“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,” Mary Jo Foley reports for ZDNet.
“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),” Foley reports. “The fine print: ‘To be eligible for trade-in, device must power on to be considered working. Water-damaged devices and devices with cracked screens are not considered working devices for purposes of this offer.'”
“To get the maximum ($650) value, users have to apply the store credit toward the purchase of a Surface Pro 3,” Foley reports. “There’s no information on the Microsoft store site about which models of MacBook Airs are eligible for promotion.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Good God, they just keep getting stupider.
Hey, Microsoft, you can take our MacBook Air units when you pry them from our cold, dead hands.
The clueless wonders at beleaguered Microsoft are obviously finding it exceedingly difficult, if not impossible, to peddle Surface units.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Dialtone” and “Dan K.” for the heads up.]
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Does Microsoft really think Mac users would willingly trade in their Mac for a PC? I knew Bill Gates has the ‘Tizm, but I didn’t know it was THAT bad!
And before anyone chews me out on that comment, I have it, so I think it’s fine for me to joke about it.
It’s MORE interesting that recent Surface marketing has targeted Surface as a laptop replacement, not an alternative to iPad. The Surface is shown more in ads with its keyboard attached, and its “kickstand” open. And this promotion that goes after MacBook Air users, not iPad users.
I guess Microsoft has given up trying to beat iPad, tablet versus tablet, as a lost cause.
MS has always looked at tablets as laptop replacements or additions to laptops. That is why they have never sold them. Their first attempt at a “tablet” was with a OS add on to XP. I don’t consider it a tablet because except for a touchscreen that could swivel and go on upside down, nothing else about the laptop changed. It was just another I/O deceive, like a mouse. If you look at the first Surface advertising it kept saying how: it had a keyboard, kickstand, lots of ports, and could run Office to do “real work”. Just like a laptop. Apple made the iPad to do things a laptop could not. Hold in one hand, run all day, connect to cell and GPS, take up as little of space as posable. MS still has not figured that out. I wished I has a MBA and a MS store near me so I could go in and with a straight face watch them explain why a Surface keyboard can’t stay shut. The touchscreen and trackpad do less than the MBA’s trackpad. Why the new XBOX can’t mirror the Surface when the old ATV can with the MBA. For those of you who can it’s a great way to stay in some free A/C.
Who is their right mind would trade in a MBA for that crap. Microslut, your desperation is smelling pretty bad, making me gag.
A giant step backward to be sure.
Not necessarily so. If you use the Surface you become a better dancer, I’ve seen it in the commercials.
I stand corrected.
LOL why would anyone do this? Why? 😛
Criminally Insane
Oh yeah. Forgot about them. 🙂
Even a 5 year-old MBAir has more life left in it than a brand new Surface.
Particularly since you can run Windows native or in Parallels in addition to Mac!
Hurrah! The Ballmer legacy lives on!
The problem for Microsoft is NOT that potential Surface customers already have recently-purchased MacBook Airs… The problem is that there are NO potential Surface customers.
No one wants a kludge that is neither the best laptop nor the best tablet.
I know a couple of Android users who are stupid enough to do it. They just have to find a couple used MBAs.
If I actually wanted a Surface Pro 3 and had a MBA that was so old/problematic that it was not worth $650 or more on the open market, then I might be interested. The number of people who meet those conditions are likely to be very small.
Hint to Microsoft: If you can find any willing MBA owners, you might want to *give* them Surface Pro 3 devices in exchange for their MBAs and the right to advertise their “excitement” about going Surface. That would probably be more valuable to you than the result from your current promotion.
By the way, what does Microsoft plan to do with the dozen or so MBAs that it might collect during this promotion? Will it sell them to attempt to recoup their money? Will it donate them? How will Microsoft ensure that this isn’t just a zero sum game for Surface?
“By the way, what does Microsoft plan to do with the dozen or so MBAs that it might collect during this promotion? Will it sell them to attempt to recoup their money? Will it donate them? How will Microsoft ensure that this isn’t just a zero sum game for Surface?”
Obviously, it’s a cunning ploy — the MS group that came up with the promotion is the only group in the whole company that is not banned from using MacBook Airs themselves.
A dozen? I admire your optimism.
If they’re designers are going to learn from the Air, then they need a few of them to look at.
This is going to be horrible for Microsoft when only a handful of people actually take advantage of this offer. It’ll look even worse when Microsoft refuses to release the numbers.
Do we look that stupid! I thought the stupidity left with Ballmer, I guess not. Who would trade quality for crap especially for measly $650.
We spent the kast weekend in palmsprings with a binch ftuends abd fsmily.
One of my IT fruends brough his surfsce pro2 … Everyone else had ipads…
The surface pro 2 kept heating up every 10 miniuits playing mudic or vudris …and kept shuting down…
Ipads had zero problems.
I bet he will continue to use that POS even after all those embarrassing shutdowns in front of iPad users. He will never admit that iPads are better, period.😛
Did you type this using a Surface?
Wow! We fail in our efforts to counter Apple’s iPad, so let’s set our sights on an even more harder target to hit.
I just don’t understand.
This is too funny. I love it!
For a brief moment I really believed Satya Nadella would be above this kind of crap.
Turns out he’s just Ballmer v2.
Today, I shall be mostly laughing my tits off!
=:~)
LOL, utter desperation!
I wouldn’t even trade my NON-working Powerbook 140 for that Surface crap
I would consider it if they threw in the keyboard, but then I would just donate my old MBA to my nieces and nephew. It results in a more positive outcome.
Didn’t Microsoft do this same thing when they tried to get people to trade in their iPods for Zunes?
Kind of. Ballmer put a trash can in the Microsoft headquarters so employees could dispose of their old their iPods back when the Zune was coming out.
Ballmer I’m sure wanted a photo of that trash can full of iPods that were discarded, it didn’t happen.
No no they take the air and resell it for more than 650 bucks used and get the money back
“or while supplies last”
That will probably be longer than any of our lifetimes.
Haha! 😄
This sets a new standard for “pathetic”.
The ONLY way I’d trade a MBA for a surface would be if the MBA was my Ex-wife’s or my Ex-Wife’s lawyer.
woe unto ye lawyers! lol
You are close to the market for this deal. The aves will trade in their stolen MBAs in order to get Surface Pro3 in hopes they can sell it for less dirty money.
Nah, thieves know more than anybody what’s worth taking and what’s junk.
They just desperately want MB Airs for cheap. I’d pay $650 for one too. That’d be a good deal.
Sounds like desperate Microsoft employees trying to get rid of their Surfaces and get our MacBook Airs.
Bwahaha! Exactly. 😆
Microsoft is soooo imaginative. They already attempted a stunt like this last year and it was a FAIL. Same again this time.
And of course, MS offer $650 because they know damned well they can sell the MacBook Airs on the used market and get more than $650 back for them. You can’t say that for any used Surface slab they’ve foisted on the public.
‘Desperate’ times result in desperate decisions. And they’re usually the most stupid decisions you can imagine. Avoid desperation at all costs.
When I saw Microsoft Fan Numero Uno… Paul Thurrott tweeting about this I nearly pissed my Levis from laughter!
I just love to see how MS is now choking on their own arrogance. For years and years they though their monopoly was unbreakable and the fell into complacency and to this day they still cannot make a turn for the better.
I wouldn’t get a Windows PC if it was handed out for free!
Yep. We do get Windows PCs for free in the workplace.
And we constantly demand admin switch to Apple, plus we bring our own Macs and iPhones to work so that we can actually get some work done efficiently and enjoyably.