“Microsoft will give attendees at the International Society for Technology in Education Conference a free Surface RT as part of an effort to push technology use in the classroom,” Travis Pope reports for Gotta Be Mobile.
“As part of the ITSE event, attendees will be provided with a Microsoft Surface RT for use at their local schools,” Pope reports. “According to the organization, that means a gift of around 10,000 Surface RT tablets heading to local schools across the country.”
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Pope reports, “Though not entirely education related, it’s worth noting that the offer of free Surface RT tablets comes on the heels of more than a few promotions for Surface RT tablets, including slightly reduced pricing inside Staples locations, free Touch Keyboards and Type Keyboards for Surface purchasers and offers for a $99 Surface RT for attendees of the company’s TechEd North America and Europe events.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Yeah, the lesson for these educators is:
How to Liquidate a Failed Product.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Dale S.” for the heads up.]
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Hey, Microsoft is giving away these cool door stops.
That’s exactly what I was going to say! Dancing, clicking battery sucking door stops!
the real lesson for these educators is go to a microsoft store opening and get free concert tickets. at least you can use those.
Wait…everyone needs a doorstop!
Did they take them?
Probably sell them for $1.98 on eBay and then buy iPads.
$1.98 won’t buy many iPads.
Well that was kind of a joke meaning they would so would hate Surface Tablets they’d sell them for nothing and then spend a lot more just to get a much more desirable iPad. (Of course if you have to explain the joke I guess it’s not much of a joke…) 🙂
No they didn’t.
After checking with their legal dept. they realized that introducing kids to Surface RTs would most certainly target them as child abusers in most states.
Probably an ethics violation an illegal gift unless the RTs are actually donated to a school rather than given to an attendee. In most districts I would think it would be illegal to accept a gift of other than nominal value from a current or potential contractor. On the other hand the recipient might argue that the RTs are of token value at best.
One could argue that nothing of any real value was given.
Zune all over again. Gave them away at every conference, but people just put them in the trash. And yes, they will count them as “units sold.”
……………………….iPad.
Somebody was giving away free flip HD cameras where I work. Not knowing how crappy they are, people took them, excited about how they will now be able to make videos for training, news stories, etc. The next day, they discovered that their iPhones have far better HD video quality than these crappy flip cams. Most are now used by their small children (if even that)…
This Microsoft gesture looks more like a crack dealer providing the first hit for free…
Except with crack they will get addicted. With Suface they’ll just want to kill themsefs.
STILL not worth it.
Agreed. Like getting airline peanuts for Christmas from your Uncle Stan.
mmmmmmm peanuts.
But look at the business logic. They’re not selling, the channels are clogged, and inventories can’t be swapped out forever. You can’t write them off. You can’t dump them necause of environmental consequences (as with Arlo Guthrie in Alice’s Restaurant, they will find you out). It’s far more expensive to ship them to Louisiana or Florida or Texas for coral reef building than to piddle them out to clueless education conference attendees—not synonymous with teachers, BTW.
“Yes, Officer Obie, I put that Surface RT under that trash.”
“With the 27 8″x10″ color glossy photographs with the circles and the arrows on the front and a paragraph on the back of each one, describing in length…”
Sure is:
Cutting/chopping board
Small serving tray
Level up that dining room table that has one shorter leg.
Rotating photo display on your bookcase.
And something for the hard core druggies: could replace the old mirror.
MS also gives away free concert tickets at store openings in order to get people to come in. And now this act of desperation! WOW! I’d say this not bode well for MS.
Funny how people show up at Apple Store openings in droves and maybe get a free t-shirt but they ain’t comin’ for t-shirts…
Great for target shooting.
At least M$ can say they shipped 10,000 units this month.
Maybe “Myth Busters” should do something here. Maybe some target practice?
Do they fit into the clay pigeon traps? Would that be surface-to-Surface shooting?
Great take, MdN.
I worry about the children.
Throwing crap, Surface RT’s, at the walls of schools and tech companies with the hope that something will stick.
