
Microsoft offers Apple users $650 off to trade a MacBook for a Surface - hackerkid
https://techcrunch.com/2016/10/28/microsoft-apple/?ncid=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29&utm_content=FaceBook&sr_share=facebook
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ssivark
IMHO, this is a marketing attempt to get the word out that Surface Pro/Book
are competing for the same market as the Macbook <whatever>. They could spend
a lot of money on advertizing and try to reach end users, or come up with a
scheme like this where they might not actually fork out too much money and let
news media do the job for them. At the sortof discounts they'll actually end
up giving on average, its a win for them irrespective of how many people
actually make use of the offer.

(Quite clever, methinks)

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matthjensen
Shouldn't Microsoft have made the trade in page prettier if the goal is to get
the word out that "Surface Pro/Book are competing for the same market as the
Macbook <whatever>"?

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adventurer
Sure, but Microsoft isn't exactly known for fancy marketing.

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lpa22
These trade-in values are laughable[1]. You are better off selling on eBay.
Microsoft does sure know their Apple laptop models though

[1]
[https://microsoftsurfacetrade.cexchange.com/online/home/inde...](https://microsoftsurfacetrade.cexchange.com/online/home/index.rails)

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fletchowns
Selling something on eBay can be such a huge pain in the ass. I wouldn't be
surprised if people were willing to pay for the convenience of doing it
through Microsoft.

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emodendroket
Doubly true if you're the kind of person who owns a Macbook Pro and is
considering buying a Surface.

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tristanj
Quick clarification, it's not $650 off it's "up to" $650 off based off the
Apple laptop's trade in value.

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dep_b
They wanted to give me US$100 for my 2008 alu MacBook. I bet they're going to
flip them on fleabay!

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emodendroket
Is there that healthy a market for second-hand computers that are nearly a
decade old?

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Scoundreller
For a 2008 Macbook, $100-$200 on fleabay.

I have been looking at 2008-2009 27" iMacs, and they still go for US$700-800.
Since OS X has to be built for underpowered laptops, it should still perform
well on desktops for a while longer.

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saberworks
As always, I'm creeped out by the fact that Microsoft is tracking how often
everyone uses touch input. Are they tracking what app the user was interacting
with? Exactly where/how they touched? What was under the touch? I'm just not
comfortable sharing that information with anyone. If they were to provide a
complete opt-out of all information sharing I'd definitely consider it, but
until then I'm out.

This is in response to the giant quote box they have in the article on the
actual blog post.

"97% of people that have a Surface Pro 4 or Surface Book use on-screen touch
input regularly."

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j45
Upgrading to Windows 10 enterprise/Pro allows turning off of such creepy
telemetry.

I understand they probably want to understand how users are using touch that
they may not have taught yet but it should not be forced on regular Windows 10
users.

Still, on regular windows 10 home devices, tools like Spybot's anti-beacon
seem to be at least somewhat effective in minimizing such calls home.

