No matter how unfortunate it may be, it is still reasonable to say that Microsoft, with its Microsoft Surface, failed to get the reception they were hoping for. It was in October of last year when the tablet hit the shelves but tanked shortly after.
The tablet’s sad fate was hugely attributed to its rather ambitious price range, less than stellar software selection and a bunch of other issues that hound Microsoft 8. It was in late May when Microsoft had the tablet on sale at its very own TechEd conference. The Surface units were sold for 100 USD while the Surface Pro was sold for 399 USD. Currently, Redmond is offering a great deal for academic instructions by extending them a substantial discount program.
Microsoft’s Surface will now sell for 199 USD. The price will reach 249 USD if the Touch Cover comes with it. On the other hand, 289 USD will be the price point of the Type Cover. One major source of commotion and confusion would be the fact that Microsoft is actually offering lower and discounted prices to academic institutions but not to individual students. Many assume that the reason behind this gesture is Microsoft leaving the distribution of the tablets to the academic institutions, where the market will mainly be their students. Although it is a great deal many schools can take advantage of, it was not made clear if the tech giant will require up-front bulk purchases or if there will be any other restrictions on the purchases. If students are willing to pay full price, they can avail of either a Touch or Type Cover for free, which is currently Microsoft’s deal for students.
At 199 USD, the Microsoft Surface is actually a good buy. And no matter how hard Microsoft tries to cover or coat it up, selling their products at more than half the price is a clear indication of how badly they have fared in the market. This isn’t a total surprise because most people feel like they are better off buying VoIP capable smartphones or dependable Apple products rather than opting for MS’s tablets. This unfortunate situation isn’t a clear testament to the quality of Surface. On the contrary, Surface has pretty amazing features. It is easy to carry around, it is an excellent media player and its screen quality isn’t bad at all, although you wouldn’t want to buy the Touch Cover if you will be using the tablet for typing since it is stiff and difficult to use. Surface RT on the other hand worked really well for browsing online sites and reading news, it also has a great audio and video playback feature. Although there was actually no desktop software in this device, the access it provided to Windows Explorer came in handy. Surface RT also comes with a Metro version of Office which is not as useful as some thought it would be.
If you are wondering why Microsoft is busy disposing of all of their Surface RT stocks, your guess is certainly as good as all of the others’. In fact, it could all be because of a bad or poor marketing strategy which is quite sad given the many different avenues they could have chosen to focus on. Or, it could also be because of many other reasons. They might be gearing towards another direction in tech development or they could be working on a better and much improved version of the tablet. We can’t be too sure. Whatever the reason is, consumers should be vigilant and cautious when choosing the gadgets they will spend their money on.