How badly did Microsoft's XBox One fare in this console generation? Badly enough that students can now get one free if they buy a Surface Pro 4.
From The Verge:
Microsoft is tempting students to buy a Surface Pro 4 this week with a new promotion running at its retail stores in the US. The software maker is taking $300 off when students buy a Surface Pro 4 and Xbox One. "So basically a free Xbox One with the purchase of a Surface Pro 4," says Terry Myerson, head of Windows and devices at Microsoft, in an interview with The Verge. The deal goes live today and will run until August 14th.
[...]
I asked Myerson if there were any plans for a Windows 10 October update, like there are for the Xbox One, that would typically accompany new devices. "Increasingly as we go out into the fall, it's a natural time for us to focus on new devices from our partners and from Microsoft," explains Myerson. "The Xbox One S will be shipping, but also many new devices will be available from HP, Dell, Lenovo, Acer, Asus, Microsoft, and others." That sounds like a hint that new Microsoft devices could be launching this year, but if anything it could be a refresh of Microsoft's Band wearable or the rumoured Xbox TV devices that didn't arrive at E3.Ouch.
Myerson's attempts to spin this notwithstanding, there's only one way to interpret this: a) Microsoft have a ton of XBOne stock they can't move, and b) a new SKU of the console arriving in the fall, with c) another one in the works for next year, and d) a Surface Pro platform that's lagging behind Apple's iPad Pro in sales:
Surface Pro 4 versus iPad Pro debates are heating up because the latest sales stats suggest that Apple's slate is already outmuscling Microsoft's tablet PC.
The news comes to Design & Trend via the IDC market research firm and a supplementary report from Fox News. Despite inventing the luxury tablet with the original Surface Pro back in 2013, it appears the juggernaut Windows makers are already lagging behind the Cupertino kids.
In a new report, titled "Apple Beats Microsoft At Their Own Game," IDC contends that Apple has garnered an "impressive lead in the short term" with regard to detachable tablets. The source study doesn't provide any Q1 2016 numbers to prove it, but Fox dug a little deeper. While also declining to talk specifics, IDC analyst, Jitesh Ubrani, admitted that "in this quarter they were number one" when speaking about Apple. While traditional iPad sales continue to decline, the iPad Pro is a new source of growth for the company.*Sniff, sniff* Do you smell that? It's the stink of desperation, coming from Redmond's direction.
We're still waiting to see this month's OS market share results, but Microsoft are already walking back last week's claim of a 30% market share for Windows 10. Even Redmond mouthpieces WinBeta were taken by surprise:
Just under two months ago, Microsoft announced that Windows 10 was on 300 million devices. That’s a sizeable number, achieved in around nine months.
Today, in officially announcing the launch date of the Windows 10 Anniversary Update, Microsoft says the number of devices running the OS has jumped to over 350 million.
That doesn’t mean there are 350 million users out there, of course. As we’ve seen with Microsoft’s own market share figures, the company counts all devices running Windows 10, including those on computers and tablets in shops and warehouses around the world that have yet to be sold.
Personally, I’m actually surprised that Windows 10 is only on 350 million devices, given how aggressively the software giant has been pushing its new operating system lately, but it’s still a good solid figure.Given how hard Redmond have been pushing Windows 10, I'm not so sure that it's a "good solid figure" -- I'd be willing to bet money that it's well back of where Microsoft thought they'd be, nearly a year into a one-year giveaway of their newest OS. Yes, most of their Windows 8 users have switched (not a surprise, given just how unpopular Windows 8 was), but their Windows 7 users are mostly not switching.
Worse, not only were the strong arm tactics not effective, they've now become actively costly, to the tune of $10,000 that we know of, with more doubtless to come. And that's before you add in the long-term cost of the damage done to their brand and reputation -- a lot of their customers simply don't regard them as trustworthy anymore, and what good will had survived Windows 8 was ebbing quickly.
Microsoft misjudged their markets, both console and PC, so badly that they they're having trouble giving the shit away, and have managed to irritate or alienate a significant chuck of their customer base in the process. Like reverse Midas, Microsoft has turned PR gold into shit, and I don't expect this Surface Pro 4/XBox One "BOGO" deal to change that significantly; let's face it, if the XBox One were a "draw," then they'd have been able to sell them before now, and I expect iPad Pro to continue outselling Surface Pro's new SKU, too.
Well done, Redmond. Good job.
Oh, and the Surface Pro 4? That thing starts at US$1000 for the 128GB version (about the same as the iPad Pro). I don't know what students they think are looking for a BOGO deal on a $1000 convertible tablet, but I'm betting that most students are eyeing the rate at which their student loans are piling up, and opting for more economical options. Yes, you can buy a laptop with 500GB of storage, and buy your console of choice to go with it, and still save money over Microsoft's bogus BOGO offer.