Microsoft plans to launch a $ 400 Surface to compete with the 9-inch iPad that costs $ 350 and dominate the market. Microsoft plans to launch, by mid-2018, a new lower-cost Surface product line to compete in a market that is totally dominated by the iPad, according to a report published by Bloomberg.
It would be a new 10-inch Surface with rounded edges at an approximate price of 400 dollars, USB-C ports, weighing 20% less than the Surface Pro, but less autonomy. No details on memory or storage, only that the processor and graphics would be Intel.
Microsoft wants to compete with the iPad
Although it continues to be an emerging market, which does not compare to that of smartphones, Apple dominates the segment, generating more than 23,000 million dollars during the last four fiscal quarters of the company. An extremely attractive figure for companies that want to enter fully the sale of hardware, as happens with Microsoft, who have historically identified with the production of software.
The Surface of Microsoft has not managed to attract enough attention from consumers, being a minimum business for the company that, in fact, does not grow. In comparison, Microsoft generated $4.4 billion through its entire hardware division during the last four fiscal quarters of the company.
Not only iPads have hurt the business of the Surface of Microsoft, the Chromebooks are laptops very limited with the operating system Google, but extremely economical and sufficient functions for a large segment of consumers have cannibalized sales of ultraportable products more powerful but much more expensive, as is the Surface Pro, which also works with Windows, which does not help.
Microsoft not only has the challenge to position a product inexpensive enough to capture the market’s attention, too, if they intend to sell at $ 400, have to find a way that quality is superior to that of an iPad 9 inches, which currently cost $350 and usually have a lifespan of more than five years .