I think Microsoft stumbled across the right price for their RT’s
Our group is trying to figure how much we can get for ours on eBay. Unfortunately we’ll have to sell at least ten to get an iPad. But seriously, who would want a Surface?
Well, you could play up their value as musical instruments. That’s pretty much what Microsoft themselves did in those choreographical ads.
I tested one at a new MSFT. The clicking sound in the ads is fake. The click is more muted and less snappy.
There’s one thing for certain, if Apple did click it would be loud and snappy! I haven’t seen the RT television commercial lately. The one with everyone around the large round conference table with the idiot breakdancing on it. That one leaves me speechless. I’ve been involved with a lot of commercials in my time, never with anything that insane. Microsoft: it’s like burning money in the front yard.
When I first read the headline I thought cool, Microsoft is giving something to the kids. Then I read that it is just one each for the adults attending the conference.
In other words, no tablets for kids.
Neatly absolving themselves of child endangerment charges whilst nefariously plotting to Faginize educators
ooh, “Faginize”..excellenté.
BTW Mr Softy just opened a new store in Natick MA next to the Apple store and could not give away all of the free concert tickets. It has been empty ever since.
Hahaha. Sauron’s eye just aquired a new target….the 99% of all malware belonging to Android now has competition. Not many things in life that are free….reallly are….muaahhhh
Perhaps M$ simply found the most favorable financial alternative for dumping excess, unsold, and unwanted RT tablets (tax write-off?). And, if it generates a bit of love in the educational sector for Windows/RT tablets, then that is a bonus for M$.
If you can’t sell them, take an educational donation tax deduction. I hope the IRS is watching.
This is a great idea. Teachers can use this as an iPad vs Surface RT “show and tell” class lesson. The classes will be about good vs bad, awesome technology vs bad technology, Best of the Best vs POS!…and so on.
When a company like Microsoft (who isn’t fairing very well in mobile) is giving away 10,000 free tablets, it sounds like desperation/failure cloaked in philanthropy………look at me….I care….buy my products. However, this kind of move will probably cause people to expect it to cost $300 or less.
As underfunded as most US education districts are, Microsoft realizes that they will take anything they can get.
Apple, meanwhile, no longer seems interested in competing in the education/government/enterprise markets at all (unless, of course, it’s to liquidate last year’s iOS devices).
Sorry, MDN, but your argument has little merit other than merely displaying your bias. We all _know_ what a poor value the Surface RT represents at retail prices. Problem is, Apple has no answer for Microsoft’s drug pusher tactics. At least, Cook doesn’t. Steve Jobs created the eMac (which was also a wise way to offer low prices on old hardware).
Thing is Apple’s “last year’s iOS devices” function better, and are still more useful than Microsloth’s THIS year’s devices.
I have a 7 year old MacBook Pro that I still use every day!
Not saying the MBP is an iOS device, just pointing out the products and their ability to function well enough to stay in use. I know a lot of people choosing the iPhone 4 for their first phone, and are completely happy with it and the price. Apple may constantly come out with new stuff, but that does not mean their old stuff is immediately junk. I’ve always bought Apple’s stuff for the longevity of the USEFUL life of the products.
Apple should do a promotion where any educator who brings in a Surface can trade up to an iPad for something like $100. It would cost a little bit of money, but would get iPads into where they should be and help to rid the world of those ill-conceived Surfaces.
Microsoft have clearly lost money on the Surface project, but will try and dump existing models in order to screw up the marketing of other tablets. It’s hard to imagine that they would build new ones after the dismal initial sales, so there will only be a finite number of them to get rid of.
If MS wants to make any money off of tablets, they need to make Office for iOS. Oh, and not for $100/year. Oh, and for iPad. Duh.
As John Arbuckle said, “You get what you pay for.”
FOR GOD SAKES MAN, THINK ABOUT THE CHILDREN!
Maybe M$ is teaching kids how NOT to run a company?
We don’t need no Surface education. We don’t need no thought control. All in all, it’s another brick in the wall.
A CURSE or a DUMPING of FAILed product?
a gift of around 10,000 Surface RT tablets heading to local schools across the country.
I say BOTH!
‘Screw you US education system; Take this crap off our hands.’