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Microsoft Handhelds Portables Hardware

Microsoft Slashes Prices On Surface 330

McGruber writes "Thursday, The Verge broke the news that Microsoft was slashing the price of its tablets — the price of the 32-gig Surface RT plummeted by 42%! Staples, TigerDirect and many other retailers are already selling the tablets at the lowered prices. I wonder what Microsoft will do for customers who purchased a tablet right before the price drop?"
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Microsoft Slashes Prices On Surface

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  • Price Adjustment (Score:5, Informative)

    by Oysterville ( 2944937 ) on Sunday July 14, 2013 @04:12PM (#44279221)
    I doubt that Microsoft will do much of anything for those early adopters, but check with your place of purchase. Frequently they have a price guarantee that will cover price adjustments both at that store and with competitors.
  • Re:Linux? (Score:5, Informative)

    by supersat ( 639745 ) on Sunday July 14, 2013 @04:21PM (#44279303)
    No. The bootloader is locked down, and since there are code signing requirements for apps, you can't even run a VM.
  • Bad math (Score:5, Informative)

    by Dan East ( 318230 ) on Sunday July 14, 2013 @04:23PM (#44279311) Journal

    the price of the 32-gig Surface RT plummeted by 42%

    That's wrong - the price has been reduced by 30%. The new price of the 32 gig Surface is $349. The original price was $499 (the price of all models is being reduced by $150). You divide the discount by the original price, not the new reduced price, to find the percentage reduction. 150/499=30% (150/349 is indeed 42%, but that is meaningless in this case)

  • by phantomfive ( 622387 ) on Sunday July 14, 2013 @04:23PM (#44279315) Journal
    After the price cut, it still costs $349 for the cheapest model. Might as well get a ipad mini, or Galaxy Tab if you want Linux.
  • by supersat ( 639745 ) on Sunday July 14, 2013 @04:25PM (#44279325)
    The only content you can create on the Surface are Office docs. And only personal content -- use of the included Office software for any organization (including non-profits) requires a separate, full Office license.
  • Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Sunday July 14, 2013 @04:44PM (#44279449)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • Sad thing is (Score:2, Informative)

    by obarthelemy ( 160321 ) on Sunday July 14, 2013 @05:06PM (#44279611)
    Even at that price, I'd probably not buy a Surface-RT if my current Android broke. And looking around me, I find nobody I'd recommend it to: you have to
    - need Office
    - but no other Windows App because those don't run on RT (bneither does AD, Outlook... none of the "pro" stuff)
    - and no other serious App in general, because Win8-RT is still missing a *good* apps for the basics (RSS, dlna, multi-format video player, etc etc)
    - no games except a handful
    - not want 7", nor any weird stuff (phone with your 3G...)
    - be able to make do with a quite retarded OS. I've just finished setting up a "metro" Win8 desktop for the 'rents; Metro is a compendium of UI miscues, functionality holes, and bugs. Live tiles are semi-nice, until you realize there's about 8 of them, of which 4 are useless. Not even a *clock* for chrissake.
    - be able to cope not only with random featuritis (hey, let's make IE metro-like when it's the default browser, and not Metro-like when it isn't), but also random de-featuritis (hey, now that people have gotten used to Facebook photos on their screensaver, let's cut that !)

    Last time I had to deal with MS in mobile, they explained to me nicely that no, my (just bought) HTC HD2 coudln't synch with my (just bought) Windows computer, that it was normal, and that there were no plans to make the 2 sync. I dropped them right there, and they're staying dropped until they come up with something Real Good. Win8, Win8 RT, and the Surfaces certainly aren't it. Even the Nokia cameras aren't.
  • Re:Linux? (Score:5, Informative)

    by sjames ( 1099 ) on Sunday July 14, 2013 @05:20PM (#44279713) Homepage Journal

    I have seen that done actually!

    It seems that neither Ford nor Chevy go out of their way to make that any harder than it naturally is, unlike Microsoft.

  • Re:Price Adjustment (Score:4, Informative)

    by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) * on Sunday July 14, 2013 @06:20PM (#44280117) Homepage Journal

    Surface was never meant to compete with the iPad. It's more like a laptop/tablet hybrid. The iPad is about mini-apps, mostly viewing data and playing simple games. There are exceptions but look at it this way: Surface comes with a keyboard and stand designed into the form factor, the iPad is a purely hand-held touch operated device.

    Microsoft's target market is people who want to work on Windows creating documents or writing longish emails but also want a tablet form factor they can easily carry with them or use hand-held for viewing. Of course being Microsoft they completely failed to communicate this and further confused things by having two different platforms with the introduction of RT.

    The point is that it should really be compared to netbooks or Chromebooks, in which case it was still massively overpriced but an interesting twist on the idea.

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