[https://www.safer-networking.org/spybot-anti-beacon/](https://www.safer-
networking.org/spybot-anti-beacon/)

~~~
oridecon
> Upgrading to Windows 10 enterprise/Pro allows turning off of such creepy
> telemetry.

Isn't this option enterprise only? And it doesn't disable _everything_

I don't know what's the situation now but when I checked what a W10 enterprise
installation leaked in a VM I was really shocked. Even after using a few
tools, and the policy editor, I remember that even explorer.exe (the file
manager I mean) was making network calls.

Not trying to spread FUD about MS, I'm tired of ALL telemetry, from apps to
Apples. I would love to see some privacy advocating foundation or public
service that released constant unbiased reports about what each OS version is
collecting from you.

And, like I said before, if MS wants me to consider using Windows (outside of
my daily job, that I have no other option), they should offer a PAID option
with ZERO data collection. I don't care if you offer Windows for free in
exchange for the user data, but I don't want any of it. And you can have my
money for that.

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dorianm
$50.00 for a working MacBook Pro retina 13", I guess it's just a joke, even
they don't believe anyone would trade a MacBook for a Surface-thing.

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pfooti
Really? They're offering me $400 for my 256gb / 2.4ghz late 2013 retina model.
Pretty bog standard and 3 years old. That's enough to make me seriously
consider it, since I've been eyeing the surface book for a bit. Mainly I need
to figure out its Ubuntu compatibility now.

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reustle
If you're seriously considering it, you'll get way more than $400 selling your
MBP on your own.

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eric_the_read
My question is: How is Microsoft going to dispose of these MacBooks?

My follow-up question is: How do I get in on that action?

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WrkInProgress
This is nothing new and Microsoft has had programs like this in place from
time and time (including trading in old versions of Surface / Surface Pro).

As someone pointed out, it's just a re-branding of am existing third party
"trade in" company.

Here's one for the Xbox
[https://microsoftconsoletradeca.cexchange.com/online/home/in...](https://microsoftconsoletradeca.cexchange.com/online/home/index.rails)

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blitzd
Any way I could trade my Surface Pro 3 for an old MacBook? I'm tired of MS
breaking it every 2nd week with 'updates'.

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nu5500
Sounds like you have a lemon then and should have it replaced. I'm on a SP3
right now that I bought two years ago... since then upgraded to Win 10 and
then to the Anniversary Update. Other than the battery drain issue that struck
earlier this year, it's pretty much been flawless and I bang on it every day.
I for one am sold on this form factor.

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marricks
Highlights how much Apple and Microsoft are targeting the same market with
very different products, which is good for consumers.

Unfortunately consumers can also be the casualties. Less popularized "specs"
would be the manufacturing and software issues that have plagued windows
devices like the surfacebook being extremely buggy at launch and the del XPS
13 completely lacking drivers when launched with win 10... Apple seems to have
a but better of a job at hardware and software integration.

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passive
I've had to RMA it twice, but otherwise my surface pro 3 has been the most
reliable computer I've ever used. My only machine for work and play for the
last 2 years, and right now it looks like a Surface will replace it.

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abritinthebay
> _I 've had to RMA it twice, but otherwise my surface pro 3 has been the most
> reliable computer I've ever used._

That's... a pretty major "otherwise".

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passive
Well, my only problems were ones where I got a quick replacement. Day-to-day
it simply worked well.

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stomato
My answer would be "No, thanks."

Even though the new MB pro has the weird strip and lack of function keys, the
OS is still better. Windows 10 has more quirks.

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nkozyra
So put OSX on the Surface ;)

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bobwaycott
Is that even possible?

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kyriakos
Yes just not legal (well it is sort of legal if you consider the EULA is not a
law just don't advertise you are doing it).

On the other hand, OSX would be the worst OS to install on a convertible
tablet/laptop - you're better off with Linux.

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emsy
The trade-in value is really low. They offer UP TO $650, but most models are
valued lower. Not a good deal for consumers.

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twblalock
Some people here are complaining about the trade in value, but Microsoft's
quote for my 2011 Macbook Pro was pretty close to what I could get for it on
eBay.

However, I would not expect the resale value on any Surface product to be very
good at all.

One of the nice things about owning Apple products is that you only pay full
price for the first one -- when you replace it, you can trade in or sell the
one you have for a lot more money than any non-Apple product of a similar age.

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SiVal
Well, it looks as though they are striking while the iron is hot. There is
enough disappointment by people wanting a serious unixy workstation who have
been using the Mac for that purpose that if MS puts serious effort into their
Windows Subsytem for Linux and pushes hard enough, they may well seriously
grab developer market share from Apple.

I wonder if Apple would even notice.

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wmeredith
It's a good question. Apple$ iPhone business alone is bigger than all of
Microsoft.

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ant6n
Uh, isn't Apple's Iphone business most of Apple's business?

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drham
"Up to $650". You plug in your exact model and get a value thats <= $650 based
on resale value, similar to value to just selling to a service like Gazelle.
Smart marketing though.

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Steeeve
They really blew a good oppportunity. The values they are offering are
laughable.

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a13n
And by $650 you mean "up to $650"... I have a MacBook Air that was appraised
at $260. Screw that...

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dpweb
If they were serious they would make it 1000. Or even refund almost new
prices. It would work. Ms in the past was very aggressive when they put their
minds to getting market share. Remember when they offered web browsers for
free. Bye Netscape. They offered 30pct a few years back on everything on eBay,
these were compelling deals.

I do not like iPhone but sorry iPads are nicer than surface tablets. They
should go hard if they really want to displace iPad. As a tablet surfaces are
a little too heavy and expensive.

~~~
cuchoi
I was open to trade my Mid 2012 (upgraded RAM and HDD to SDD), but they offer
me $350. I just bought a new charger for $80 dollars (you have to include it
in the trade to be eligible)...

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sheeshkebab
Clever marketing, but very misleading and trade in values are mostly nowhere
$650.

Went browsing apple.com macs after seeing all their $2k+ prices on surface
books...

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ruffrey
Does it run Linux?

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stoic
Clearly a ploy by Microsoft to snag some decent hardware for their own staff
on the cheap.

Nice try, slugheads!

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orsenthil
But, can you install Linux on it?

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unicornporn
Realized I forgot a out these day after they were presented. Perhaps because
they're not even possible to buy here in Sweden...

Too bad, because they look mighty fine.

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kelukelugames
I traded in my broken mackbook air for a surface pro 3. Microsoft sent someone
to film me because of it. I think not a lot of people made that deal.

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thr0waway1239
Reminds me of Bing Rewards. They should probably refrain from offering people
money to try their products because it devalues their own brand.

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aq3cn
What Apple does with purchased MacBook?

It will be funny if Apple puts ban on reselling these devices and disable
their iTune accounts.

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dangero
If they would have actually given me $650 off I would have done it, but since
they are only offering $150 for my model and I wasted my time looking into it,
I feel an even stronger dislike from Microsoft than I felt before.

Nice work Microsoft marketing team. Very shortsighted.

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jonknee
You should channel your dislike towards Tech Crunch who wrote the headline...

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dangero
I partially agree, but: 1\. Microsoft has a huge PR division and had at least
some influence on this article. 2\. The entire promotion from Microsoft is
meant to be click-bait because they aren't providing any value I couldn't get
already. There are already resale markets for used Macbook pros that provide
the same pricing.

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pinkskip
Surface is nice, But would i trade my Macbook for it, No!

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randlet
US only unfortunately.

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rocky1138
Damn. US only.

~~~
mentat2737
Agree... No love for EU users :/

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bitmapbrother
Title is misleading. It should be "up to $650". The trade in values are
ridiculous, though and on par with pawn shop quotes.

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jcmoscon
No thanks!

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countryqt30
Of course: The Surface is WORTHLESS!

That's a great deal for Microsoft.

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man5quid
It only takes a kernel patch to gentoo for it to run linux!

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nosound_badday
Desperado...

