Surface Pro price reduction made permanent + more

[GoodBytes]

Earlier, Microsoft made for a limited time a price reduction of 100$ for the Surface Pro.

Today is the last day, but now Microsoft decided to keep the price reduction, essentially turning it into a price cut.

Moreover, Microsoft will cut the price of the following, permanently as well:

 

• Touch Cover will now be: $79.99 (from $119.99)
• Limited Edition Touch Cover will be $89.99 (from $129.99)
• Surface RT with Touch Cover bundle, set to $399.99 for 32GB, (basically: all bundles get $50 reduction)
• Surface Pro now starts at $799.99 for 64GB, all models get $100 reductions

Source: http://www.theverge.com/2013/8/29/4673740/microsoft-cuts-surface-pro-and-touch-cover-prices

 

The student promotion where students get an addition 10% off on the Surface and Surface Pro still takes effect

 

The price cut on the tablet was inevitable. The Surface 2 and Pro 2 is just around the corner. Nothing new here.

 

What is nice, however, is the price reduction on the accessories. Hopefully these prices will remain the same with the Surface 2 and Pro 2 when they come out.

 

It is expected that the Surface 2 feature either a Tegra 4 or Qualcomm Snapdragon 800. Both of witch are significantly faster than the age old Tegra 3, which was already old when the Surface came out.

 

And the Surface Pro 2, will have Haswell CPU, which should solve the battery limitation of the current Surface Pro. The Surface Pro has 4 to 4.5h battery life, It is expected that with Haswell CPU, it might have 7h of battery (being safe here), and also a battery in keyboard is also expected.

[beebskadoo]

It was sincerely too expensive to begin with. Do I think this will save it? No, it was a good concept (in some ways) but the execution was poor and not thought out. Much like all of the Microsoft releases from this+last year. IE10 Xbox One, Windows 8, WP 8, Surface RT/PRO, the death of TechNet subscriptions and so on. They are making all of the wrong decisions at the wrong time thus killing themselves, and they try to patch up their holes but nothing seems to work. Even though Ballmer is supposed to retire, they removed the draconian DRM from XboxOne, they lowered the price on the Surface RT/Pro, are launching aggressive campaigns for Windows Phone, Added a 'Start button' to Windows 8.1, It's still not enough because their customers got smart and decided to take their money elsewhere. Farewell Microsoft, it was nice while it lasted (not really)

[GoodBytes]

The Surface Pro was not too expensive. It's cheaper than the MacBook Air, and has a digitize screen.

The device is very high quality as well. The Surface RT is also cheaper than the iPad, and has more features (USB, HDMI).

 

I have not seen a single ad anywhere on Windows Phone... so what "aggressive campaigns"?

What's wrong with IE10? It's miles better than IE9, and IE11 continues to be better. It's no miracle, but it's coming along from IE6 days. Today, if you check out reviews, IE10 is a decent web browser. It's fairly basic, but decent.

 

Windows 8 had the Start Button, but beta testers said that it should be removed... so it was.

Microsoft mistake with Win8, was to listen to tech oriented people, and ignore the average consumer. But in any case, this was not the reason why Windows 8 didn't catch on.

Customers are smart and always smart, it's computer enthusiasts that treat them like morons.

 

The rest I agree. But people got fired or left/retire, and things are moving already. Hopefully for the best.

[beebskadoo]

Surface RT: Buggy, and no proper app support in the beginning. Surface PRO, Not enough storage, poor battery life, over 1100 dollars at launch...yeah cheaper than the Air but that's Apple's thing and people will buy it, plus the trackpads are nice. The build quality is nice on the Pro but the use case isn't there for me or anyone else and the sales stats show that the Pro/RT aren't selling. Correction, Nokia is launching the WP8 ads, but they are partnered with Microsoft so...

I have had nothing but headaches over IE 10, (this may be personal bias.) Most users are using chrome/firefox and the customers are smart, that's why they install chrome/firefox instead of using IE. The fact that Microsoft didn't implement the Start button is their fault not the beta testers. The way Windows 8 handles metro/classic UI switching is annoying and obtrusive (once again MS's fault) Also it's Microsoft's fault that in 8.1 the start button takes you to the modern UI rather than the classic start menu.

Yes the customers are smart, that is why no one is buying Surface/RT, that's why no one likes W8, that's why no one uses IE anymore, that's why the XboxOne had such a backlash. 

I hope the best for Microsoft, but they are making all of the wrong decisions.

[GoodBytes]

Surface RT: Buggy, and no proper app support in the beginning.

Yes. Companies have a magic wand stick that will make million of apps appear.

Surface RT wasn't buggy. Its using the same code of Windows 8, which is based on Windows 7.

The issue that the Surface RT had, is that if you push it like a PC in terms of multitasking, performance was quite lacking, due to the old Tegra 3 chip.

Surface PRO, Not enough storage, poor battery life, over 1100 dollars at launch...yeah cheaper than the Air but that's Apple's thing and people will buy it, plus the trackpads are nice.

