“Microsoft’s Surface tablet lineup, which has thus far failed to gain traction against Apple’s iPads, saw a permanent price cut this week, most notably among the high-end Surface Pro, which now sells for $100 less,” Sam Oliver reports for AppleInsider.
“The prices, which included the entry-level Surface Pro for $799, were initially enacted as a temporary measure set to expire on Thursday,” Oliver reports. “But the Windows maker revealed to ZDNet that those prices are now permanent, and reduced prices have also expanded globally.”
Oliver reports, “The company already took a $900 million charge on unsold Surface inventory earlier this year.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: GWAK. No price is worth saddling yourself with Ballmer’s Latest Boondoggle.
Related articles:
Microsoft now dumping non-selling Surface RT tablets into schools – August 21, 2013
Class-action suit filed against Microsoft over Surface tablet flop -August 13, 2013
Desperate Microsoft cuts Surface Pro tablet prices; could signal even more losses – August 6, 2013
Microsoft’s Surface sales figures are in, and they’re a total disaster – July 30, 2013
Microsoft earnings, sales badly miss expectations; $900 million inventory writedown on Surface tablet flop – July 18, 2013
Gartner: Apple to overtake Microsoft in total OS sales in 2015 – June 25, 2013
Apple Macintosh owns 45% of PC market profits – April 16, 2013
Steve Jobs’ revenge – April 12, 2013
Apple Macintosh on the rise as Windows PC market plummets – April 11, 2013
Gartner: PC Market posts 11.2 percent decline in Q113; Apple Mac sales up 7.4 percent in U.S. – April 10, 2013
IDC: PC shipments post the steepest decline ever in a single quarter, down 13.9% in Q113 – April 10, 2013
Might sell well to the devil worshipping crowd of the price were cut further to $666.
Just like the original Apple computer?
Tim Cook should be FIRED!
If it rains on the day you shop for an iDevice, then Someone should be fired. Has anyone ever NOT told you that you’re clueless?
Wow hell must be very cold today! I agree with you electro!
I saw Satan at Sports Mart yesterday buying skates.
Well played.
And Tim Cook’s connection with Microsoft and the Surface debacle is?
That Cook’s decisions led to overreactions by Ballmer and panicked Microsoft into throwing its partners under the bus, releasing products not ready for prime time, failing to impress reviewers and consumers, and spooking the stock market.
What???
The new price is almost $800, good god man, you could buy two iPad 2nd gen and still have change left.
http://store.apple.com/us/product/FD328LL/A/refurbished-ipad-with-wi-fi-16gb-white-3rd-generation
I was so stupefied at the MS price I made a mistake.
“…you could buy two iPad 3rd gen…”
Yes but the Surface tablet is bound to become a collectors item. It’s a rare item and bound to go up in value in 25 years. If Icahn created the Blackberry + Microsoft Inventory fund with a 25 year maturity date, I might buy into it. Those failures might be worth big money by then!
Can put it right next to my pet rock and antique paper weight.
They’re not so rare if you go to a landfill. At my local solid waste transfer station, there are dozens of unopened boxes of Surface Pros sticking out of the mud.
I like their strategy. I like it a lot. One can only imagine the flailing about that can occur in the period of a year.
Give me 799 and I will happily take one. But I wouldn’t pay for it, I need to be paid to have it.
Now the question is whether they will bite the bullet and risk losing money on a second generation of Win8 tablets, like they were willing to do with the X-Box.
MS can’t really afford to give the tablet space to Android and iOS, but it is gonna cost them BIG bucks. The OEMs aren’t gonna mess with MS tablets unless MS gives them a huge break on the licensing–which is what MS should have done in the first place because they were so far behind.
Yes, $799 will open the flood gates, especially now that the price is “permanent.” That temporary price cut was really holding back sales… 🙂
The $900 million charge was for unsold Surface RT inventory, and was probably NOT calculated based on a 100% loss per unsold unit. Microsoft probably has as many or more unsold Surface Pro units, and they represent a greater potential loss per unit.
The $900 million loss is just a small portion of the eventual total loss from Surface. Microsoft needs to take the opportunity of the CEO change to have a stupendously bad quarter and throw the remaining unsold Surface units inventory into recycling. Then, make an announcement about Windows 8, which is why Surface Pro (the “showcase” for Windows 8) is a failure. It is also hindering overall sales of PCs, because no one really wants a desktop or laptop PC with a touchscreen.
$299 seems like the only price that will help those move quickly out of stock and memory. The sooner the really cut prices the sooner they can talk about the next reiteration.
Needs to be lower. Like, way lower, for me to buy one. I actually sorta almost like the surface a little, and would get one just so I could use it more in tandom with my PC I use for work. But, whatever.
Hm. Maybe I’ll get one and put Linux on it… Well, after it comes down under $100, that is.
Pro for pro choice. MS needs to abort this Rosemary’s baby.
$7.99. Thats a great price! Thats how much its worth!
Next month, another price cut. 🙂
dammit Joker – where the heck are you?
Someone fire Tim Cook. I’ve no idea why but I sensed Joker was on a role. SOMEONE FIRE SOMEONE!!!!!!!!!!!
Joker isn’t on a roll.
Joker is a troll.
Troll, roll, what’s a T between friends?
Microsoft, in a statement, attempted to portray the new prices as a win for the Surface lineup.
😆 😆 😆 😆 😆
I feel a Surface Woot! coming on!
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It wont attract business customers without a keyboard, so how much is a keyboard??
And it’s still to expensive!
over and over again the REALITY (of failure, low sales) doesn’t jive with the original HYPE propounded by the apple hater pundits. If you look back at the countless old articles in places like ZDnet you’ll find their writers praising like crazy the surface Prp (like the praised the Xoom, the Zune, the Palm pre etc) — how the surface pro is the first ‘complete’ tablet, how the keyboard was ‘genius’ and ‘game changer’, how you can now run “all applications on desktop and tablet” etc.
these dudes, the Ed botts, Thurotts, Dvoraks, Enderles (
actual Enderle quote: “the Surface Pro has changed the quality of my Life … more than just a new product and should be pereceived as the beginning of a new way ” ) are paid and supposed to be experts and they are wrong over and over again and I’m not talking about wrong the last few months but the last 20 years (since I’ve been following tech ). What is the point of their articles if they are always so far wrong?
The point of their articles is is to feed inbred techno nerds salivating for good news from the front lines in the war for the soul of the machine: will we get the toys we want to tinker with, or will closed, opaque designs win out in the open market? The latter is a constant threat to nerd self-actualisation. Plus, the only ones who can really see the future are the ones who are building it. Writers and pundits, like fortune-tellers at the carnival, make a living telling their audiences what they want to hear.
I think they will have to cut the price to compete with the BlackBerry Playbook – or perhaps offer it bundled with a bestseller like a BlackBerry device.
I might pay $7.99, and that is a big might.