“Prices of Windows RT devices have started falling, signaling an attempt by PC makers to quickly clear out stock after poor adoption of tablets and convertibles with the operating system,” Agam Shah reports for IDG News Service.
“Microsoft released Windows RT for ARM-based devices and Windows 8 for Intel-based devices in October last year. The price drop is an acknowledgement that Windows RT has failed, analysts said,” Shah reports. “Prices of popular products usually don’t fall, but Windows RT devices were not in demand, and prices fell, analysts said.”
Shah reports, “Though Microsoft has not publicly acknowledged the failure of Windows RT, there is already growing concern about the fate of the OS. IDC earlier this month said that Windows RT tablet shipments have been poor, and that consumers have not bought into ‘Windows RT’s value proposition.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: As predicted.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Dan K.” for the heads up.]
Related articles:
Analyst: Microsoft should pull the plug on poor-selling Windows RT tablets, admit defeat – March 12, 2013
As Surface and other Windows tablets flop, Microsoft slashes Windows 8 and Office prices for OEMs – March 7, 2013
The late, not-so-great Microsoft Windows 8 – March 7, 2013
The mobile train has left the Windows 8 platform behind – February 7, 2013
Microsoft blames PC makers for Windows 8 flop – January 24, 2013
Fujitsu President: Weak demand for Microsoft’s Windows 8 killing PC Sales – December 28, 2012
Philip Greenspun: Microsoft’s Windows 8 is a Christmas gift for someone you hate – December 7, 2012
MKM Partners cuts Microsoft price target, estimates on lower than expected Surface, Windows 8 sales – December 5, 2012
Why Microsoft’s Surface tablet is doomed – December 5, 2012
App developers shun Microsoft’s Surface tablet – December 4, 2012
Microsoft Surface Pro to offer only half the battery life of Apple’s latest iPad with Retina display – November 30, 2012
Microsoft’s Surface Pro iPad killer to start at $899 – November 29, 2012
Microsoft’s Surface tablet flops, orders reportedly cut in half – November 29, 2012
Catastrophe Theory: Microsoft on the verge of a sudden collapse? – November 26, 2012
Beleaguered Microsoft has failed – November 14, 2012
Slate reviews Microsoft’s Surface tablet: Too slow, mercilessly buggy; why is it so bad? – November 6, 2012
Microsoft’s bloated Windows RT eats 16GB of Surface tablet – November 5, 2012
InfoWorld reviews Microsoft Surface RT: A disappointment; you’re better off with Apple’s iPad – October 31, 2012
Acer delays Windows RT tablets; adopts ‘wait and see’ approach after poor Surface RT reviews – October 30, 2012
Gizmodo reviews Microsoft Surface RT: Do not buy; inferior to Apple’s iPad; the worst of both worlds – October 25, 2012
The Verge reviews Microsoft Surface RT tablet: ‘The whole thing is honestly perplexing; who is this for?’ – October 24, 2012
Analyst: Microsoft’s Surface RT tablet priced too high, could be the next Zune – October 18, 2012
Dvorak: ‘Microsoft’s Surface tablet isn’t the Apple iPad, so it shouldn’t be priced like one’ – October 18, 2012
Microsoft inexplicably claims Surface RT tablet lower resolution screen beats iPad with Retina display – October 17, 2012
Microsoft Surface RT tablet Wi-Fi-only; 32GB for $599 with, $499 without keyboard, $699 for 64GB – October 16, 2012
Microsoft airs first TV ad for Surface tablet (with video) – October 15, 2012
Apple’s ‘iPad mini’ to obliterate Microsoft’s Windows 8, Surface RT tablet launches – October 13, 2012
Acer CEO to Microsoft: ‘Think twice’ about Surface tablets – August 7, 2012
Microsoft Surface tablet pricing leaked; US$1,000 for ‘cheapest’ Windows RT model – July 26, 2012
Ballmer: Uh, yeah, ‘Surface is just a design point,’ you know – July 10, 2012
Microsoft’s Buffoon, er… Ballmer throws down gauntlet against Apple – July 10, 2012
Microsoft reportedly dumps ‘VaporMg’ chassis, will use ‘VaporMg’ only as ‘surface treatment’ – July 9, 2012
Microsoft’s downfall: Inside the executive e-mails and cannibalistic culture that fueled Microsoft’s lost decade – July 7, 2012
HP said to dump Microsoft over Surface; to cozy up to Google Android for tablet efforts – July 2, 2012
Bad news for Microsoft’s iPad killer? – July 2, 2012
Dear Microsoft, Steve Balmer and Bill Gates: What is up with your obsession with keyboards? – June 28, 2012
Jason Schwarz: Top 10 reasons why Microsoft’s Surface is DOA – June 22, 2012
Why I love Microsoft’s vaporware Surface tablet – June 22, 2012
Microsoft’s Surface tablet said to be Wi-Fi only at launch; no 4G, no 3G, no 2G, not even 1G – June 22, 2012
Microsoft outsources Surface assembly to Pegatron; prices above $799 for Windows 8, above $599 for Windows RT expected – June 21, 2012
Acer founder: Microsoft will quit making tablets soon – June 21, 2012
Devastating video shows Microsoft’s Surface event aping Steve Jobs’ iPad unveiling (with video) – June 20, 2012
Thanks to Apple, Microsoft is doomed in the era of mobile computing – June 20, 2012
Why wouldn’t Microsoft let anyone touch its Surface tablets’ keyboard cover? – June 20, 2012
The cost of Microsoft’s Surface tablets – June 20, 2012
