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Microsoft Wants You To Trade Your MacBook Air In For a Surface Pro 3
mpicpp writes with news about a new Microsoft trade-in program to encourage sales of the new Surface Pro 3. Microsoft is offering a limited time Surface Pro 3 promotion via which users can get up to $650 in store credit for trading in certain Apple MacBook Air models. The new promotion, running June 20 to July 31, 2014 -- "or while supplies last" -- requires users to bring MacBook Airs into select Microsoft retail stores in the U.S., Puerto Rico and Canada. (The trade-in isn't valid online.)...To get the maximum ($650) value, users have to apply the store credit toward the purchase of a Surface Pro 3, the most recent model of the company's Intel-based Surface tablets.
The MBA and MBP are both fine machines. My wife get's a computer that works most of the time. I get a computer with a bash shell on which I can do my thing. Neither have shown any tendency to falls apart, unlike every Asus, Lenovo, Toshiba and HP we've had.
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
Er really?
Maybe visit a sysadmin or software dev conference. Macbook Air's are pretty common and for a good reason.
Calm your nerd rage down a bit.
In 'good' condition... they're worth more than that on Craigslist...
What this tells me is that Microsoft has given up trying to promote the Surface as a tablet. It's a laptop that happens to have a detachable keyboard. Note that they didn't even try to offer a trade-in of ipads for the surface, which would be a more reasonable comparison if the surface was successful as a tablet. The ipad is a different use case, and Microsoft just doesn't play well in that space.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
They'll do anything to pick them up cheaply, even trade some unwanted Surface 3's for some!
Jokes aside (and please don't mod for flamebait, it's sarcasm above, downmod for a bad joke if anything) ...
I don't think will go much. You're assuming that someone values their $1000+ dollar MacBook Air at $650 and values the Surface at something worth the discount. Considering the amount of work you'd have to do to migrate (either Windows to Mac, or Mac to Windows) you have to think about 200-300 realistically for swapping costs. Makes good headlines (as we see here) but won't help much.
To get one of the trade in Mac Book Air (s) ??
I am sure ebay is full of cheap damaged Macbooks which power on and don't have screen cracks or water damage. Buy for less than $650, resell Surface, profit!
"While supplies last." That's the funniest thing I've heard all day.
Any insufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology.
Man. What idiot marketing shill came up with that harebrained scheme? Talk about corporate desperation. So we'll trade in a perfectly good MBA for half what it's worth in credit toward a glorified tablet that M$ can't seem to give away? (yes, I know that's last year's news but no reason to believe anything will change with version 3 IMHO). No thanks. I'm not really a huge fan of the MBA either, but this is ridiculous.
Deja Moo: The distinct feeling that you've heard this bull before.
If anyone did take them up on the offer I'd be amazed.
I will take one of those used Airs off their hands.
Well, that means there will be one left.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
It's more brilliant than you think—now the Microsoft employees who came up with this idea can get MacBooks without getting their boss's signature! In theory, anyway.
Bio questions? Ask me to start a Q&A journal. Computer analogies available for most topics!
If Microsoft wants any uptake on these promotions it needs to find religion and begin praying for a miracle, because the group of people you can almost guarantee are the least likely to switch to Microsoft products are Apple owners.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
I'll give you $5 for your $20 bill!
I think I'm going to like this new MS CEO...
Microsoft is desperate.
How can you tell?
Let's reverse this...can you imagine if Apple gave a similar $$ discount on Macbook Air & iPads in trade for a Microsoft Surface?
bummed out x-mas gift recipients would line up around the corner!
Thank you Dave Raggett
Seriously. I love the MacBook Air I got a couple of years ago. The thing works very well, and even runs the occasional VMWare Fusion image of Windows 7 I need to run occasionally off of a portable thunderbolt drive. On a whim I got one of the earlier Surface tablets when the wife and I were in Vegas and they had a Kiosk where they were practically giving them away - but for the life of me still cannot use it for anything truly productive.
Trade in a MacBook Air for a surface?! Sorry Microsoft. You've been a day late and a dollar short ever since Ballmer pissed on the idea of tablets and smartphones and Apple smoked you and ate you for breakfast. Apple would have to skullf**k a small, disabled child onstage during their next keynote to even _think_ of falling behind enough for you to catch up to relevancy.
Microsoft - As long as I can virtualize your OS, take a snapshot and rollback when your OS takes a dive and run it all on a machine that, you know, _works_ I won't buy another piece of hardware branded by you. Ever.
And as another poster mentioned, "While supplies last." Really? Wow, even with Steve "Developers Developers Developers" Ballmer gone, you _still_ have a great sense of humor.
