Microsoft will sell 3 million Surface tablets this year

According to IDC's market researcher, Microsoft expects to ship more than 3 million Surface tablets this year.
Analysts also point out that one of the two versions of the Surface will be priced at $ 199. Speaking about the production plan, analyst Bob O'Donnell said: "The 3 million tablets will probably be distributed equally to both Intel x86 and ARM."
Surface RT will be produced with ARM processor and will not allow support for older software running under Windows 7. Meanwhile, RT's brother will use Windows 8 Pro product key operating system and do Works well with older applications.
"If Microsoft releases several million Windows 8 product key tablets at a time, its distribution stores will have a lot of trouble," O'Donnell said, referring to the current plans of leading software vendor Microsoft. It's hard to meet such a large number of devices. " "So I think they may sell through traditional retailing. Because no company is risking too much product launch without a widespread distribution strategy. "
Talking about prices, the issue is being discussed by the tech world. Although Microsoft has not released any official information, since its introduction in June there have been rumors that the tablet's price will range from $ 600 to $ 1,000. According to IDC, the software giant will offer two pricing strategies. One is that customers can buy the machine immediately for $ 599. And second is the ability of a cheap Surface RT, with the price of $ 199.
The cheap way to compete directly with the current two heavyweights is the Nexus 7 and Amazon Kindle Fire. Each strategy has its own purpose, but it seems that the possibility of selling $ 199 is less likely. This is due to the fact that with the second price scenario, users will have to pay a monthly subscription fee with the network contract, and of course the actual value of the pay will exceed $ 599.
The hypothesis of the $ 199 Surface subscriber package was more clearly demonstrated in a blog post by former Microsoft employee Hal Berenson. "In fact, a $ 99 contract with a fixed-term contract would be a good choice for Microsoft." From the very beginning, Berenson "spread the news" in his post. on June 13th.
Another hypothesis is that Microsoft office 2016 product key really wants to sell software rather than hardware. Assuming there are four competitors in a fair competitive environment at the same price, each competitor will share 25% of the market share. But at $ 199, Microsoft could win 100% of the market and leave zero for the rest. If so, then Microsoft will really only have a symbiotic relationship with PC makers. Perhaps this is something the software giant does not want.
 Ignoring rumors and rumors, Microsoft does not seem to make any right or wrong comments. Most likely the user will have to wait until October to get the final answer.