Don't price Surface at $199, pleads Acer

Microsoft may consider maintaining a price gap for its Surface products to give hardware partners some competitive breathing room, according to an Asia-based report.

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.

"Microsoft is currently looking for solutions such as creating a price gap to minimize the negative impact on other vendors' product lineups," according to the report.

Source

A Guy

 

[pparks1]

@Terry. The Surface pro will hopefully become that tablet device that does nearly just as much as a full fledged laptop. I'm not 100% convinced I would want to run on a 10.6" screen..and this is where a small notebook might work out better for me. For a tablet to really be useful to me, I need a real keyboard and touchpad.....no touch screen keyboards. I'm not thrilled about not having an optical drive, but I am using far more movie streaming (netflix and hbogo) on my laptop than actually playing back an optical disk. Most of my movies are still from Blu-Ray, through my home theater system to my plasma tv. That's not going anywhere anytime soon.

 

[legacy7955]

That's the thing about tablets, when you consider the price of entry and then consider the actually usefulness and practicality a netbook or laptop is the better value, and much more practical. Actually I think that the tablet is NOT long for this world because I think a lot of people will start realizing what we already do, the value is just not there. The world and especially the USA is still in the midst of a long recession and folks don't have a lot of loose change to throw around, and staples like food and gas are going to explode in cost over the next year or so. Sure the Apple crowd won't be affected that much but they are a tiny part of the technology pie and with their OUTRAGEOUS cost they will continue to be so.

 

[pparks1]

Sure the Apple crowd won't be affected that much but they are a tiny part of the technology pie and with their OUTRAGEOUS cost they will continue to be so.

Um, perhaps you haven't noticed, but the iPhone and iPad dominance in the marketspace is anything but a tiny part of the pie.

 

[A Guy]

It's estimated that through March of this year Apple had sold 67 million iPads. It's estimated that may reach 100 million before the end of the year. A Guy

 

[legacy7955]

It's estimated that through March of this year Apple had sold 67 million iPads. It's estimated that may reach 100 million before the end of the year. A Guy

That is still a small number considering the global economy.

From what I have seen the only thing people are doing with tablets is playing games, watching you tube, and writing the occasional e mail. It is funny to watch type an e mail because the fumbling around with the on screen keyboard ends up making for more work to get it done.. LOL

As an aside I was watching CNN today and they were using one of the stupid 50 inch televisions as a touch screen to get across some equally inane point and it required touching the screen to make a change. Well I watched in amusement as this guy keep poking at that fancy big touch screen which proceeded to do ABSOLUTELY NOTHING after he tapped on it about ten times. ...Finally they had to have a director use a control room keyboard to make it change . LOL

 

[pparks1]

I would expect that Microsoft marketing has determined that if they don't put a super low price tag on this late arrival to the game that they are going to have the equivalent to the market share of their Zune Player.

I've got a strange feeling that there is a lot of hype for this, and it's going to come out of the gate flopping like the Blackberry Playbook.

 

[alphanumeric]

I don't see myself buying an RT unless its dirt cheap, and I mean really dirt cheap. With the restrictions on what you could actually do with the thing. I personally can't see spending any kind of money to get one just to play a few games on etc. I'm more interested in the 8 Pro's ability to run normal windows programs. Again, it depends on what price its pegged at. Like some others here, to me, at some point buying a laptop with a bigger screen for the same price starts to look like a better option. I'll take functionality over ewes and ahs any day.

 

[swyost]

This forum is really just embarrassing. It should be relabeled the "Let's whine incessantly about anything Windows 8 related Forum. People really think something they have never touched will be a failure? Why? What is the empirical evidence for that position? If they price it low, there will be interest. In fact, there is a lot of interest in the Surface tablets, and they have drawn quite a bit of positive initial press coverage outside of this little black hole of a forum.

The joke is that it appears to get a warmer reception in Android and RIM forums than this place. Even a lot of Apple people get the concept. So you don't like Microsoft's vision for the future. Congratulations - I think everyone gets that pretty well. If, however, you think tablets are going away, you really must be hanging out under a rock or in a cave. Touch interfaces are not a fad and neither is the desire for lightweight devices that can handle the typical tasks people do in a day. As far as an empty app store, it has only been open for a few days and the release is not until late October. It has also already been embraced by some key players even while still be beta. Just take a look at the stuff already available, or consider that Google and Mozilla would not be threatening legal action to get into a platform that they have decided is going to be DOA. BTW, if RT tablets ship with a version of Office, it is already ahead of curve in terms of one of the consistent complaints about all other tablets.

I have never been known as a hardcore advocate of any platform other than, perhaps, Nikon DSLRs. In this forum though, even trying to just be open mined seems almost fanboy-ish. If you don't want the OS and don't like RT or the Surface, why whine about it at every possible opportunity? No one is forcing you to give up Windows 7. Take a look at the threads in the forum. It is virtually a dysfunctional mirror image of a RIM or Apple forum. Whereas they can find nothing wrong in their products, many here spew the same negative (and poorly informed) mantra in thread after thread.

 

[alphanumeric]

lol, Nobody forced you to come here and act like a cry baby because you don't like what was said, but you did it anyway.

 

[djshonrock]

I guess Android is soaring in the skies unlike other Portable OSs.. Android Devices are filled up in the stores..

 

[A Guy]

Is there any way claims of a $199 Microsoft Surface RT makes sense?

In the past week, we've heard two different claims that Microsoft is planning to price the ARM-based version of its Surface tablet at $199. (Claim one, claim two)

Is there any way these rumors could possibly be true? Especially given the fact the Surface hardware is custom-made-to-order and likely to be available in small quantities out of the gate? (And, based on the limited time the press and analysts had with the devices, of seemingly super-high quality for which one would expect to pay a premium price?)

Microsoft is not commenting on the $199 rumor. I can't get a "no comment." Just no response at all from the Windows team.

Update: A Windows spokesperson said the company had "no comment on rumors or speculation."

Source

A Guy

 

[Coke Robot]

Balls, if Microsoft ACTUALLY sells the Surface RT at 200, imagine what Pro will cost!