Microsoft Reduces Cost of Surface Pro

Microsoft is continuing to work hard to edge into the "tablet" market. This is obvious because their Surface Pro was just lowered by $100.

First things first, as much as I recommend the Surface Pro I believe the Surface RT was a mistake and should be discontinued, with Microsoft's continued emphasis placed on the Pro version.

I have been using the Surface Pro for about 6 months now and it has turned into by "go to" device for getting things done "on the go", or at home in my "easy chair". As opposed to Apple's iPad, which is also an excellent device the Surface pro was built for getting real work done while the iPad is more geared towards the consumer's more general needs such as email, internet browsing, social media and gaming. While the Surface pro can do most of these tasks fairly well where it truly shines is helping the user the get work done. this is because the Surface Pro runs a full version of Windows 8. Any Windows application can be run on the tablet and in addition to Microsoft Office you can see how fun & work can get done, all on the same, very mobile device.

Microsoft is hoping to see a boost in sales from the back-to-school shopping frenzy that's about to get underway. Unlike everyone else, however, Microsoft is sitting on a mountain of unsold Surface RT and Surface Pro tablets, which to this point have only generated $853 million in revenue. This sort of revenue would be excellent for just about everybody else, but this is Microsoft we are talking about. This led to Microsoft taking a $900 million charge on unsold inventory followed by a round of price cuts, first with Surface RT and now with Surface Pro.

Microsoft just slashed $100 off the price of Surface Pro, which now starts at $799 instead of $899. Surface Pro features an Intel x86 Core i5 processor and the full version of Windows 8, though it remains to be seen if a C-note reduction will be enough to convince PC shoppers to hop on board.
The price cut follows a $150 reduction to Surface RT just a few weeks ago. Unlike Surface Pro, the ARM-based Surface RT comes with Office Home and Student 2013 RT for free, giving users some additional value along with a lower cost of entry. On the flip side, Surface RT is also limited by a slimmer version of Windows 8 that's unable to run legacy x86 applications.

Youy can read by March 28, 2013 review of the Surface Pro here.