In other words, because Microsoft will be forced to stick with premium prices for the Surface, it’s unlikely to sell in enough volume to be able to strike bargains with component suppliers. If it was able to make those deals, it could either use the lower costs to turn a profit in the short-term, or more likely, immediately reduce prices, recognizing that would delay profits but expecting the losses to turn into even larger, and more sustainable, gains.
Minis
Others also expected the new Surface tablets to retain their high prices. Independent analyst Sameer Singh, for example, pegged the likely price of a ‘Surface Mini,’ a 7″ or 8″. tablet, at between $249 and $299. “I don’t think Microsoft can afford to compete with low-end Android and ‘white box’ manufacturers on price,” Singh said recently.
Rumoured prices of a new slate of Surface Pro tablets – the models that run legacy Windows applications – also tilt toward the high end. A report Saturday by Windows Phone Central claimed that the next-generation Surface Pros will start at $799 and run up to $1,949.
Those prices are minus the keyboard that Microsoft virtually mandates in its marketing. A Surface keyboard currently runs between $80 and $140.
Although the $799 base price is $100 less than the lowest-priced 64Gb Surface Pro 2 sold today, the combined tablet + keyboard package equals an out-of-pocket expanse around $900, still stratospheric for tablets, and in the realm of premium notebooks and the tablet/laptop hybrids Microsoft aggressively trumpets.
Minus a price-reduction strategy, Microsoft faces an uphill battle against the also-premium-priced iPad and a bewildering array of low-cost Android tablets. The smaller losses in the last two quarters are encouraging signs. But there are some other signals that the Surface is gaining ground, and doing it organically.
Gregg Keizer, Computerworld
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