Ah, yeah, sorry about that, then.Should have specified I was responding to Eyashusa's post.
Ah, yeah, sorry about that, then.Should have specified I was responding to Eyashusa's post.
Microsoft missed an opportunity to grab a large portion of the market and push the new OS. If they would have sold Surface RT a loss at like $199 I think they would have had great success and built up their ecosystem.Who in there right mind purchased RT anyways. Let them whine. Complete failure of an OS.
Or bombed horribly and lost billions. Selling at a loss is always a risky proposition.Microsoft missed an opportunity to grab a large portion of the market and push the new OS. If they would have sold Surface RT a loss at like $199 I think they would have had great success and built up their ecosystem.
Beats not selling at all. I wonder if there's any truth to the rumor that they only moved 1MM RT units so far.Or bombed horribly and lost billions. Selling at a loss is always a risky proposition.
Balmer is one ugly motherfucker.
MS sold the first two Xboxes at loses just to get a foothold in the market. Beyond that, there aren't legions of OEMs pinching out RT devices, so who are they going to piss off by selling their own at losses?Selling at a massive loss like $199 would have created its own set of problems, mainly devaluing the brand and leaving Microsoft with very little room to maneuver in terms of scope with future Surfaces. They would have majorly pissed off every OEM that they work with, too.
750,000 is an absolute disaster, though. IIRC, Microsoft said they were spending $500 million advertising the Surface and they were hoping to shift 4 million units - they didn't get remotely close to hitting that target.
Microsoft is setting itself up, now, to remain a distant third in the tablet market, just like it has done in the smartphone market. Ballmer needs to be fired and replaced with someone competent.
You think these tablets would still be selling with mostly the same hardware 6-7 years from now when it's cheaper to make? People will barely buy a one generation old tablet, much less years old version.MS sold the first two Xboxes at loses just to get a foothold in the market. Beyond that, there aren't legions of OEMs pinching out RT devices, so who are they going to piss off by selling their own at losses?
Microsoft needs all the help it can get. They're in a bad, bad place right now. Consumers don't care about Windows RT, Windows Phone 8 is struggling in the marketplace, and Windows 8 isn't performing too well, either.MS sold the first two Xboxes at loses just to get a foothold in the market. Beyond that, there aren't legions of OEMs pinching out RT devices, so who are they going to piss off by selling their own at losses?
Consoles are a different beast altogether, and they are on their deathbed anyways.MS sold the first two Xboxes at loses just to get a foothold in the market. Beyond that, there aren't legions of OEMs pinching out RT devices, so who are they going to piss off by selling their own at losses?
lol.Consoles are a different beast altogether, and they are on their deathbed anyways.
It's not at all a pointless comparison. Selling at a loss is better than not selling at all, because for tabs, the # of users is a concern for app devs. More users = more devs. More devs = more apps. More apps = more hardware sales. MS blitzed the market with consoles sellingeach at a loss to get afootholdin the market. That's the point, not about hardware maturation or anything else.The tablet market and the console market are completely different, too, so that's a pointless comparison. With the Xbox, it started off being sold at a loss but, over time, due to maturations in the manufacturing process, they were able to reduce the cost to manufacture it so that it could be sold at a profit. Microsoft also made a killing on Xbox software and Xbox live; they wouldn't be doing the same with Windows RT.
I don't think dedicated games consoles will be around for much longer, either. This upcoming generation might end up being the last.