Never have a philosophy which supports a lack of courage
It's an expensive piece of hardware whose performance doesn't justify the cost and whose size makes it a terrible fucking tablet. I could buy a Nexus 7 and a tolerable decent notebook for less than a Surface 3 and have the best of both worlds.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
Wow, it seems even Microsoft would rather have Apple's product than their own.
I am literally 3000 tokens away from the chaotic crossbow --Stephen
Here recently I run by the store on the way home to pick up some milk. Was in a rush and left my Surface Pro on the front seat, in plain view.
When I came out, I discovered someone had broken into my car and left three more Surface Pro's :(
Microsoft wants Apple users to trade their laptops for Microsoft tablets. How thick are they?
Next up: Microsoft wants you to trade your Playstation 4 in for an Xbox One and only offers you a 200$ rebate for for it, too.
Get free satoshi (Bitcoin) and Dogecoins
Surface Pros can do things that no other tablet can. Your jealousy is showing.
That's nice and all, but your lack of useful and relevant examples is rather glaring.
I don't think anyone here is denying that the Surface line is trying to do something that's quite a bit different from what other tablets are doing. They're definitely targeting a different set of use cases than what the iPad, Fire, or Galaxy Tab lines are hitting, and I have no doubt that the Surface Pro can do stuff no other tablet can. But the important question isn't, "Does it do stuff no one else can?" The important question to ask is, "Are the things it can do of interest to people and executed well?" And based on sales numbers, professional reviews, and numerous firsthand accounts both here and elsewhere, the answer is a resounding, "No".
Really, when you get down to it, the Surface line is simply a fresh iteration of the same strategy Microsoft has been employing in the tablet space since the early 2000s: put Windows everywhere so that users can have the power of a "PC" in their hand. The only thing that's changed is the execution, and you don't need to look long and hard at Windows 8 reviews to know that they botched that as well. The strategy may actually work for them if it is executed properly, but the fact that the market stayed nascent for ten years until a competitor introduced a device employing an alternative strategy indicates that they didn't get it right then, and the fact that the Surface line hasn't seen any real uptake should be good indications that either the strategy is a losing one or else that they have yet to execute properly on it.
TL;DR: Just because a device can do stuff other devices can't doesn't mean it's a good idea. We don't want compact cars with truck beds, wedding cakes from Burger King, or tight-fitting exercise shorts made of designer denim. In trying to be both a tablet and laptop, the Surface ended up being good at neither.
Hold up: you're missing an important distinction.
The MacBook Air isn't just a laptop. It is a laptop. That's all it is, and it's a darn good laptop. It does laptop things really well.
By not just being a tablet, the Surface has failed to be good at being anything at all. If you pit it against laptops, it's under-specced for the price. For that sort of money, you can do a lot better elsewhere. And if you pit it against tablets, it's lacking apps and overpriced. It's in a weird space between the two that no one is interested in. I commend them for trying something different than everyone else and trying to carve out a unique niche (really, I do!), but I don't see how this particular execution of their strategy can be painted as anything other than an extended failure that has yet to turn the corner. I honestly hope it will, but it has yet to do so.
Gosh, why not? I can see someone looking at their MBA saying, "It works perfectly, has a great OS, awesome battery life, and does everything I could ask for and does it fast. I need to dump this for a barely functional device with an actively antagonistic OS sold by a company unable to secure a wet paper bag or make software that works acceptably. All this for far less battery life and far more money. I wish I had 2 MBAs to trade in!",
Back to the real world....
Did I mention that the day after the S3's release I was at a press event on a bus full of journalists. Anand has his S3 and in less than 24 hours it broke. The entire bus full of tech journos all concluded it was better that way.
That said, some people do like it. Microsoft traded in an absolute monopoly lock on the desktop to cater to 10% of their base. Clever that MS management, clever.
-Charlie
I stand outside the MS store with a sign: "I'll pay $660 for the first working 2012 or later MBA 13 4/256" They get their cash, I get a very nice MBA for a song, and if the Surface3 is all that they'll still head into the store and buy it. MS store managers can't legally use a taser, right?
"Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
Hey, every newspaper has its funnies section, why shouldn't /.?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Heh. And for folks who have a Microsoft store nearby, stop in and ask if they have any used MBAs for sale ;)
Think of it as trading your new hope for a phantom menace.
...Ford is offering a rebate on a new Fiesta (with power locks and windows!) for anybody willing to trade in their Tesla Model S.
Apple commercials show people doing actual useful things with their gear. MS commercials show people magically dancing through time and space with their gear.
"Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."