Microsoft announces iPad amnesty for fanbois Sick of your iPad and want to swap it for something that's far less desirable? Microsoft wants to help you out. Redmond has launched a scheme offering a $200 gift card in exchange for a "gently used" iPad 2, 3 or 4. You'll need to give them your charger cable as well and make sure your fondleslab is wiped clean - both on the …
When they see how few people take them up on this offer?
Would of been better to have just a straight up trade in - give us your gently used ipad and get a new, I mean ~year old surface tablet.
It's not as if they don't have the money to burn..and not as if they haven't burned what was it nearly a billion $ on surface already? Clear some inventory, build some market/mind share..assuming it doesn't cause anti trust issues.. but if it is a short length program the government won't have time to do anything about it until it's long over.
"When they see how few people take them up on this offer?"
That is not true, and you know it ;)
According to Microsoft hundred thousands of people have already responded. The main problem is simply that the resellers don't inform the public as it should so many customers don't understand this promotional activity, and sometimes chose not to use the promotion but buy a new Surface instead.
It's the resellers fault :)
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> Finally succeed in their long-time aspiration to become an Apple reseller?
Well they're already making a ton of money from 'droids. Might as well cash in on Apple kit as well.
Do they not find it embarrassing making so much money from other people's kit while doing so appallingly with their own offerings?
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Actually it's quite easy to put android on an RT or PRO. There exists a wonderful little program called blue stacks that is a and sleek android implementation runs inside either version of windows or OSX.
The pro version is an excellent alternative to a Wacom Cintiq display which offers less functionality at a higher cost.
Microsofts biggest mistake was disabling the x86 emulator on RT which was present in alpha releases. They sighted performance and battery life as primary reasons but in reality they just wanted to pressure developers into make metro apps. Third party emulators that pass system calls are available and they run a decent amount of software but the implementation is not complete. Not having access to the full suit of dll's make things difficult. Integration with wine would be interesting.
My brother has the surface pro and I'm getting one as soon as the one with 8 gigs of ram is released.
In marketing, in R&D, in positions of authority....
Can Microsoft get any more desperate? They are practically giving these things away. I'd be p*ssed off if I was manufacturing a rival hybrid device (although I wouldn't pick such horrible neon colours) No wonder Dell and HP have dipped their toes in the Android water.
Microsoft have the bottomless pit of money, but they don't have the energy to fight Google and Apple and they are going wrong somewhere with the employees because there must be clever people in there who can come up with better than the Metro UI and the surface hardware, but they don't seem to be listening to them or growing their ideas. What was that slate type thing that they had which looked like a book? I'm sure it had dual screens that looked fantastic, but canned for breaking Windows file and rank....
I think I can see how the Microsoft Corporation Inc. is planning to work this!...
1) Accept second hand iPads from Apple users in exchange for written off old stock.
2) Save money on desert plots, digger hire & readymix, list second hand iPads on eBay.
3) Profit!!!!!!!!!!!!!one!!one!!!!one!1!!!one!!!!!!!!...
The trade-in IS stupid, but I for one, use my Surface far more than my iPad (passed on to the kids).
Seems a lot of people slagging off Surface have never actually used one.
Actually the reviews were quite positive too.
Surface is so crap that I can plug in USB devices and they just WORK. Remember that, a USB port that you could plug in a memory stick? Or a hard drive. Or a printer. iPad is for kids, grannies or people with no tech savvy.
"iPad is for kids, grannies or people with no tech savvy."
It seems that you don't understand marketing. This is the target audience, and it is QUITE LARGE.
Most people don't need people dancing on tables, or magnetic keyboards. They want something that does the simple tasks that an iPad does quite well.
Play solitaire?
>"that I can plug in USB devices and they just WORK"
>Just like any normal device then
Not really. You can only run applications on it if M$ has granted you permission and you can NEVER install a grown-up OS onto it. EVER.
More like an iPad with a USB port really. Funnily enough.
The offer will only run until October 27, which presumably is when Surface 2 is slated to hit the streets
Ah... Was almost tempted there for a pico second... alternatively, sell my ipad3 with 32GB for approx £300 on ebay then buy a Surface Pro 2 on release...
British people are not being offered the gift card
Oh, well - Fuck you too Microsoft! I won't bother, I'm obviously not the market you are after.
I'll just keep the ipad and feel safer doing online banking.
"This equates to 200,000 units in a global market where more than 40 million tablets were flogged."
not bad for a start up with a unique OS and look about it .. did they spend much in the way of development on this ? .. marketing money ? .. haven't seen any out in the wild yet ..
I'll be on my way now
Protip for MS...if you are going to have a iPad vs Surface comparison page http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/compare#T1=microsoft-surface-rt
It's probably not a good idea for the first half of the page to show every way in which the iPad kicks the surfaces arse..
This offer has made me lol!
First Microsoft P'd off all slab manufacturers by cutting them out of the loop and making their own slabs.
Then they criticized the slab manufacturers for not making enough slabs for christmas (even though the manufacturers couldn't shift the ones they made).
Then they couldn't shift their own slabs either, so they took a $2B loss and started trying to almost GIVE the slabs away - thereby killing the market for the few other slab-makers still making Windows RT slabs.
The brilliance of Microsofts marketing strategy is dazzling. I have never seen a company with such gritty hell-bent determination in shooting itself repeatedly in the foot. And when it's emptied the mag, it calmly reloads and keeps firing.
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