Microsoft is kicking up a notch its competition with Apple’s iPad with a new, limited time trade-in offer.
“Trade in your iPad, Get a min. $200 gift card,” according to the deal, outlined on the Microsoft Online store site. The gift card may be used towards the purchase of a Microsoft Surface or other products available through the Microsoft Store.
Yeah, good luck with that.
Microsoft must not realize how desperate their TV advert looks, almost creepy, my kids laughed at it. They haven’t yet tired of playing rude with Siri.
Microsoft may still be hip to business people and developers, but I’m pretty sure it is now irrelevant to the kids these days even though they do all their class work on PCs.
I’m still thinking about the “Microsoft Vanity Fair” article.
Those ads are basically payback for the Mac vs PC ads a few years ago.
They’re kind of dumb. Hey look the surface is more of laptop than the ipad! Its almost many things, but not quite any of them.
Too few apps for people to live with as a tablet, too small of a screen for notebook use.
Most people I’ve known who were intrigued liked the notebook parts of it, but thought the screen was too small so they bought a windows 8 notebook.
$200 for a 1G iPad maybe. I’m no mathematician, but it doesn’t sound like the marketers at MS are either.
Edited 2013-09-13 13:33 UTC
Which is why it says, “minimum $200”
Yeah, I’ve got a 1st gen iPad I would definitely trade for a Surface. It’s basically a dedicated video player.
‘The qualifying trade-in devices are “gently used” iPad 2,3 or 4s.’
The iPad 1 does not qualify for the program.
Yep, so might as well sell it on Ebay instead. Get some real cash (and most likely more than ms would give you) and spend it on whatever you want. I can get way more than $200 for an iPad 2 in decent condition which, if you actually think about that, is just a little crazy. It’s hard to believe people will pay more than that for a device that’s three generations behind especially when they can get an iPad Mini for just about the same price as iPad 2’s go for, or an Android tablet for an even better price.
All this has me wondering though: what will they do with all the iPads they get, assuming anyone actually goes for this? It’s not like they can flash them with Windows RT and resell them. I’m guessing employees get them and either use them or go straight to Ebay, but perhaps that’s just the cynic in me talking.
Just a few guesses:
-They could use them to test Office on iOS, since real hardware is always a better testing medium than emulators
-They could study iOS’ strong points and flaws more closely so as to improve their own products
-They will most likely trash them instead, rather than facing the marketing issue of giving competitor devices to employees
Take them apart and recycle the materials maybe. They won’t be donated or issued to employees for certain though.
I guess it’s a non-problem since they’re unlikely to get many.
Yeah, they can subtract one from their expectations now, since they won’t be getting mine.
Wow that is weird. Wonder if Apple will counter this promotion. I doubt it, as they don’t have any trouble selling their products on their own merit over the last 10 years.
Re: that commercial – My PC-using boss says to me “I still think Siri is pretty”, so I guess the commercials are delivering opposite results.
I love how Microsoft, while trying to show what a surface can do versus what an iPad can do, uses Siri as the narrator. Why wouldn’t the surface narrate? Why advertise your competitors strategic advantages? Plus they make the fake Siri smarter than the actual one.
Makes it seem like they found the only 3 things that an iPad can’t do out of the box, even if it takes $10 worth of add-ons to do it.
The breakdance commercials were worse, I guess, but not much.
Counter the promotion?
How about advertisement like:
“Even Microsoft is buying our products.” or “Sorry, but we won’t buy any Microsoft devices.”
How about advertisement like:
“Even Microsoft is buying our products.” or “Sorry, but we won’t buy any Microsoft devices.”
haha the 2nd one is perfect. i kinda hope they don’t bother, we’ve worn out the joke already
Edited 2013-09-13 17:29 UTC
“…because back in 2003, we already blew our customer-bribery budget on buying copies of Premiere.”
http://www.geek.com/apple/apple-offers-premiere-users-rebates-for-f…
Going back to 2003 to site a software trade-in program because Adobe was dropping the mac version of Premier?
Not really comparable to giving away your hardware by asking people to bring in more popular hardware for a trade.
Besides, in 2003 Apple wasn’t successful enough to buy Microsoft & Adobe outright now, they instead were working on finishing the transition to OSX, getting the iPod/iTunes infrastructure in place, and prepping the transition to Intel chips.
Apple’s 2003 Adobe Premier trade-in program made perfect sense and was not desperate in the least as it was designed to keep existing users on the platform. This current attempt to collect hated iPads for loved Surfaces is a fantasy.
Edited 2013-09-18 12:47 UTC
I think the word you’re looking for is “cite.” But yeah, I guess you’re right: giving away your software to try to keep people from leaving for a more popular hardware platform is TOTALLY different from giving away your hardware by asking people to bring in more popular hardware for a trade…
Hate to be to break this to you, but they STILL aren’t successful enough to buy Microsoft and Adobe outright – except in the delusional fantasies of Apple fanboys simpleminded enough to believe that market capitalization directly equates to with the ability to purchase another company.
It was a de-facto admission that FCP, and the Mac platform in general, was incapable of competing on merit – otherwise, Apple would have had no reason to sweeten the pot with their trade-in bribe. How is that NOT a sign of desperation?
Apple offer to a trade in with an old PC laptop for a new vouchers.
http://www.apple.com/recycling/
As for the surface adverts, I wish they promoted this ad a bit more.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpzu3HM2CIo
It a bit more industrial, which I prefer.
