Microsoft Forced to Slash Surface RT Prices Despite Vigorous Anti-iPad Ad Campaign

[Renzatic]

This is exactly how I felt when messed with it. It's a really nice looking gadget though but it just fails totally, I really don't see this around in the next couple years. I can get a better experience out of just about everything else.

To me, it's an artist ultrabook first and foremost. The digitizer on the Pro is exactly the same as what you'd get on a Wacom Cintiq, but it's a self contained computer that sports a higher resolution IPS screen. And even more damning for Wacom, it's the exact same price.

The Surface Pro isn't a mom 'n pop machine meant to sell in the hundreds of millions. It's very much a niche computer. If it weren't for the fact that the battery life on the thing is only one step above being flat out godawful, I would've bought one by now.

 

[blackhand1001]

There are much better windows tablets than the surface rt at that price point. The atom z2760 tabs are a much better deal and come with real laptop docks with additional batteries and last about 15-18 hours when docked and 10 when not docked. My friend picked up an hp envy x2 from staples for 500. Came with the tablet and the dock, great aluminum build, great screen, and full blown windows 8. Better performance than the tegra 3 as well. I honestly don't even know why windows rt exists. I gotta give Microsoft real props for IE10 as well. It performs amazingly on the atom. Butter smooth and no lag.

Regarding my friends HP Envy X2:
The synaptics touchpad on it is excellent, every bit as good as the apple trackpads. Synaptics is great about driver support as well. Even 10 year old synaptics touchpads (possibly even older) can install the latest drivers and get the latest features and improved scrolling.

As far as the surface rt and surface pro, I don't know why Microsoft chose to go the flimsy cover root with no battery. The hybrid laptop/tablet machines are vastly superior in my experience and when docked you honestly wouldn't even notice that its not a regular laptop. A surface pro with a real lapdock would be incredible. The surface pro also should have come with the 128gb standard for the price.

 

[RenoG]

The Surface Pro isn't a mom 'n pop machine meant to sell in the hundreds of millions. It's very much a niche computer. If it weren't for the fact that the battery life on the thing is only one step above being flat out godawful, I would've bought one by now.

And this is too bad because I really wanted to like this thing for real, I was totally disappointed as I love the concept.

 

[Toltepeceno]

Tinkering with the pro today for a couple of hours. Just made me want to use a laptop.

I had not thought about it way, but I could see that happening. I want to believe windows on a tablet would be great, but I don't care for touch laptop's so I would probably get tired of it quickly. Using a keyboard all of the time would make me wonder why I did not get a laptop.

 

[Renzatic]

And this is too bad because I really wanted to like this thing for real, I was totally disappointed as I love the concept.

I like the concept, just not rev. 1. That's why I'm waiting with baited breath to see what the Surface Pro 2 is gonna be like.

Provided they don't cancel the thing, of course.

 

[Michael Scrip]

I had not thought about it way, but I could see that happening. I want to believe windows on a tablet would be great, but I don't care for touch laptop's so I would probably get tired of it quickly. Using a keyboard all of the time would make me wonder why I did not get a laptop.

I feel the same way. I guess I'm a laptop guy too.

Plus... the Surface Pro has a 10.6" screen. That's far too small to be your primary machine. It brings back the horrors of netbooks.

So would someone have a Surface Pro and a traditional laptop? That's expensive... and you'd get some overlap from having a Windows laptop and a Windows tablet.

I guess you could use the Surface Pro as your only machine if you hooked it to a monitor and keyboard on your desk.

But the moment you use it anywhere else... you're using a tiny screen.

Personally... my ultimate combo would be a 13" traditional laptop and something small like an iPad Mini.

But trying to combine a full Windows machine and a tablet into one device has too many tradeoffs for me.

 

[Xiroteus]

I thought the point with a tablet like the surface pro is that it can be a laptop or tablet which is why I like it because I want a full OS for at least one tablet.

 

[Michael Scrip]

I thought the point with a tablet like the surface pro is that it can be a laptop or tablet which is why I like it because I want a full OS for at least one tablet.

