Microsoft Surface Tablet

Question: Discuss about Microsoft Surface Tablet and its pricing policy, main competition, recent business strategy and any other factors that you think are relevant? Answer: Microsoft Surface Tablet is the ultimate replacement for desktop. It is designed and built specially for Surface Pro 3 (dpa, 2012). The docking station instantaneously connects to an individual with its favorite accessories at home and work. The surface blog is the specific source for the all things in Surface. It is a tablet that can replace your laptop. It is developed to handle even the majority of intensive tasks, the tablet has functional keyboard with multi-position kickstand. The kickstand has several positions which allow one to work comfortably whether he or she is on plane or in front of the television or at the desk. It has an alert, touch screen, stereo speakers with the sound of Dolby audio and the camera is of 1080p. It makes watching movies or video conferencing better. It can be taken anywhere one wants as it is 1.76 pounds weight and 0.36 inches thin. One can focus on being beneficial for longer because it gives a battery life of 9 hours for web browsing. The multi u ser accounts in the tablet let each of the members in the family personalize their space in the same device. It also protects the children when they are online. It gives a great pen experience with which the user can mark his documents and also take notes. It is known to be the best invention of the year (Hanke and Toussaint, 2010). Pricing polocy The pricing policy that Microsoft follows is a bit different. The tablet is designed exceptionally and is well-engineered hardware. The tablet is lives up to its tagline of replacing the laptop but it is still struggling in Australia (Schindler, 2012). The reason is Price. As we know that price is one of the determinants of demand so it is very vital because it influences the demand for a product. A survey says that the price of the tablet is a hurdle in the way to its success. The price of the device starts from AUD$800 which is comparatively slated high if compared to the best model which is Surface Pro 3 priced at $1300. It also enough power storage without being so expensive which is totally impractical. Microsoft advertised the tablet as the replacement of the laptop and has set in opposition with the MacBook. The comparison is valid on a technical level but when we talk about the price, the tablet becomes difficult to sell (Schindler, 2012). Microsoft may follow the price skimming strategy of the pricing strategies in which it has set a moderately high price for the pro initially and according to the demand of the product will shift the price. It is approved that for 20% an individual gets a tablet which has the ability to be both a laptop and a tablet (Sheehan, 2011). But on the absolute value terms, what an individual gets for $1430 with the Surface Pro is a reasonable exchange if compared to the MacBook Air which is priced at $1200. The trouble is that we are talking about Apple which falls in the exclusive quality. It cannot be justified because Apple prices its products to both higher price and higher quality i.e., it falls under the premium section of the pricing strategy which is not in the case of Microsoft. Another setback is that Surface tablet is competitively priced against the equivalent laptops or ultrabooks but people perceive it as tablet only (Sicheres SINA Tablet auf Surface Pro 2 Basis, 2014). So the c ustomers dont compare it with MacBook they compare it with the iPad (Dempsey, 2014). While we think over this aspect the price of the Surface tablet seems insane. Microsoft can solve this problem by shifting the perception about the brand itself and also about the operating system Windows 8. Microsoft now has to immediately cut down the price of Surface tablet to make it more appealing. It does not have to undercut the price of MacBook. The type keyboard cover ought to be included by default and punched in the base price. Microsoft is turning the potential customers off by charging an extra of $130 for the nickel and diming approach. Main competition Microsoft Surface will be changing the expectations of the customers of what one can do with his or her tablet. Now consumers do not have to but a mobile operating system and also the corresponding application network (Sicheres SINA Tablet auf Surface Pro 2 Basis, 2014). They can now buy a tablet which will help the customers use it as both a laptop and a tablet. While the features of the two Surfaces will be same the hardware functions are basically different. Surface RT competing directly with Apple iPad and the current production of Android tablets, the ones which operate on power-efficient ARM based processors. The Surface Pro, being a tablet is targeting the Ultrabooks and other ultra portable laptops. Recently it has been seen that when customers in Australia logged into Microsofts website they were greeted with a surprise. Microsoft has quietly slashed $100 from the original Surface Pros cost, bringing in the 64-GB base model down to $699. Originally the surface pro was discou nted in the month of August when Microsoft has slashed down the cost to $700 from $899 (Chaparro, Phan and Jardina, 2013). In many ways it is impractical to compare iPad Air to the Surface tablet. Apple has kept its iPads independent from its MacBooks (The Teardown: Microsoft Surface, 2013). Surface Pro is preferably called Ultrabook by Microsoft and not tablet. This differentiation in branding proposes whether the customers want a Surface Pro or an iPad. The deal is whether anybody prefers an excellent tablet with limited functions of a laptop or a exceedingly portable laptop with the modest functions of a tablet (Baseman, Warren-Boulton and Woroch, n.d.). Business strategy Microsoft still did not clear its strategy for tablet, as it announced it largest layoff in its history. The company has cut up to 18000 jobs, or 13.5% of its work force, with the volume of those layoffs which comes from a streamlining effort after the acquisition of the phone-maker Nokia. Microsoft tried ineffectively to make a venture into tablet market which is dominated by Apple. The Windows based tablets share in market have risen from less than 0.5% in 2012 to 3.2% in 2013 and are predicted to reach 11% in 2007. Microsoft did something right which made the presence of tablet. There strategy was to develop Surf ace 2 which has the software-hardware bundle at competitive price. And the second strategy is to go in partnership with Best Buy which began to pay off. The company is getting their business strategy right by tackling its customers needs genuinely and letting them experience the commodity in the retail stores (Banes, 2009). References Banes, D. (2009). Microsoft Surface   a new approach to access and technology. Jnl of Assistive Technologies, 3(1), pp.29-31. Baseman, K., Warren-Boulton, F. and Woroch, G. (n.d.). Microsoft Plays Hardball: The Use of Exclusionary Pricing and Technical Incompatibility to Maintain Monopoly Power in Markets for Operating System Software. SSRN Journal. Chaparro, B., Phan, M. and Jardina, J. (2013). Usability and Performance of Tablet Keyboards: Microsoft Surface vs. Apple iPad. Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting, 57(1), pp.1328-1332. Dempsey, P. (2014). The Teardown: Microsoft Surface Pro 3. Engineering Technology, 9(8), pp.90-91. dpa, (2012). Microsoft bringt eigene Tablet-Computer heraus. pdiatr. hautnah, 24(5), pp.365-365. Hanke, M. and Toussaint, C. (2010). DATEV-INTERACT - eine Businessapplikation fr Microsoft Surface. i-com, 9(1). Schindler, R. (2012). Pricing strategies. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publications, Inc. Sheehan, B. (2011). Marketing management. Lausanne, Switzerland: AVA Pub. Sicheres SINA Tablet auf Surface Pro 2 Basis. (2014). Datenschutz Datensich, 38(5), pp.353-354. The Teardown: Microsoft Surface. (2013). Engineering Technology, 8(1), pp.88-89.