[Prometheus2021]

How much do you think "Andromeda" will cost once it comes out?

[Jcmg62]

My guess....somewhere between £800 - 1200.

If it's anything lower than that, I'll be very pleasantly surprised.

Anything higher than that, and it'll be out of my price range for a long time

[Drael646464]

It'll be more expensive than the cheapest laptops, and less expensive than a gold plated iPhone. Anyone would be guessing but it's unlikely to be cheap as it uses new technology and has two screens.

[DavidBS1989]

Well, if they want (despite they don't say it) to sell it to people we're waiting it for use it as smartphone, they can't put a high prize. It would be at least as the competence prizes.

[Drael646464]

Well, if they want (despite they don't say it) to sell it to people we're waiting it for use it as smartphone, they can't put a high prize. It would be at least as the competence prizes.

Id say that depends on their market testing. If it's a niche productivity/creativity device, then that doesn't apply. If phone users express real interest, then it does.

[Iain_S]

if its anything like how MS price their surface line it will be extremely expensive and out of reach for most normal folk.

[techiez]

My guess....somewhere between £800 - 1200.

If it's anything lower than that, I'll be very pleasantly surprised.

Anything higher than that, and it'll be out of my price range for a long time

1500-2000$

[Jcmg62]

1500-2000$

Yup. Or higher. Wouldn't be surprised if they bring out a price range, from 64GB up to 256 or 500GB, although if it's Arm then at least we won't have to deal with the whole i3 vs i5 vs i7 price range crap from intel.

But frankly, if this thing has phone capabilities, unfolds into a tablet and comes packed with continuum, then we're talking about the first truly all encompassing device...one that really could replace almost every other machine.

And that could cost a helluva lot

[Drael646464]

Yup. Or higher. Wouldn't be surprised if they bring out a price range, from 64GB up to 256 or 500GB, although if it's Arm then at least we won't have to deal with the whole i3 vs i5 vs i7 price range crap from intel.

But frankly, if this thing has phone capabilities, unfolds into a tablet and comes packed with continuum, then we're talking about the first truly all encompassing device...one that really could replace almost every other machine.

And that could cost a helluva lot

It could in theory come with a keyboard and trackpad dock/case, for a laptop mode, and have a pipeline for an external GPU and hard drive, although ARM doesn't support eGPUs or thunderbolt.


More likely it'll just have a USB-c port, and you can use it as a PC or a tablet, or phone, so it won't quite replace every type of device. Still I see your point, if it was high quality enough, being that it could replace multiple devices, it could be justifiable if they charge more - you'd be saving money on that seperate bill you pay to upgrade your tablet, phone and desktop separately.

On the other hand, given the trend of dual screening, I'm not entirely sure people want just 1 device.

[Jcmg62]

It could in theory come with a keyboard and trackpad dock/case, for a laptop mode, and have a pipeline for an external GPU and hard drive, although ARM doesn't support eGPUs or thunderbolt.


More likely it'll just have a USB-c port, and you can use it as a PC or a tablet, or phone, so it won't quite replace every type of device. Still I see your point, if it was high quality enough, being that it could replace multiple devices, it could be justifiable if they charge more - you'd be saving money on that seperate bill you pay to upgrade your tablet, phone and desktop separately.

On the other hand, given the trend of dual screening, I'm not entirely sure people want just 1 device.

Thinking about it, a lot of the pricing strategy could simply come down to whether MS want to really push this kind of device into the mainstream market, or whether they'll play the long game and target enterprise first, in the hope that consumers eventually decide they want in on the action too.

Years ago, back in the 1990's I worked at panasonic. We were selling fax machines to the enterprise market for big money. Like, ridiculous amount. We had a lower range thermal image roller fax machine, bottom end of the tech spec sheet, selling for £800.

But then consumers wanted fax machines, and suddenly everyone was selling them. Overnight a £800 machine was in retail stores for £150.

Question is, will MS play for consumers or focus on enterprise

[sd4f]

I think they'll play to enterprise with this one.

Thing is, I reckon it would be a mistake. While they're saying that they're all in category creation, I just can't see anything happening if it doesn't get broader than enterprise adoption.

What makes it tricky is this;
This is a mobile play, what has MS been saying about mobile; things about what comes after smartphone. Well, what comes after is definitely going to be a consumer environment isn't it. Success of smartphones in enterprise has come from the fact that it was consumer led.

Next, all this effort to porting apps etc. Why would they bother if this is just an enterprise play? Enterprise can afford to make custom apps for a platform if they want to, actually they still have to in this case.

Next, it's clear that consumers drove the success of smartphones. Enterprise didn't really determine much at all in their success, with the exception that some developers and companies made a loot of money by targeting consumers rather than enterprise. An enterprise targeted solution is probably going to flop in my opinion. Very few people get excited by productivity improvements.

While MS definitely won't be targeting entry level, they need to emulate iphone's success, in that it becomes an aspirational device, and people want it because it does things which smartphones can't.

Surface studio is probably going to be the best example of what I think MS is trying to repeat, while, the thing is the Surface Studio has a lot of legacy features, the new abilities aren't really well supported by software, yet, but at the bare minimum it is still a desktop PC.

MS mobile play is always going to be hampered by a lack of apps. And play is venturing into new territory, purely because how their smartphone attempts have failed. Any attempt needs to stand on its two feet, and needs to convince developers to support the platform.

[Drael646464]

Thinking about it, a lot of the pricing strategy could simply come down to whether MS want to really push this kind of device into the mainstream market, or whether they'll play the long game and target enterprise first, in the hope that consumers eventually decide they want in on the action too.

Years ago, back in the 1990's I worked at panasonic. We were selling fax machines to the enterprise market for big money. Like, ridiculous amount. We had a lower range thermal image roller fax machine, bottom end of the tech spec sheet, selling for £800.

But then consumers wanted fax machines, and suddenly everyone was selling them. Overnight a £800 machine was in retail stores for £150.

Question is, will MS play for consumers or focus on enterprise

Usually the manufacturing costs go down a bit, and then its consumers. But it could be wise for them to take a loss at the beginning just to get the ball rolling. It would help the UWP platform, like windows on arm also will, and thus the future of windows in general.

[Jcmg62]

Usually the manufacturing costs go down a bit, and then its consumers. But it could be wise for them to take a loss at the beginning just to get the ball rolling. It would help the UWP platform, like windows on arm also will, and thus the future of windows in general.

Agreed, although the Microsoft strategy when it comes to the surface line is very much focused on premium brand and high cost, so it's hard to imagine them taking abhit to push unit sales.