Drat! Deleted the proof...
Prior to writing my clean up post a little while back I went through and deleted a lot of my rant-ier posts. One of them contained my predictions on Microsoft's pricing for Surface. Was hoping to come back here today and say "HA, I knew it!". But alas, those predictions are gone.
But, things panned out more or less as I expected. I had pegged the Surface RT with the lowest possible price being $499 and the highest being $799. Microsoft threw a bit of a curve ball, while I tossed $499 out there I didn't think it would actually be available for so little. But the reason for this is because that is the version without the smart cover. If you watched the hype when they unveiled the Surface RT they very much made it sound like there was no smart cover-less option. The cheapest version with a smart cover is $599 which fits a little more snugly in my predicted zone.
The other important point was that a lot of people were speculating (or perhaps just hoping) that this would a competitor to the growing $199 tablet market. Me, and a bunch of other people with brains shot this one down quickly. Again, I think I lost the post to back that up. But feels good to know I'm not insane.
But that $599 price tag for the cheapest version with the smart cover is lower than I was truly thinking. Had you asked me to place a bet it would have been on $699 to start. But, there are a couple of factors at play here which might have helped bring the price down... which actually surprised me, no GPS, no NFC and only 5 touch points. Maybe this isn't a "north star" product after all. I can live without NFC but it is an odd omission given how much MS has been hyping it lately, this seems like a move to ensure it never truly gets off the group. Since the OS is a gimped version of Windows one would expect it to support mobile platform like tech, so the absence of GPS is odd. And lastly, 5 touch points is the bare minimum to get the Windows 8 certification meaning the screen in at least one capacity will be on the lowest end of the spectrum.
Frankly, I think they should have included all 3 of the above mentioned things. Only offered it with the smart cover and sold it starting at $699-799. Granted, they likely wouldn't sell as many units but as long as there is a licensing cost for Windows RT, Microsoft doesn't need to sell their own tablets. And they likely would have had a more positive effect on the sales of Windows RT tablets by charging at least $100 more and producing a more feature complete and more premium feeling device, incentivizing their OEM's to produce better devices as well.
Personally, I think this just sends the message to OEM's that "look, if can skimp on quality and features to hit a certain price point then you should too".
But, things panned out more or less as I expected. I had pegged the Surface RT with the lowest possible price being $499 and the highest being $799. Microsoft threw a bit of a curve ball, while I tossed $499 out there I didn't think it would actually be available for so little. But the reason for this is because that is the version without the smart cover. If you watched the hype when they unveiled the Surface RT they very much made it sound like there was no smart cover-less option. The cheapest version with a smart cover is $599 which fits a little more snugly in my predicted zone.
The other important point was that a lot of people were speculating (or perhaps just hoping) that this would a competitor to the growing $199 tablet market. Me, and a bunch of other people with brains shot this one down quickly. Again, I think I lost the post to back that up. But feels good to know I'm not insane.
But that $599 price tag for the cheapest version with the smart cover is lower than I was truly thinking. Had you asked me to place a bet it would have been on $699 to start. But, there are a couple of factors at play here which might have helped bring the price down... which actually surprised me, no GPS, no NFC and only 5 touch points. Maybe this isn't a "north star" product after all. I can live without NFC but it is an odd omission given how much MS has been hyping it lately, this seems like a move to ensure it never truly gets off the group. Since the OS is a gimped version of Windows one would expect it to support mobile platform like tech, so the absence of GPS is odd. And lastly, 5 touch points is the bare minimum to get the Windows 8 certification meaning the screen in at least one capacity will be on the lowest end of the spectrum.
Frankly, I think they should have included all 3 of the above mentioned things. Only offered it with the smart cover and sold it starting at $699-799. Granted, they likely wouldn't sell as many units but as long as there is a licensing cost for Windows RT, Microsoft doesn't need to sell their own tablets. And they likely would have had a more positive effect on the sales of Windows RT tablets by charging at least $100 more and producing a more feature complete and more premium feeling device, incentivizing their OEM's to produce better devices as well.
Personally, I think this just sends the message to OEM's that "look, if can skimp on quality and features to hit a certain price point then you should too".
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