Skip to footer

As sales flounder, Microsoft will drop prices on Surface RT tablet

The price drop may mean things aren't going swimmingly for Microsoft's Surface tablet. 

|
Reuters
A Microsoft representative holds a Surface tablet computer as it is unveiled by Microsoft in Los Angeles, Calif., in this June 18, 2012 file photo. This week, Microsoft indicated it would drop prices on the Surface RT tablet line.
  • By Matthew Shaer

Microsoft hasn't exactly been forthcoming about sales figures for its new Surface tablet, although according to Bloomberg, as of March, the total number was hovering around 1.5 million units – not terrible, but certainly not stellar. (To put things in perspective, Apple sold 3 million iPads in the three days following the launch of the iPad Mini and the fourth-gen iPad.) 

Here's what we do know (hat tip to the Associated Press): Microsoft is dropping the price on its Surface tablet by a substantial percentage. Beginning this week, a 32GB Surface RT without a cover will sell for $349, down from $499. Meanwhile, the 32GB Surface RT with the cover – a cover that doubles as a keyboard – will now cost $449, down from $599. 

"We've been seeing great success with pricing and cover promotions over the past several months on Surface RT in the U.S. and other markets," a Microsoft spokesman told the Wall Street Journal in an interview published today. "People who buy Surface love Surface, and we're excited about all those additional people out sharing their excitement for Surface with other people."

In a report published in May, analytics firm IDC estimated that Microsoft shipped 900,000 Surface tablets in the first quarter of 2013, including a substantial amount of Surface Pro units. (The Surface Pro, a high-powered version of the Surface intended for professional clients, launched in February to mixed reviews.) That's good enough for a measly 1.8 percent of the global tablet market, IDC said. 

For more tech news, follow us on Twitter @venturenaut.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to As sales flounder, Microsoft will drop prices on Surface RT tablet
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Technology/2013/0715/As-sales-flounder-Microsoft-will-drop-prices-on-Surface-RT-tablet
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe