Microsoft Effectively Raises High-End Surface Prices By Discontinuing Base Models (arstechnica.com) 14
An anonymous reader shares a report: When Microsoft announced new Surface devices earlier this week, we noted that there wasn't a lot of daylight between the starting prices of the new but lower-end devices ($799 for the 12-inch Surface Pro, $899 for the 13-inch Surface Laptop) and the starting prices of the older-but-higher-end Surfaces from last spring ($999 for both). It appears Microsoft has quietly solved this problem by discontinuing the 256GB versions of the 13.8-inch Surface Laptop 7 and the 13-inch Surface Pro 11.
Microsoft's retail pages for both devices list only 512GB and 1TB configurations, with regular prices starting at $1,199. Though not technically a price hike -- the 512GB versions of both devices also cost $1,199 before -- it does amount to an effective price increase for last year's Surface hardware, especially given that both devices have user-replaceable storage that can easily be upgraded for less than the $200 that Microsoft charged for the 256GB-to-512GB upgrade.
The upshot is that the new Surface PCs make more sense now than they did on Tuesday in relative terms, but it's only because you'll pay more to buy a Surface Pro 11 or Surface Laptop 7 than you would before. The 15-inch version of the Surface Laptop 7 still lists a 256GB configuration and a $1,299 starting price, but the 256GB models are currently out of stock.
Microsoft's retail pages for both devices list only 512GB and 1TB configurations, with regular prices starting at $1,199. Though not technically a price hike -- the 512GB versions of both devices also cost $1,199 before -- it does amount to an effective price increase for last year's Surface hardware, especially given that both devices have user-replaceable storage that can easily be upgraded for less than the $200 that Microsoft charged for the 256GB-to-512GB upgrade.
The upshot is that the new Surface PCs make more sense now than they did on Tuesday in relative terms, but it's only because you'll pay more to buy a Surface Pro 11 or Surface Laptop 7 than you would before. The 15-inch version of the Surface Laptop 7 still lists a 256GB configuration and a $1,299 starting price, but the 256GB models are currently out of stock.
Are we winning yet? (Score:1)
I thought inflation was over. I guess it's not inflation if they stop selling the cheap versions.
Misleading headline (Score:5, Informative)
Microsoft effectively raised *low-end* Surface prices by discontinuing base models. The high end prices remained the same.
Re: (Score:2)
In fact, arguably, Microsoft effectively raised the *low-end* Surfaces prices to infinity because they can no longer be purchased for any finite price.
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Except "infinity" is not a number and you can't raise anything to it.
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That said, I think my statement that they effectively raised the low-end price to infinity is easily understood and certainly more accurate than the original headline.
Re: (Score:1)
Fair enough, I did a whole paper on transfinite mathematics, Cantor’s paradox, and aleph numbers etc at university, and will happily geek out on that if you get me started.
So you know better (;
That said, I think my statement that they effectively raised the low-end price to infinity is easily understood and certainly more accurate than the original headline.
Fair enough....except that accuracy part (;
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Microsoft effectively raised *low-end* Surface prices by discontinuing base models. The high end prices remained the same.
This is the net result of Trumps tariffs.
Microsoft weren't the first and wont be the last.
Distributors are killing off the budget items because the margins are too low and leaving the more expensive items that have larger margins. What this means for you is higher prices and less choice.
It'll happen to everything as even the stuff made in the US will be using parts made in other countries.
Across the board (Score:2)
Makes sense (Score:2)
If I can buy the cheaper one with less storage, and upgrade it for less than the price difference of the more expensive one, why would I spend more than I need to?
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Because the storage wasn't the issue. The issue was that the cheaper one came with 8GB of non-upgradable RAM. It was an absolute dumb product to exist and I'm not surprised it was discontinued. A machine that expensive should never run that poorly.
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Never mind scratch that I confused it with the Pro 10 models. The Pro 11 only came with 16GB minimum.
Don't worry they'll always be 30-50% off .... (Score:2)
... given that they run the 0.8% Windows ARM, which is called Windows but it's in fact a totally different niche OS.
This is a different move: they introduced now the 1 inch smaller but WAY, WAY worse devices in many ways for about the same price as the base price of the much better devices. If they leave the base "good" devices in the price list it makes anyone considering the new ones stupid.
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Seriously, who buys these things? I know I lead a sheltered life, but I don't think I've ever seen any Surface product in the wild.
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Yea, but the funny thing is how they're doubling down on this ARM nonsense. Basically everything they have now is just some weird stuff that doesn't run any of the older Windows drivers (think printers, etc.), SOME of the popular software got ported (like most browsers, well Google Drive took more than 5 years, etc.) and some runs under emulation but it's completely unclear where they want to go with this. Also, even if generally ARM is good with Linux (think Raspberry Pi) this is awful, as in not usable in