that the $900m writedown was related to Surface RT only, but the $853m revenue figure includes sales of Surface RT and Surface Pro combined. Microsoft upped its sales and marketing budget for the Windows Division in 2013 by a jaw-dropping $1bn, which included an $898m increase in advertising costs "associated primarily with Windows 8 and Surface.
Seriously you are saying windows X86/X64 has little third party support? seriously?? like it or hate it, it is perhaps the single most supported platform by third parties on the planet.
Steve Ballmer himself has recently declared that he was unhappy with the number of tablets Microsoft has managed to sell.
Can someone please pass the message on to Steve Ballmer that being unhappy isn't a strategy for business growth?
Where do you expect this Windows 8 and Surface fiasco will ultimately take Microsoft? What will happen?
Windows 9 will be 'The best Windows ever! Now with NEW mouse and Start Menu support!'
Little third-party developer support? You must live in some fantasy world where Windows 95-Windows 8 never existed.
You've clearly never used one if you think that Windows software is mostly practical on a tablet. If it was then there wouldn't have been any need to develop Metro. Of course, you can use it as a half-assed laptop, but an actual laptop would be cheaper and better so why bother?
Congratulations, you've won the bronze in the "Miss the fucking point completely" competition!
Hint: most desktop apps from "most supported platform on the planet" are mostly useless when running on small touchscreen. There's a reason tablet computers didn't really catch on until iOS - and not for the lack of tablets with "most supported platform on the planet". There was even Windows XP Tablet Edition, which still didn't help a bit.
Yes. Turn off Secure Boot in the UEFI firmware menu (accessed through Advanced Startup), then boot off the USB Linux boot device of your choice. I expect a modern distribution of Linux will have drivers for most of the hardware inside the Pro. Alternatively, run it in Hyper-V (or VMware, or VirtualBox, or the hypervisor of your choice), since it's an x86 Windows 8 device with hardware virtualization support.
Only the RT has the "permanently locked" Secure Boot setting. The Pro is a full-fledged i5 device that can run Linux just fine.
The Freelance Wizard
Vista was legitimately bad in most regards. The UI was the one "redeeming" aspect; everything else was half baked.
8 is the reverse. The UI blows, the core is good. All problems MS is having with 8 are self-inflicted.
If they hadn't arrogantly locked the ARM-based devices into Win8 ONLY with UEFI/SecureBoot, there might have been a market for them among people that would have bought them, wiped them, and put something else on them.
I'm sure the dev community would have come up with an Android load for them, and I'm sure Linux hackers would have had fun with them too.
Instead, they will follow the fate of the Zune, and MS are stuck holding millions of near-worthless paperweights.
Good for them.
There is an entire world of people who still don't understand that Surface Pro is radically different than RT.
And the reason for that is misleading marketing... MS are so obsessed with the idea of forcing the windows brand everywhere that they are blind to the fact that this brand is poisonous on mobile devices. Windows is not a desirable brand, its something people put up with because they have no other choice in many cases, it's highly detrimental in a market where users realise they do have choice.
The only thing it has going for it is compatibility, and yet they dilute the brand with incompatible products, which again turns customers away.
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