
Microsoft Surface for Windows RT tablet coming October 26th for $199? - aespinoza
http://www.engadget.com/2012/08/14/microsoft-surface-199/
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umeshunni
As a commenter on Engadget pointed out:

Engadget - You linked to an article at CNET, but there I only read: 'Microsoft
may consider maintaining a price gap for its Surface products to give hardware
partners some competitive breathing room' [..] "Wang said that a Surface
tablet priced at $199 would have a big impact" [..] Indeed, Surface pricing is
a mystery.

You see, they said quite the opposite of what you mentioned in your article.
CNET says: MS considers selling the Surface tablet at a normal price, (maybe
$400-$600) so Acer, Lenovo, ... have a chance to compete against it. They
won't subsidize it, else they only hurt themself, and in the end MS will be
the only Windows RT tablet manufacturers, because Acer, Lenovo will ditch
Windows RT because they can't compete with subisidized prices.

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adjwilli
$200 seems low, but that might would it take to build marketshare today. Plus,
Microsoft has experience selling their hardware at a loss with the XBox. I
wonder how Apple would react to this.

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bunderbunder
With the XBox, Microsoft had the biggest war chest in the space. That gave
them the advantage of being more free to sell at a loss than their
competitors.

This time around, Apple has both market dominance and the bigger war chest.
That's going to make it harder to pull off the same game.

~~~
freehunter
The difference being, Microsoft has a history of slashing prices below cost.
Apple does not, and it would be difficult to predict that they would start
anytime soon. Apple makes their money on status and luxury, not on volume
sales. Microsoft has no problem being a commodity, whereas Apple would never
utter that word.

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lini
I am a bit skeptical about the price. MS already said that Surface RT will be
comparatively priced to similar tablets -like the iPad/Asus Transformer etc.
These sell for ~$500. I would LOVE it if it actually comes for $200 but it's
highly doubtful.

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benologist
Garbage and blog spam.

[http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-57491529-92/dont-price-
surf...](http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-57491529-92/dont-price-surface-
at-$199-pleads-acer/)

~~~
freehunter
You call out Engadget for blogspam, then link to an article that says this

 _"Acer chairman JT Wang commented publicly on Thursday that Microsoft is
seeking ways to create a price chasm between its Surface tablet and competing
products from PC makers, according to a Friday report in Taipei-based
Digitimes."_

and links to this

<http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20120809PD216.html>

which seems to be the original source of the information?

~~~
benologist
Oops you're right.

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Toshio
At this price all the windows enthusiasts would queue up to buy at least 3
pieces at a time for themselves, leaving microsoft without enough
manufacturing capacity to reach the audience they're really gunning for: John-
Doe-oh-well-I-guess-I'll-buy-an-iPad-then.