That's the promise... laptop and tablet in one. And it makes sense, in theory. Instead of carrying around a traditional laptop and a tablet... you can get both functions in one device.

But like I said earlier... who would ever buy a 10.6" laptop?

The most common screen size for a laptop today is 15.6"

Here is the difference between a 15.6" laptop and the Surface Pro... does it fulfill the promise? Seems like you're giving up a lot to get down to one device:

 

[Solomani]

Zune deja vu

 

[osofast240sx]

I thought the point with a tablet like the surface pro is that it can be a laptop or tablet which is why I like it because I want a full OS for at least one tablet.

It was very hard to type on my lap, not impossible. You might want to look into one of those convertible/hybrid deals.

 

[JGRE]

Do you know how to click on a source link in an article?
Hint... it's those words highlighted in blue.

SOURCE article

They call this channel stuffing.

 

[djmarkyoung]

No reduction in UK

according to the UK's leading electronics retailer, Currys & PC World, there has been no change to pricing in the UK


MICROSOFT Surface Pro 10.6" Tablet - 64 GB
Free £20 voucher to spend in store when you buy this product with a case.
£719.99


MICROSOFT Surface RT 10.6" Convertible Tablet - 64 GB with Touch Cover
Free £20 voucher to spend in store when you buy this product with a case.
£559.99

MICROSOFT Surface RT 10.6" Convertible Tablet - 64 GB
Free £20 voucher to spend in store when you buy this product with a case.
£479.99

MICROSOFT Surface RT 10.6" Convertible Tablet - 32 GB
Free £20 voucher to spend in store when you buy this product with a case.
£399.99

MICROSOFT Surface Pro 10.6” Tablet - 128 GB
Free £20 voucher to spend in store when you buy this product with a case.
£799.99


MICROSOFT Surface RT 10.6" Convertible Tablet - 32 GB with Touch Cover Tablet Keyboard
Free £20 voucher to spend in store when you buy this product with a case.
£479.99

http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/comput...-6-convertible-tablet-64-gb-21289377-pdt.html

 

[Psyko]

Mocks competition, still doesn't sell well. I can't claim that any of the anti- campaigns helped. Same goes for Samsungs apple-mocking ads.

 

[StoneJack]

The surface pro is an incredible machine but is just to small to take advantage of a 3rd generation i5. It needs haswell.

Separately the 32nm atom chips have been so gimped, and so many netbook users have been so ripped off, that there is a real reluctance by an informed consumer to buy a 32nm atom tablet.

Yet, those are the two options in the market. If they don't gimp the surface pro 2, put in options for a Haswell i3 or i5, and drop the price a little bit so the bill comes in under $1000 ($1000+ is too steep because that's increasingly seen as an non-discretionary amount) - they'll sell millions.

So again, basically the fortunes are going to be dependent on how fast Intel supplies the next gen chips.

For 1000 dollars, you can have a really good notebook and a tablet (or even a pair of decent iPads mini). You can have almost unlimited computing and battery life for that 1000 dollars/ Thats too much steep price for 1 tablet with haswell chip.

 

[StoneJack]

Mocks competition, still doesn't sell well. I can't claim that any of the anti- campaigns helped. Same goes for Samsungs apple-mocking ads.

It is incredibly difficult to compete with Apple on Apple terms, thats out-iPad iPad and out-Macbook macbooks. Thats why copycats fail. Simplicity of iOS is actually strongest weapon which makes its both consumer and business friendly (no businesses like to lose time over OS optimization and etc).

Android, while visually is very iOS-like, is actually very geeky inside and is perhaps as complicated as Windows configuration for PC users. Its understandable that under certain conditions, users actually prefer to re-install (re-set) both Android and Windows rather than deal with optimization of current installments so difficult they can be both to deal with (driver issues, OS issues, hardware issues, etc).

People will always prefer simpler decisions. Thats why actually Windows Phone, I think as a closest to iOS in terms of user-friendliness, could succeed and break Android spell under some conditions, though probably it won't happen. Right now, WP is underdog, Android is monopoly and iOS (Apple) is an established player respected by all. This is quite crazy market situation and its very difficult to understand that.

