14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft yesterday revealed pricing for the new Surface tablet and while this allows the new device to go head to head with the iPad, analysts believe that this is far too “aggressive.”
The cheapest Surface comes with a price tag of $499 (€380) and doesn’t include a Black Touch Cover.
“It's an aggressive price, especially compared to the prices of the RT devices from their OEM partners,” said Tom Mainelli of IDC according to a report by ComputerWorld.
“[But] I'm not sure it's aggressive enough, when you consider that one of the big draws of Surface is that slick keyboard and it's going to cost an extra $100 or more.”
The most affordable iPad bears the same price tag, but Microsoft should have adopted a different price for the Surface tablet since the Redmond-based company is late to the game, analysts believe.
$399 (€305) would be a much more appropriate price, they argue while wondering whether the free Office 2013 copy offered to all Surface buyers makes as much as $100 (€76).
“I can't figure this product out at all,” Ezra Gottheil, an analyst with Technology Business Research, explained.
“I don't know what kind of impact Microsoft thinks it will have, but its only hope was to very aggressively priced. It just doesn't make a lot of sense. You can get a very good portable PC at these prices. Where it stands, it's hopeless,” he added.
The Surface is available in two different storage versions, 32 GB and 64 GB, with or without a Black Touch Cover. The cheapest version of the tablet is already sold out, so those who want to get their device on October 26 have to preorder the two more expensive version.