Pricing for Microsoft Surface Tablets and Covers Revealed

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Yeah I'm not sure about going for one of these, so many great Android tablets out there for less money, MS coming out with a tablet like this at the price point of an Ipad? Not a huge fan of Apple but I think the Ipad will win out, me I'll stick with my Asus TF300 which has been great and cost me $120 less than this would have
 
If the pro is sub 800, it can still do well; microsoft should consider some type of subsidy to price the pro near the 700 mark.

The synergy between tablet and home OS is a good selling point, as long as the buy-in isnt too steep.
 
Total harebrained idiocy at that price.

The number of windows developers that left to program iOS is staggering. (because they can actually make money doing this)

The mobile MS platform is going to remain small, so they aren't going to get these developers back, and the apps are going to suffer.

I am betting this is the end of MS's relevance.

Everyone hates Windows 8, and nobody is going to buy surface at that price. Good job.
 
For $500, this is why people would chose a Surface over an iPad
32GB memory + 64GB SD card
Better screen (it looks better even with a lower resolution than the iPad)
Office 2013 RT
CNC machine (high precision) case
2x2 MIMO wifi
USB 2.0 ports that can be used to read USB flash drive
Can print on hundreds of printer

This tablet is just better built.
 
[citation][nom]damianrobertjones[/nom]So... How many of you know that it's being released with a version of Microsoft Office? Hands up? Suddenly the price, specially compared to the ipad, is excellent.[/citation]

There better be a $299 RT option without Office... who wants to use a tablet for word processing?
 
Did Microsoft not learn anything from HP and RIM with their tablet OS experiments? You can't simply price the same hardware at the same price as competitors and expect overnight market share explosive growth. Microsoft isn't bothering to compete with Apple, Samsung, Asus, and others -- they're just aiming for parity. I think this is a really bad idea that will stifle adoption of their new tablet platform. Microsoft needs to sweeten the deal better to get people to buy these things. Including the type cover or coming in at $400 would have been a better idea. The inclusion of Microsoft Office is a moot point given that competitors have been including things like Polaris Office, which is good enough, on their products.

Microsoft, wake up and compete! Get that price down or include the type cover! For $500 I could buy a Galaxy Note 10.1 that has an office suite, painting apps for the stylus, access to Google Play, a higher resolution screen, and better battery life. That's far better value than a Surface tablet at the same price.
 
[citation][nom]damianrobertjones[/nom]So... How many of you know that it's being released with a version of Microsoft Office? Hands up? Suddenly the price, specially compared to the ipad, is excellent.[/citation]
Students generally purchase the full version of office for $50 or less through their school, my local school sells office for $10 to students. Businesses have volume licence agreements, and will not appreciate spending that money on something they already own the rights to use on their machines... much less that these are only running word, excel, powerpoint, and onenote.
So yes, we know that office is included in the price... but for most it is either too high a price, or an unwanted add-on that they should be able to install themselves if they want it.
 
[citation][nom]damianrobertjones[/nom]So... How many of you know that it's being released with a version of Microsoft Office? Hands up? Suddenly the price, specially compared to the ipad, is excellent.[/citation]
Uh, I can't speak for everyone else, but I know this. It doesn't stop the tablet from being too expensive, given everything that should have been factored in when they decided on the price.
 
[citation][nom]bigdragon[/nom]Did Microsoft not learn anything from HP and RIM with their tablet OS experiments? You can't simply price the same hardware at the same price as competitors and expect overnight market share explosive growth. Microsoft isn't bothering to compete with Apple, Samsung, Asus, and others -- they're just aiming for parity. I think this is a really bad idea that will stifle adoption of their new tablet platform. Microsoft needs to sweeten the deal better to get people to buy these things. Including the type cover or coming in at $400 would have been a better idea. The inclusion of Microsoft Office is a moot point given that competitors have been including things like Polaris Office, which is good enough, on their products.Microsoft, wake up and compete! Get that price down or include the type cover! For $500 I could buy a Galaxy Note 10.1 that has an office suite, painting apps for the stylus, access to Google Play, a higher resolution screen, and better battery life. That's far better value than a Surface tablet at the same price.[/citation]

People are more than willing to pay top dollar for good tablets. With the sole exception of the iPad most tablets are pure crap. Windows 8 is a very nice OS and the Surface Pro will most likely be a huge hit with anyone who wants to run x86 apps on a tablet (read, the entire business sector).
 
[citation][nom]pinhedd[/nom]People are more than willing to pay top dollar for good tablets. With the sole exception of the iPad most tablets are pure crap. Windows 8 is a very nice OS and the Surface Pro will most likely be a huge hit with anyone who wants to run x86 apps on a tablet (read, the entire business sector).[/citation]
We're talking about the Surface RT, not the Surface Pro. At $500 the Surface RT will flop. That business sector you made reference to isn't going to snap up a device that doesn't support domain join. Also, there have been plenty of good tablets aside from the iPad. The Xoom, Transformer, and Galaxy lineup have all been solid offerings. Microsoft lacks the popular appeal Apple commands and lacks the enormous open ecosystem Android wields. Surface RT and Windows 8 RT are in WebOS-like trouble if Microsoft doesn't get Surface RT tablets into the hands of everyone they can, and pricing it at parity with iPads and Android tablets is not the way to do it.
 
