Following news that a price cut was planned for the Surface RT tablet, Microsoft has made the change today, and is now selling its 32GB model for $349 — down from $499.
Available at this price in the Microsoft store and elsewhere, the drop is a clear — if not painful — attempt by Microsoft to boost sales of its first in-house tablet. The 64GB RT model has also been reduced by $150, to $499.
As for Surface’s sales figures, Bloomberg reported back in March that Microsoft has sold roughly 1.5 million Surface devices, 400,000 of which were the Pro model, which went on sale roughly three months after the cheaper RT model. In other words, the Pro is selling well, which explains why its price remains unchanged. At the time of that report, we noted that these stats are reportedly below Microsoft’s expectations, but not low enough to sink the Surface brand.
The obvious question now is, with this new price cut, will you actually buy a Surface RT? Also, do rumors that new devices are on the way change your mind?
Image credit: Timothy A. Clary / AFP / Getty
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