Apple’s revolutionary iPad vs. Microsoft’s anti-tablet ‘Surface’ – June 20, 2012
Microsoft’s Surface tablets provokes ‘sense of betrayal’ among Windows PC assemblers – June 20, 2012
Fox News: Copier Microsoft is doomed to fail with Surface tablet – June 19, 2012
Microsoft’s Surface tablet destined to be as successful as the Zune – June 19, 2012
Surface: Why Microsoft’s big mystery turns out to be a big mistake – June 19, 2012
Microsoft’s Suicide, er… ‘Surface’ – June 19, 2012
ZDNet Sr. Tech Editor Perlow: Microsoft’s Surface has catastrophe written all over it – June 19, 2012
Microsoft previews own ‘Surface’ tablet – June 18, 2012
Microsoft touts ‘major’ June 18 event said to showcase Windows RT tablets – June 15, 2012
ZDNet’s Kingsley-Hughes: Microsoft’s Windows 8 is an awful, horrible, painful design disaster – June 8, 2012
Analyst meets with big computer maker, finds ‘general lack of enthusiasm’ for Windows 8 – June 8, 2012
Dvorak: Windows 8 an unmitigated disaster; unusable and annoying; it makes your teeth itch – June 3, 2012
The Guardian: Microsoft’s Windows 8 is confusing as hell; an appalling user experience – March 5, 2012
More good news for Apple: Microsoft previews Windows 8 (with video) – June 1, 2011
Didn’t have to be a genius to see this coming. Wonder how Steve is feeling about it. He probably likes their strategy.
Hold off and they will be giving them away at MS Stores as a reward for walking in. Of coarse it failed, its a netbook and nobody wants a netbook that has to run special apps that no one has written. This is one reason why B of A down graded MS. MicroSoft is in the hospital and will be on its way to the hospice.
I just saw one of those damn Surface Pro television commercials again. Unbelievable! Maybe some of the worst commercials I’ve ever seen in my life? And they just keep running them, and running them, and running them. That and Steve Balmer in charge and their stock hasn’t tanked.
Hey, be nice to the marketing genius running M$.
Let’s sign them all up for Dancing With the Stars!!!
Microsoft has to spend that marketing budget for Surface, or people will say they didn’t try hard enough.
And that’s just fine with me.
Spend Microsoft! SPEND! SPEND! 😈
It’s sad when M$ has to pay for product placement for this ordure on shows like NCIS Los Angeles AND labour the point in the closing titles. Smells of desperation, methinks!
=:~)
The key word here is VALUE. Yeah, values, valuable ….. ANALists seem to miss this hard core point when it comes to AAPL. FCK The System. Total JOKE.
Windows RT is a superfluous piece of sh*t that is as superfluous as the left nut is to Ballmer’s one nut sack holding the right one.
Imagine if you will the amount of confusion over just the naming convention of using Windows for everything. It’s illogical. No one knows what RT stands for nor what it does relative to Windows 8.
When someone buys an iPad, they are cognisant of the fact that it runs iOS. There is absolutely no confusion in the mind of the user what the iPad is and what it can be used for.
Windows RT in effect is a gimped version of Windows 8 that cannot run legacy apps so right there the user is crippled by having to purchase all of his apps anew. If he has to do that he might as well invest in an iPad – the proven market leader.
Windows as a platform has always attracted users by trapping them in a backward compatibility syndrome. Lose that and you lose the raison d’être for having Windows.
And that’s a wrap from Ballmer. Over and Zuned.
You’re right: The naming convention leads to confusion. Let’s help them out:
Windows RT gets renamed “Limited Windows”
Windows 8 gets renamed “Triple Pain Windows”
Windows 8 Home Edition with Security Doubled renamed “Safety Glass”
Speaking of naming conventions, just as Apple dropped the Computer part of it’s corporate name, perhaps Microsoft should drop the Soft and become just Micro.
Or drop the Micro and just admit they’re Soft. 😉
Windows RT now stands for Windows RoT. Now you know the source of that stench in the air.
When sellers of iPad lower the price it signals a new version coming, but when sellers of Windows RT tablets lower the price it signals a market failure. I should be quiet with this observation since it could be read by a hit-whore who will loudly proclaim falling prices on iPad indicate market failure!
Uhm you do realize the lowered iPad price was on the older model, not the current one? And the price on the Mini was not lowered.
But, but but . . . they Click and you can dance with them.
And this only a surprise to analysts and experts…….the other 99.9% knew this would be the end result.
“Zuned”
Zune-A-Zune-A-Zune.
We’re gonna ZuneAZuneAZune-A-Zune.
Prices of Windows RT devices have started falling
Déjà vu man! 😆
Agreed, RT is a market failure. No surprise there based on price versus performance.
However, MS will recover as it always does, and the next generation of Surfaces might actually make some money, just as the Xbox eventually did. Again, MDN faithful continue to think short term. Some of the most spectacular failures sparked real learning and innovation later.
Was Next a failure for Steve Jobs?
The Newton?
Okay, resume piling on Redmond without mercy or logic …