Surface Tablets for $199? Microsoft’s Competitive Price – Fact or Fiction

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16 Aug, 2012 3:45 am

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We’ve heard a lot of crazy numbers lately in regards to the price of the Microsoft Surface Tablet. This new number is simultaneously the most crazy and most exciting of all: $199! I can hear you saying What?! I thought you said over $1,000! Yes, well, we all thought that number was off base. After all, hasn’t the Nexus 7 made $199 the number of the year?

When the Surface was presented, we thought its price would land in the $400-600 range, even more people feared a slightly higher amount. But then, Google turned everything upside down with a powerful and seductive quad-core tablet for as little as $199 for the 8 GB version. Everyone else has been scrambling since Google proved that affordable doesn’t have to mean low quality.

Can it be that Microsoft will follow suit here and place the Surface in the moderate price range like a Nexus 7 or a Kindle Fire? At least one member of Engadget thinks so – they have learned from well-informed sources that the Windows RT version of the Surface could change hands for the alluring price of $199.

We will certainly all be delighted if the report proves true. What better way for Windows 8 to make a big splash in the tablet market than with a bargain price? Of course, until October 26th comes around and Microsoft makes it official, I wouldn’t count on any of the numbers floating around. We’ll let you know if we hear anything more solid.

Source: Engadget


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  • http://twitter.com/Parad1s3 Paradise

    That’s the worst pseudo-rumor of 2012 for me…

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Brecht-Ryckaert/1369415086 Brecht Ryckaert

    I’m actuelly guessing this to be true or close to accurate! Microsoft has absolutely embraced the app-store-strategy and what better way to boost their own app store then to provide a piece of hardware at a low price. Just look what iPod Touch did for Apple (together with it’s higher priced brother iPhone). I can see the entry-level Surface do the same thing here for Microsoft. Selling hardware at a loss is acceptable when your real profit is made elsewhere…

  • http://www.ashevilletechnologyservices.com Dan Brown

    If it’s all about Ecosystem and App store, then this very well may be true! One thing’s for sure, if it does start at $199, I’ll be the first to pre-order!

  • CyberGusa

    It’s very unlikely, even the iPod Touch is priced higher.

    The only way it could make sense is if they were making a promotional sale like they had for the XBox to sell it with a Kinect controller for $99 if you got a 2 year membership with XBox Live Gold.

    Mind XBox Live is integrated with Windows 8/Rt. So they could provide the same kind of sale/discount.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Brecht-Ryckaert/1369415086 Brecht Ryckaert

    Well actually quite some products are sold at a loss, at least when the profit is to be made from software sales. Just look at Sony’s playstation 3 for example. Since Microsoft is obviously changing it’s entire strategy, this might very well be accurate. They have the financial means to pull this off.

  • CyberGusa

    Sold at a loss only makes sense when alternative profit outweighs immediate product sales profit.

    For gaming, the games are the main source of income and is also continuous for the life of the product. So it makes sense to sell hardware at a loss then as they stand to make far more from the software.

    However, this isn’t true of all products! Like PC sales can’t rely on continuous profits after initial sale.

    So unless they do something like a contract deal to ensure those profits then it’s a pretty big gamble.

  • Chris Benoit

    $500 and up. Common start a pool for a free giveaway of an Winrt.

  • Josh

    I wish they’d hurry up and put it on the market. It was popular, until everyone forgot about it.