Ballmer Kills The Idea Of A $199 Surface – Maybe
When Microsoft first showed off the Surface RT the tech blogosphere waited eagerly to hear how much the company was going to charge for this Microsoft branded tablet, and we’re still waiting.
At some point speculation and rumor started that Microsoft would set the whole tablet market on its ear but selling the Surface RT for the low-ball price of $199; even though common sense should have made it apparent that this wouldn’t happen.
This rumor was answered, in a very round-about way, in an interview with the Seattle Times where Steve Ballmer touched on the pricing of the Surface and how it would be positioned against the competition
If you look at the bulk of the PC market, it would run between, say, probably $300 to about $700 or $800. That’s the sweet spot.
He goes on to point out that nothing is set in stone but that the Surface would be in the same price range as Apple’s iPad; which Ballmer sees as a plus
I think most people would tell you that the iPad is not a superexpensive device. … (When) people offer cheaper, they do less. They look less good, they’re chintzier, they’re cheaper.
If you say to somebody, would you use one of the 7-inch tablets, would somebody ever use a Kindle (Kindle Fire, $199) to do their homework? The answer is no; you never would. It’s just not a good enough product. It doesn’t mean you might not read a book on it.
So while Ballmer tries to gear our expectation to a price higher than the rumored $199 there isn’t anything stopping them from going the heavy subsidization route; but I doubt that we’ll see that happen.
via The Next Web
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Steven Hodson Steven has been around the tech world long enough to see most of the stuff we think of cool happen before which leads to a certain bit of cynicism that has contributed to him being known as the cranky old fart of the Internet. Besides sharing some of the goodness that he finds with you here at 42x you can also find him curating some digital goodness at Winextra (tech type stuff) and Rotten Gumdrops (for your daily dose of WTF).
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