MSFT diving into the tablet hardware business already upset their partners, who have to absorb the OS license fees. Were MSFT to price this lower, Acer, Dell and the likes will probably stay away from Windows 8 slates.
 
Will they sell 1 million units? how about 2? what would you consider they are thinking they would get in first month? just in time for holidays, how about some early X-Mas shopping?
 
[citation][nom]bigdragon[/nom]Did Microsoft not learn anything from HP and RIM with their tablet OS experiments? You can't simply price the same hardware at the same price as competitors and expect overnight market share explosive growth. Microsoft isn't bothering to compete with Apple, Samsung, Asus, and others -- they're just aiming for parity. I think this is a really bad idea that will stifle adoption of their new tablet platform. Microsoft needs to sweeten the deal better to get people to buy these things. Including the type cover or coming in at $400 would have been a better idea. The inclusion of Microsoft Office is a moot point given that competitors have been including things like Polaris Office, which is good enough, on their products.Microsoft, wake up and compete! Get that price down or include the type cover! For $500 I could buy a Galaxy Note 10.1 that has an office suite, painting apps for the stylus, access to Google Play, a higher resolution screen, and better battery life. That's far better value than a Surface tablet at the same price.[/citation]

... actually the MS surface has a stylus as well, IPS screen, kickstand, sdxc card slot, full size USB port(meaning you can plug anything in there you want) microsoft office (still the best office suite hands down) the RT version is most probably going to the have awesome batterylife. All this does more than justify the price. Now add the built quality on top of it and a 100$ option for a keyboard, which you can decide not to buy and still have more input options than an iPad (mouse+keyboard on USB/BT +kickstand).
Unlike android or iOS tablets the surface RT can actually REPLACE a desktop/laptop for casual users and the surface Pro is going to be a great replacement for anyone who was happy with an ultrabook or 1yrs+ old laptop.
Don't get me wrong, i love my android phone and can't decide if microsoft or apple is worse, but the MS surface is probably going to be the best tablet option out there. (yeah i'll confirm it when i see it myself or a proper review)
 
That means the Intel based model will probably be in the $1k range. I was thinking of getting one, but I don't know if I want to pay that much for a notepad - even if it is a really nice notepad.
 
a decent $299 windows rt tab will be difficult to get. Microsoft is pushing for OEMs to bring out big tablets, not 7 inch tabs. Dont really know if they are enforcing it though. Microsoft is also selling the OS to OEMs at $80, which is damn ridiculous.

lets take the nexus 7 8gb as example. it costs 200, it has very limited memory and is 7 inches. and most of all I dont think google makes much(or at all) profit from the tab alone. also asus had much trouble reaching this price point. so spec-wise, $200 + $80(WRT)+$20 extra = $300. that is IMO the best (decent) tablet an OEM can make for the $300 WRT market. and honestly its not worth it for only 8gb(more like 6gb) storage, tiny, and no sd card. so dont be wishing for a cheap decent tab at $300 any time soon.

this just my opinion though. I really REALLY dont think Windows RT would work on a 7 inch display. so Id believe the sweet spot for windows rt is around the $400- $500 price range for a 10 inch display, sd slot, and decent specs.

must also take into consideration that TI is leaving the SoC business, which sucks.
 
[citation][nom]olaf[/nom]frikkin 100$ for a keyboard .... they are doing it wrong...[/citation]
I suppose $60 for a genuine iPad Smart Case is value, for something that is a folding magnetic case without a keyboard inside it, try to be realistic about what is value around here
[citation][nom]beardguy[/nom]32GB stroage for a supposed laptop replacement, wtf! Even 64 GB is not enough for a work machine.[/citation]
Plus 64GB on an SDXC card and a further 25GB on my Skydrive account
...
150GB is plenty of storage, especially when you will not need local storage for Office documents (if will all be saved in the Cloud) music (all stored in the Cloud, or streamed via Xbox Music, or streamed from my home FTP, all I really need that storage for is installed programs and maybe movies or TV shows and I can readily get 30 HD movies in MKV that I will watch via XBMC on a single SDXC card
...
If your work needs even more storage then perhaps any ultrabook replacement is not suitable and this is nothing to do with the Surface at all
 
[citation][nom]beardguy[/nom]32GB stroage for a supposed laptop replacement, wtf! Even 64 GB is not enough for a work machine.[/citation]
depends on the work you do. 32gb is more than enough for most work. Unless you are dealing with multimedia, you shouldn't need more than 10 gb of workspace.
 
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