Anti-Apple campaign by MS and Samsung will not be fruitful, because attacking an established player with good reputation for quality and user-friendliness will be not effective since both Surfaces and Android can't reach Apple levels of user-friendliness and simplicity. Therefore, these campaigns will not be truthful. For example - how much you usually multitask using a tablet? I can recall having music player on while playing Zynga poker and thats' it or editing some docs and copy pasting from email into a text file. I am only talking about my personal experience so those who have to edit 100 column Excel tables with lot of scrips and programming on a TABLET may have different opinions.

To be honest, neither work for me requires having both apps at same time on screen and can be by simple Apple-like multitasking. Even when working on PC (in my case i3 mackintosh) I'd rather prefer having main app full screen rather than a number of different windows of different apps at same time. So, that live screen multitasking has very limited value in my opinion. Consumers will believe MS only when they'll that PC with Windows have superior feeling to OS X devices.

As for Samsung, its campaign is so unfocused thats it not even funny. Samsung, a hardware company, which doesn't have a own decent OS even on its TVs, ridicules a company which produces simplest and yet state-of-the art OS for such variety of devices as MP3 players, phones, tablets, TVs and desktops/notebooks, servers and workstations. A consumer will believe Samsung only when they see a decent Tizen or Bada device which doesn't stink - and there are not many.

 

[Xiroteus]

That's the promise... laptop and tablet in one. And it makes sense, in theory. Instead of carrying around a traditional laptop and a tablet... you can get both functions in one device.

But like I said earlier... who would ever buy a 10.6" laptop?

The most common screen size for a laptop today is 15.6"

Here is the difference between a 15.6" laptop and the Surface Pro... does it fulfill the promise? Seems like you're giving up a lot to get down to one device:

Image

It is quite small, however it is full 1080P so the space is there just really small, not sure how much of an issue that would be. Using 1600x900 at 17'3" at the moment and almost 11" at 1080P is quite small, I do like the resolution though it may depend on what tasks one is doing.

It was very hard to type on my lap, not impossible. You might want to look into one of those convertible/hybrid deals.

I do like that the Surface is Wacom and has pressure sensitivity, something that does not appear to be extremely common.

 

[iGrip]

I would rather own iphone, ipad and windows 7 laptop than this POS.

I would choose galaxy S4, win8 tablet and a win7 laptop

 

[Toltepeceno]

I feel the same way. I guess I'm a laptop guy too.

Plus... the Surface Pro has a 10.6" screen. That's far too small to be your primary machine. It brings back the horrors of netbooks.

So would someone have a Surface Pro and a traditional laptop? That's expensive... and you'd get some overlap from having a Windows laptop and a Windows tablet.

I guess you could use the Surface Pro as your only machine if you hooked it to a monitor and keyboard on your desk.

But the moment you use it anywhere else... you're using a tiny screen.

Personally... my ultimate combo would be a 13" traditional laptop and something small like an iPad Mini.

But trying to combine a full Windows machine and a tablet into one device has too many tradeoffs for me.

Bingo my friend.

 

[pbankey]

Been a while since I have logged in here

I actually have seen this news spread around multiple sites, all of which attribute every possible scenario as the reason for the sale.

Having said that, I do own a Surface RT and have been very happy with it. I know from every other forum including this one that there are a lot of people who are skeptical and cannot see a future with Windows RT (I admit to wondering this myself at times). With that I am completely understanding.

But I love that they made this product, even if it is struggling. I love seeing a company try to come up with something unique that pays attention to build quality and innovations in hardware and software. As a Surface RT owner it both pains me and excites me to see this line having some issues, because it is getting to the point to where Microsoft is going to have to force a new thought process when they approach consumers.

I don't know, maybe I find the brink of failure to be a beautiful and liberating thing. All bets are off. The status quo is off limits. Companies are forced to go all in, and some of the best innovations come about from this struggle. Failure could mean losing everything and as much as that can suck for a company, I also feel excited to see the outcome from this. Hopefully, a revolution for a company to work through.