Plenty of Space. my laptop SSD is 128GB, and my 256GB SSD on my desktop is barely used. I could have acquired 128GB SSD for it.

Poor battery life? Hardly. Most laptops cant' even get 3h, when if you start disabling stuff like WiFi. It's not great battery life. 7h+ hours would have been nice, but poor, no.

Apple trackpad is good, not because it's nice, but because the OS is fully embedded and configured with it. Something that Microsoft is finally getting with, with Windows 8. Well it's more that Microsoft wanted/expected OEMs to do... but we see how things turn up, and world where OEMs have given up.

The build quality is nice on the Pro but the use case isn't there for me or anyone else and the sales stats show that the Pro/RT aren't selling.

Yes, because all you do is watch video, surf the web, and play games, That what the Surface RT is aimed for, but you want to buy a device over your needs. The Surface Pro is designed for people do work. Hence the digitize pen and high resolution screen.

Correction, Nokia is launching the WP8 ads, but they are partnered with Microsoft so...

Never saw one.

I have had nothing but headaches over IE 10, (this may be personal bias.) Most users are using chrome/firefox and the customers are smart, that's why they install chrome/firefox instead of using IE.

Well, what can I tell you, you don't know how to use IE10. But beside that, market share shows that IE is the most used web browser.

The fact that Microsoft didn't implement the Start button is their fault not the beta testers. The way Windows 8 handles metro/classic UI switching is annoying and obtrusive (once again MS's fault). Also it's Microsoft's fault that in 8.1 the start button takes you to the modern UI rather than the classic start menu.

You sound exactly like the people that complained about: ahem:

-> Windows 95 introduction of the Start Menu

-> Windows XP Start Menu

-> Vista "new" Start Menu (even though it's the one from XP, with a search bar added to it)

-> Windows 7 new task bar... remember OEMs and people installing alternative programs, because the "Win7 task bar was identical/replica of MacOS"... oh the fun we had.

-> Windows Vista Aero's... oh look, people complain on how they missed it in Windows 8.

Face it, there is a lot of computer enthusiast around here, that don't like change. The average consumer don't mind, and wants it in fact, but the bad crap being said by computer enthusiast on it, instead of letting a person build their own opinion it, is what hurts sales. And the fact, and the big factor, that people do everything on their phone and tablet now, so they don't care about buying a new desktop or laptop.

Yes the customers are smart, that is why no one is buying Surface/RT, that's why no one likes W8, that's why no one uses IE anymore, that's why the XboxOne had such a backlash. 

I hope the best for Microsoft, but they are making all of the wrong decisions.

- XBox One pre-orders are strong

- YOU don't like Windows 8. I do, and so many threads on this forum, indicate that many people likes Windows 8. The general consensus, is that at first they didn't like it, then they learned it, and now prefer ti over Windows 7. People that don't like it, is because some legacy game(s) that they love to continue stop working, or some hardware they have don't have Win8 drivers, and Win7 drivers don't work.

- Again, market shares shows that IE is the most used web browser. You are probably confusing with stats including phone and tablets, where it's normal that Chrome wins, as Android is the predominant device. Beside, anyone would know that Chrome is an unfinished web browser, that monitors and collect all your personal information and what you visit, build a profile on you, and target ads on you, and possibly (as it's not stated in the license agreement) sale that information. But it's Google, so it's all good right? a perfect example of the power of image.

Anyway, since Windows 95, Microsoft has been doing wrong decisions. Funny how things works out.

[beebskadoo]

My issue with RT is that it was laggy and not optimized at all. Well I don't know where you live but I have seen plenty of ads and I don't even watch that much tv. I never complained about any of those things. yeah I don't like windows 8 and neither do A LOT of general every day consumers. But actually I do like windows 8. After disabling metro and getting a start menu back. I tried it, for months but I couldn't stand the charms menu popping in my face randomly when using the track pad or mousing toward the escape button on a page. I do content creation i.e video editing and I have to tell you, that apps opening in 'modern ui' whilst on the desk top is jarring and frustrating. You mention google farming data on users, well Microsoft does it with bing/nsa/XboxOne so call the kettle black. I use chrome for everyday stuff and also firefox for some things. Yes XboxOne preorders are strong, but it doesn't mean they did a great job at pitching the product to consumers or they didn't make horrendous mistakes. 

I consider myself a bit of an enthusiast but I still have to deal with common computing issues+ my family goes to me when they have problems

 

not much time to type this. so there ya go

[MzCatieB]

its good... but does it have a removable motherboard tray?

[GoodBytes]

It does. The hole unit is on a tray even.

[Cypher32]

This is awesome, the only competition that Apple has for tablets right now is the ipad mini and the nexus 7, hopefully Microsoft can compete with the normal ipad once more apps start rolling in. Also why does everyone hate on Xbox One, its essentially the same as PS4 (now) except has a SIGNIFICANTLY better os. Yes I'm a gamer but watching tv is cool too.