Microsoft must be selling way below cost

[wshwe]

Surface RTs sold for $200 and under have got to be way below cost. Since MS is a big company their overhead and development costs likely are huge. This is what they took the $900 million write-down for. Hopefully MS will be able to sell all remaining stock. Hate to see new RTs wind up in recycling operations or landfills. BTW I love my 64 GB RT! Increased tablet sales should entice developers to better support the platform.

 

[DBDev]

They are probably selling them so cheap because otherwise everyone should buy the sp2 instead :wink:

 

[dznk]

You're right, they won't be making any profit selling them at that price, but it is much better for them to sell off the remaining excess stock and get them into peoples hands. This is the ideal time to put them on sale. This will boost the numbers of people using Windows RT and I'm sure Microsoft hope that this will also mean more people will upgrade to the newer Microsoft products in the future if they are happy with these devices. Like you mentioned, the more people that are using the platform the more interest there will be from developers as well.

 

[WillysJeepMan]

Surface RTs sold for $200 and under have got to be way below cost. Since MS is a big company their overhead and development costs likely are huge. This is what they took the $900 million write-down for. Hopefully MS will be able to sell all remaining stock. Hate to see new RTs wind up in recycling operations or landfills. BTW I love my 64 GB RT! Increased tablet sales should entice developers to better support the platform.

There is no danger of RTs ending up in landfills or recycling centers. If they didn't sell all of their remaining inventory of RT units by the end of this weekend, they certainly will within the next 3 weeks. This is EXACTLY what they did back on 2007 when they offered the 1st gen Zune (30) as Black Friday doorbusters. They had massive quantities of Zune 30 units available and so they cleared out inventory to (A) recoup some cost, (B) get Zunes into consumers' hands to create a user base, (C) generate buzz for the holiday shopping season as a way of kick-starting interest in the 2nd gen Zune device (Zune 80). It worked then.

I believe that it is going to work again. Everyone that I know had not heard of the RT until I bought one 2 months ago on that $199 ebay bundle deal. After that they were mildly interested. After I told them that I expect the RT to be a doorbuster on Black Friday for perhaps even less, they became more interested. After a handful of acquaintances and friends bought them this weekend, THEIR friends and family are suddenly very hot to buy one. They're asking their friends who are in turn asking me to help them track some down.

Those who want one and don't want to risk going to Christmas morning without one are actually considering a Surface 2. It's 2007 all over again. There's definitely buzz in my sphere of influence around the RT/2. It's gonna be fun.

 

[rebornempowered]

There is no danger of RTs ending up in landfills or recycling centers. If they didn't sell all of their remaining inventory of RT units by the end of this weekend, they certainly will within the next 3 weeks. This is EXACTLY what they did back on 2007 when they offered the 1st gen Zune (30) as Black Friday doorbusters. They had massive quantities of Zune 30 units available and so they cleared out inventory to (A) recoup some cost, (B) get Zunes into consumers' hands to create a user base, (C) generate buzz for the holiday shopping season as a way of kick-starting interest in the 2nd gen Zune device (Zune 80). It worked then.

I believe that it is going to work again. Everyone that I know had not heard of the RT until I bought one 2 months ago on that $199 ebay bundle deal. After that they were mildly interested. After I told them that I expect the RT to be a doorbuster on Black Friday for perhaps even less, they became more interested. After a handful of acquaintances and friends bought them this weekend, THEIR friends and family are suddenly very hot to buy one. They're asking their friends who are in turn asking me to help them track some down.

Those who want one and don't want to risk going to Christmas morning without one are actually considering a Surface 2. It's 2007 all over again. There's definitely buzz in my sphere of influence around the RT/2. It's gonna be fun.

I know of three that were purchased on Friday and I don't know too many people who go out shopping. I was at my in laws and my father in law bought one. I told him I would help him get it updated. Right there on the box it said "Windows RT 8.1". I about fell over. The other two I know that were purchased did not have this though.

This is a big move selling these things on the cheap. User base is a bigger deal for Surface than it was with Zune (still love my 120). When reports start coming out how many of these are actually in peoples hands we should see app development escalate. Here is to awesome apps on our Surface's in 2014!!!

 

[pseudoware]

http://www.eyeonwindows.com/2013/12...piping-hot-black-friday-sold-remarkably-well/

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 4