Edited 2013-09-13 19:38 UTC
They offer $0.0 dollars for laptops/desktop that are pre i3/5/7 series. And for
PC – Intel Compatible Intel Core i7 2.5 – 2.99GHz Notebook
FREE shipping – yes
FREE packaging – yes
Intel Core i7 2.5 – 2.99GHz Notebook
Does everything function properly? – Yes
The item has a working battery. – Yes
Selected display size – 19^aEUR / 19^aEUR+
What is the cosmetic condition? – Good
I have –
Included a working power adapter
Included the operating system disc
They offer $241.35.
I am not surprised, I thought it be something like that.
Wait, … so you believe Siri actually offers a strategic advantage? You’re the first person I’ve aware of who regards Siri as more than fluff/simple entertainment. Would you mind elaborating on how exactly you think Siri offers strategic advantage along with any references that give credibility to the claim?
Siri is a feature so recognizable (unique) that people who have never had an iPad know she’s the voice of iOS (now with the help of surface ads). Wait until you see Siri helping drive your car, as advertised by the car companies and Siri getting your reservations and tickets (as advertised by those companies.
I’ve seen people buy iOS just for Siri – usually someone who is used to shouting orders, someone who needs handsfree everything (dirty/wet hands), someone who thinks it’s just so cool to interact with their computers through voice. It’s the kind of feature, that while easy to deride, also sits there selling devices. It brings people in the store, it can be demoed well, is slightly whimsical, and like most Apple technologies, they will continue to refine it until it’s actually useful.
How you expect me to show you data to back this up I don’t know. I didn’t say it was the most important feature, or a direct source of revenue, but believe me, if the Surface could talk like Siri that ad would have been very different. They would have had Siri say simple, confused things while the Surface chit chatted wittily away.
But instead they gave additional context and intelligence to Siri to try to sell their own product. I see FAIL there, sorry.
Interesting. I don’t know a single person who bought an iPhone for Siri, or considers Siri to be anything more than built-in entertainment. I guess in your part of the world, where ever that is, having conversations with your cell phone is the thing to do.
I know a few who site Siri as a reason to get iOS. Not the only reason, of course, but a clear feature advantage with a distinct style and method. Enough that it’s stupid for competitors to advertise it.
If people speak to their phones to get things done – is that more/less idiotic than sitting here typing useless opinions about mobile operating systems?
Things I see people do with Siri:
– look up maps handsfree
– make verbal notes handsfree
– load up, play, pause, & skip music playlists handsfree
– reply to text messages and emails handsfree
– make phone calls and manage vm handsfree
– get weather updates handsfree
– start/stop stopwatch and alarms handsfree
– start/stop workout programs handsfree
– access web bookmarks and have the content read to you handsfree
– get basic math help handsfree
– navigate through their eBook bookmarks handsfree
– locate friends in their area handsfree
– read/update social media crap handsfree
And when I say handsfree, I mean:
– in the car
– on your bike
– with dirty/wet hands
– with shaky or damaged hands
– blind or paraplegic users
– while typing on or holding something else
If you can’t cross-reference the uses with the use cases and find something you’d do with a free, included feature of iOS, you are trying way to hard to ignore the obvious.
Man-machine interfaces are always moving to something more efficient. We’ve done switches, characters in a string, mouses, trackpads, touchscreens, multitouch, and now voice control. It’s kind of obvious to me. The only way to attack Siri is to talk to another system that can do more.
This can be significant used in conjunction with the new Baytrail tablets.
There’s a 10.1 inch ASUS device with a 12 hour battery running $329 that’s coming out. That’s running full Windows 8.1, not RT. That’s including the keyboard dock.
So an old iPad can go quite a way towards a new Windows 8 device if that’s your thing. Lenovo similarly has an 8inch tablet running full Windows 8 coming out (8hr battery life) which is $249.
Keep in mind a mint iPad 2 has a 1024×768 resolution, so any one of these devices are an improvement over that. Not to mention the CPU and GPU inside Baytrail blow it out of the water.
Intel is gunning for ARM pretty aggressively.
That cheap Asus has a 1366×768 resolution, so it’s only a slight improvement. It will be much faster and more capable than any Android or iOS tablet, but people never bought those for speed or capability.
Yeah, it’s only a small bump — but the $200 is baseline not maximum so there’s a very real possibility of getting more in exchange for a mint condition device.
There are also more choices, for example Dell’s new 8 inch tablet is 1280×800. The Lenovo $249 Miix 8 is also 1280×800.
I think its a good deal either way, especially if they can act as full PCs and be docked/connected via HDMI to external monitors.
Bay Trail performance looks like it’s exceptional (enough to run Photoshop, Visual Studio, and other heavyweights so certainly acceptable to me) in both battery life and performance. Price points seem to be pretty good too.
It makes one wonder what the point of Windows RT is, but whatever it is, it made Intel wake up and get their mobile processors into shape.
So Microsoft want me to trade in my iPad for a Surface? Let me get this straight: they want me to give up the only device on which I can both be productive on the go and not need to charge every day, and replace it with… what? A surface RT that has no apps worth a damn other than Office (which I don’t need)? Or perhaps a Surface Pro that can’t even get five hours of battery and on which productivity apps are desktop, not touch, optimized and so will be less efficient to use? Just, wow.
I bet you can sell your old Ipad for a lot more on Ebay. And you’ll be left with real cash instead of store credits.
Edited 2013-09-13 19:08 UTC
Yeah, it can’t be too limited.
-Hack
Bet they have Dogbert in marketing.