John Paczkowski

Recent Posts by John Paczkowski

Temporary Surface Pro Price Cut Now Permanent Surface Pro Price Cut

Microsoft’s Surface Pro has a new low price: $799.

On Thursday, the company made permanent the $100-off promotion it had been offering on the tablet for the better part of August. Though scheduled to expire on Aug. 29, Microsoft has opted to continue the promotion indefinitely, and to extend its geographic reach, as well. News of the company’s decision was first reported by Neowin.

Originally, Surface Pro’s $799/$899 pricing was available only in the U.S., Canada, China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. The company now plans to offer it in all markets in which the tablet is sold, along with a $40 discount on Touch Covers and a $50 discount on Surface RT bundles.

Evidently the August promotion didn’t drop Surface inventory levels as much as the company would have liked. Though, to be fair, that may not be the easiest of tasks. Recall that Microsoft in its fourth quarter took a $900 million write-down on unsold Surface RT inventory, and that according to the company’s annual Form 10-K it only made $853 million off the Surface line between October of 2012 and the close of its fiscal year on June 30.

To hear tell from Microsoft, though, the extension of the $100-off promotion is simply about sharing the Surface love.

“The customer response to recent Surface pricing and keyboard-cover promotions has been exciting to see, and we are proud to begin rollout of Surface Pro, Touch Cover and Surface RT bundles at even more affordable prices starting August 29,” a Microsoft spokesperson said. “People who buy Surface love Surface, and we’re eager for more people to get their hands on this incredible device.”

Twitter’s Tanking

December 30, 2013 at 6:49 am PT

2013 Was a Good Year for Chromebooks

December 29, 2013 at 2:12 pm PT

BlackBerry Pulls Latest Twitter for BB10 Update

December 29, 2013 at 5:58 am PT

Apple CEO Tim Cook Made $4.25 Million This Year

December 28, 2013 at 12:05 pm PT

Latest Video

View all videos »

Search »

First the NSA came for, well, jeez pretty much everybody’s data at this point, and I said nothing because wait how does this joke work

— Parker Higgins via Twitter