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Microsoft just cut in half its orders to suppliers for the Surface RT tablet

qz.com

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Re: Microsoft just cut in half its orders to suppliers for the Surface RT tablet

#51

Post by mgkimsal »

danso wrote: post #43
mgkimsal wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

at least cut the price. I don't get why companies are keen to dump hundreds of millions in development, but don't want to cut price on something because they'll "lose money" on the product. There's probably more accounting issues and 'predatory pricing' arguments and such that could be made, but at the end of the day, they've already spent the money on all the development of the mobile/surface/phone stuff. If more pe…

Cutting the initial price near rollout sets a bar for every future iteration of that product. Just like how every iOS game has to grapple with the fact that Angry Birds is only 99 cents, and a load of other very popular games are "free". There are ways for higher-priced products to prevail against the expected price, but it's not easy.

But... they do it with xbox (IIRC), because everyone else is doing it. In the short term (next 2-4 years) no one is going to be able to compete with ipads in the $500 range. Kindle Fires have enough tie to Amazon to be OK there for a while. MS could fight better in that market. Or... goodness, just have shipped the $499 Surface with the keyboard/cover bundled, just so people are getting something "extra" with the $500.

Re: Microsoft just cut in half its orders to suppliers for the Surface RT tablet

#52

Post by rwallace »

macca321 wrote: post #16

Perhaps they should cut the price in half. And double the screen resolution.

Losing money on every unit and trying to make it up in volume is not a winning move! But doubling the screen resolution yes. Low-resolution screens don't cut it anymore now Apple has set the new standard.

Re: Microsoft just cut in half its orders to suppliers for the Surface RT tablet

#53

Post by bane »

pixelbath wrote: post #38

Totally offtopic, but please don't set the navigation on your website up like this. Scrolling to the top of the story begins loading other stories, and the navigation really seems to have a mind of its own. I'm sure it's great for mobile, but on a desktop this site is nearly unusable.

Yeah, it really is almost unusuable on the desktop. The display jumps all over the place, and trying to find your way back to your story usually ends up loading more causing more jumps.

Re: Microsoft just cut in half its orders to suppliers for the Surface RT tablet

#54

Post by JungleGymSam »

danso wrote: post #40
pixelbath wrote: post #38

Totally offtopic, but please don't set the navigation on your website up like this. Scrolling to the top of the story begins loading other stories, and the navigation really seems to have a mind of its own. I'm sure it's great for mobile, but on a desktop this site is nearly unusable.

This particular complaint seems always to be one of the top voted whenever a QZ story makes it to HN. It's certainly a breakaway from traditional nav and I understand its motivations...I wonder if it truly is a bad direction to go, or if it's a "you don't know that you want this yet" feature and if so, if it's just the kind of thing that the typical HN reader will never like (our moms and dads, however...)

I believe the failing in the UX is that you jump to the story above with little warning. You then have to scroll all the way back to the story you intended to read. It'd be much less annoying if the story loaded but didn't change my position.

Re: Microsoft just cut in half its orders to suppliers for the Surface RT tablet

#55

Post by RawData »

kalid wrote: post #44
RawData wrote: post #6

Everyone is waiting for the pro version to come out...why buy this one?

How many people know the difference between Pro and RT? You should see the confusion in the comment threads (on hacker news, of all places!) when the original Surface came out.

My girlfriends mom was going to buy one but immediately realized she should wait for the pro...and she's as non-technical as you can get.

Re: Microsoft just cut in half its orders to suppliers for the Surface RT tablet

#56

Post by pekk »

kalid wrote: post #42
pekk wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When Apple makes a white and slightly rounded version of something that others made years ago, it actually turns out that they are inventing it for the first time. It doesn't exist until Apple makes it.

Competition from companies who continue to think Apple just took an existing phone, and made it slightly rounder, or took existing tablets, and made them slightly thinner, or took existing laptop designs, and made them slightly sleeker, is why Apple mercilessly dominates those industries.

When another company copies an idea, it is "cargo culting" from Apple. But when Apple copies an idea, it is doing exactly what it should be doing.

The reality is that lots of companies copy lots of ideas and that is normal. The exchange doesn't just go from Apple geniuses to everyone else. No company is an island

Re: Microsoft just cut in half its orders to suppliers for the Surface RT tablet

#57

Post by hntldr_com »

RT-based tablets have not performed well, as expected by experts, who gave them less than average on reviews because of the weakness of “RT” that it runs on slower chips compared to those of conventional Windows. This weak performance of RT-based tablets led Microsoft to reduce the order of the Surface of RT by 50%. Microsoft will have to choose either to reduce its price or to replace them with a Surface Pro Tablet if the demand for RT-based tablets remains weak. With poor review on the Surface RT tablet and uncertain prospect of the Microsoft’s new Window 8 OS, Microsoft’s downfall is widely being expected among experts.
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