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That elusive Surface pricing: what price would you subscribe to?

Aug 20, 2012 10:03 am by Kip Kniskern | 16 comments

In the past few weeks, we’ve heard it all about Microsoft Surface pricing, everything from $199 to 299 to 399 to 599 and beyond. Microsoft made quite a splash back in July with its announcement of the Microsoft Surface family of computers, introducing self branded Windows 8 and Windows RT tablets that feature a combination tablet cover/keyboard. But almost immediately, speculation about the pricing of the tablets arose. Microsoft would only say that the pricing would be “competitive” with other tablets in the market, which didn’t narrow it down much.

The $199 rumor started with a post on Engadget, who heard from someone attending Microsoft’s TechReady15 conference, where launch details, including the price, were apparently laid out. Many in the industry had a hard time believing that Microsoft would, or could sell the Surface for $199.

What the Engadget report didn’t include, and most speculation is now centering around, is that Microsoft could bundle the Surface with a subscription package, bringing the initial price down, making a splash with a low price, and then making at least some of that up later with two year subscriptions to Xbox Live, Office 365, or some similar subscription. Hal Berenson, a former Microsoft Distinguished Engineer, notes that “Microsoft is moving to a subscription model wherever they can figure out how to do so”, thinks that Microsoft’s Xbox subscription plan experiment may be a model:

So it is completely within expectations, and in fact the $99 Xbox deal is just telegraphing it for all who are willing to listen, that Microsoft is going to offer the Surface for $199 when you sign up for a TBD subscription of some sort.

One piece very much still missing from this scenario are details about Microsoft’s latest attempt at a music service, this time called Xbox Music. While the Zune Music Pass never took off, perhaps mostly because of poor Zune and Windows Phone sales, a newly revamped but similar service with the buying power of Xbox and Windows behind it may have a better shot. We still haven’t seen much about Xbox Music, although it should be coming soon, perhaps indicated by a recent speed increase on Zune Pass:

I don’t know what was done, if anything, with Zune Pass servers over the weekend but for the love of pete … insanely fast! #Zune

Aug 20, 2012 9:09 AM via HootSuite ReplyRetweetFavorite

@RyanLowdermilk

Ryan Lowdermilk

So, will the Surface actually sell for all of these rumored prices? $199 with a 2 year premium subscription, maybe $399 for an introductory subscription, and $599 with no subscription at all? Hopefully we’ll be finding out soon.

This entry was posted in News and tagged Microsoft Surface, Windows 8, Xbox Music. Bookmark the permalink.

uberlaff

I’d love to see a Microsoft Work & Play package that had a discounted Office / Xbox Live Family / Xbox Music subscription.

Maybe $20 or $30 bucks a month?
http://twitter.com/harlemS Travis Pope

Ah, my beloved Zune Pass how I miss thee. On a serious note, I think what are getting at makes perfect sense. I just hope whatever subscription price these guys are possibly talking is reasonable, and better damn well include both Xbox Music and Xbox LIVE and I wouldn’t say note to Outlook.com subscription (get rid of the ads) in that either.
- wasapasserby
  
  I could see Microsoft bundling a Skydrive storage subscription with an Xbox Music/LIVE subscription to subsidize a $199 Surface RT.
  - Simon Johnny
    
    I could see Microsoft deactivating Windows if your sub run out within the 2 year time frame. Much like you can’t use a the xbox live fluff without a gold account. Without a subscription on your account, you can’t use Windows…
http://gregsedwards.wordpress.com Greg Edwards

For what it’s worth, I hope it’s a straight up $199. And I say that because I’m a cheap bastard who doesn’t like to pay a penny more than he absolutely has to. But I do think some kind of a subscription deal is quite likely. And maybe not a bad thing, as I’d like some reason to pony up for an Xbox Music subscription instead of just hosting all my media on my own Home Server.
JohnCz

Surface (RT) is a premium device, the only way they could offer it for $199 is with some sort of subscription. I’d pay $450 it and up to $900 for the Pro version which comes with a digital pen.
Cope23

Has anyone here tried BOTH Zune Pass and Spotify (premium) and can you compare and contrast the two?

FWIW, I like Spotify because I can run it multi-platform (where that means Windows, iOS, OS X – don’t care about Android/Linux)… but with what I have seen from MS lately there might be a “Xbox Music” iOS App which (if AirPlay enabled) would make me shift over to that Service

Lastly anyone have any thoughts on the ability for Xbox Music to support multiple Xbox Live Accounts (“authorize up to 3 (5) accounts..”) this is a major hurdle for me as I (like so many others) have a ‘work’ account and a ‘personal’ account … authorization needs to be at the App Level vs. the OS Level which it currently is not in Win8 to the best of my understanding (running RTM)
Andrew_ww

No more than $199 unless it can run the desktop and is powerful enough for Photoshop.

The only reason it would need to be more than $199 is if it cost more than that to build each individual one.
- NicolaMantovani
  
  199$ for a surface pro? without extra subscriptions? are you crazy? :D
  
  myself, I’m willing to spend at most 700€, but I’m hoping for less. (if they sell it in Italy… :( )
  - http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000386235192 Iain Berryman
    
    He said no more than $199 UNLESS it’s a Pro, not if it’s a Pro…
- http://twitter.com/jphillipw Phil Carr
  
  if you’ve been keeping up with the Surface news, we know that it definitely costs more than $199 to manufacture, more like $250 to $300 in materials alone plus labor.
patstar5

I hope it’s $400 without subscription. That be a good price and will target the IPad and the asus transformer. Disappointed they will be no 7 inch windows tablets. Need something in between 7-10 inches. Wonder if Nokia will make a phablet with wp8. I won’t pay above $600 for surface and keyboard. Thinking about getting the asus transformer 800 instead. But it is only intel atom….
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=9628511 Joe Meinhart

wp8 needs a 7 or 8 inch tablet.
- patstar5
  
  It would have to be a blend between windows phone 8 and window’s 8. Which probably wouldn’t be that hard to do.
markjonson

I’d hardly call Zune Pass servers “insanely fast.” As of late (the past week or so), it has taken longer to begin streaming into the Zune desktop software and my phone than ever before. Sometimes over 15 seconds to start a song…
jordiboy

I would like to a $199 price with an Xbox Live type
subscription that allowed you to access video content that is available on the
Xbox 360.