Let's face it, competition is good. I don't want to see a sea of homogenous apple products; I want to see variety of choice and niche players. Apple had this same thing happen to them in the past, and look what happened. They had to rethink their approach to consumers and the market, and even create new markets. They were the underdog and had to come back with a force large enough to beat Microsoft, and now, the tables have turned and it's Microsoft's turn.

 

[pacalis]

For 1000 dollars, you can have a really good notebook and a tablet (or even a pair of decent iPads mini). You can have almost unlimited computing and battery life for that 1000 dollars/ Thats too much steep price for 1 tablet with haswell chip.

For some of us lugging around a laptop and a tablet is the problem.

For most productivity users, you want a base station that can be used for trips. For travel, you want it to have powerpoint, excel etc... and then do a little entertainment/emailing on the plane.

So rather than cart around 8 pounds of gear, wires everywhere, have your stuff divided on two machines, with two sets of peripherals etc... Here you have both of those things in a 2lb package. 2lbs!!!!!

And never mind the wacom. If it could just add a couple hours of battery life (i.e. Haswell), and stays under $1k, it becomes my perfect machine.

 

[Xiroteus]

For some of us lugging around a laptop and a tablet is the problem.

For most productivity users, you want a base station that can be used for trips. For travel, you want it to have powerpoint, excel etc... and then do a little entertainment/emailing on the plane.

So rather than cart around 8 pounds of gear, wires everywhere, have your stuff divided on two machines, with two sets of peripherals etc... Here you have both of those things in a 2lb package. 2lbs!!!!!

And never mind the wacom. If it could just add a couple hours of battery life (i.e. Haswell), and stays under $1k, it becomes my perfect machine.

I think a lot of people discount the wacom as it applies to a select group of people. Many of which have been waiting for something like the Surface Pro for some time. If I was traveling around I think it was do fine on its own. The screen may be small yet it is full HD and Windows so it would work fine.

That and a smart phone would work just fine for on the go devices and as a tablet for other tasks at home.

 

[everything-i]

The Dell Laptop is cheaper than any MSFT tablet by a lot. My friend bought a Dell for $250 and it had a 15" screen. Now why would I spend $500 or a grand on a MSFT product when I am not in the market to spend that kind of dough on a MSFT product.

MSFT needs to figure out how to release a tablet that is cheaper than their desktops so say like $199 is the magic price point. Then it'll sell maybe.

Probably their only choice right now but then they will be up against the cheaper Android tablets which are getting better and better all the time and can run all Android apps. I think the phrase, "it's all about the apps" is the key. These days the majority or people aren't too bothered about the hardware or OS as long as it runs the apps they apps they want to use. Either way Microsoft are in a pretty desperate place in the mobile computing market.

 

[Tech198]

Why does Microsoft think just the lower prices will make people turn to Surface overnight ? or any other night for that matter...

Face it MS, you've lost already, trying to do the right thing.....

My advice, go back to basis, and listen to what people actually want.... No one wants a 4 hour battery life anymore.

 

[notjustjay]

I got an email from Future Shop (Best Buy) about the price drops this morning.

My first thought was "Cool! Maybe I should buy a Surface RT to play with."

My second thought was "Well, first I should make sure that I'll be able to get apps for everything I'd want to do." A lot of "Hmm, nope, nope, nope..." followed.

My third thought was "I'll need to add another $99 for the type cover".

After a few minutes of researching, it looks like I'll be holding off. What I really want is a Surface Pro. Maybe the Haswell version.

 

[Renzatic]

My third thought was "I'll need to add another $99 for the type cover".

You know, if I bought an RT or a Pro, I wouldn't even bother with a touch cover. I'd save some cash by grabbing a free standing bluetooth keyboard and a regular screen cover instead.

This is how I use my iPad. I'll lean it back using the Smart Cover (I love how it just autocorrected that with capital letters), sit it up on my desk, take my keyboard, set it in my lap, and lean back in my chair. If I want to use them both on a flat surface, I'm not stuck with having the keyboard stuck right in front of the screen. I could caddy corner it off to the left or right of me if I wanted to.

This setup is a helluva lot more flexible and comfortable to use if you ask me. The only disadvantage is that you have to carry the keyboard and tablet separate instead of having them as one sleek whole.