Microsoft Offers MacBook Air Owners $650 Trade-In Value Towards Surface Pro 3

[moxin]

desperate microsoft is desperate.

No way! i am going to go back to windoze. OSX FTW.

 

[Popeye206]

I thought Balmer left MS? I guess some other chucklehead came up with this one?

Dumb promotion… no matter what you think of the Surface, it's silly to offer such a discount (even if no one will actually take them up on it) for a new device like this unless it's already a sales failure and you're grasping a straws.

 

[moxin]

This is so funny, because a lot of people think the best way to run Windows 8.x is in a VM, or with bootcamp for games, on a MacBook Air, not on a Surface.

exactly what i am doing . VMware for work and Bootcamp for games. done.

 

[JodyK]

@ Perimeter Mall in Atlanta the other day ... Not the normal mall we go to just happened to be in the area ... And saw the Microsoft Store there for the first time ... I laughed and said to my 13 year old daughter it's right below the Apple store ... Without skipping a beat she says ... Apple will always be above Microsoft Dad ... Proud Dad indeed!

I did see the ad for the trade in program ... Craziest thing about this new surface I think is they top out at $1950???? Who in the world is going to shell out that for a MS tablet / laptop replacement???

 

[AppleFanatic10]

I honestly don't see anyone doing that especially since Microsoft is trying to make people trade in something like a MBA. I think the MBA is also worth more than $650 plus I can't see anyone getting any real work done on a Surface Tablet. Can you even use that thing on your lap?

 

[RightMACatU]

@ Perimeter Mall in Atlanta the other day ... Not the normal mall we go to just happened to be in the area ... And saw the Microsoft Store there for the first time ... I laughed and said to my 13 year old daughter it's right below the Apple store ... Without skipping a beat she says ... Apple will always be above Microsoft Dad ... Proud Dad indeed!

LOL!
And Apple Store toilets are also right above MS Store

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No way I'm selling my soul to MS with this program.

And I surely don't miss the 20+ updates per month.

 

[Mildredop]

...still a deal breaker for me.

What is?

 

[balamw]

What is?

MOD NOTE: post title is:

A Laptop You Can't Use On Your Lap?

May not be visible on tapatalk or the mobile site.

B

 

[Steve121178]

I call B.S on this. it's almost like they are admitting failure.

How?

 

[Jambalaya]

I nearly wet myself laughing ! Why on earth would anyone trade a MBA for a Surface, at any price ?

 

[sracer]

Heh. That will not be a popular promotion on this website.

It's not going to be popular on ANY website. That wasn't the purpose, at least not in my opinion. I think this was simply a way of Microsoft getting more attention in the days following the availability of the SP3. Every tech blog on the net is covering this "story". I think that it is the visibility that they wanted from this not a wave of converts.

 

[OneMike]

It wasn't apparently obviously on the web site, so I'm not certain which air models they are referring to.

 

[69Mustang]

It's on me...... Exactly!
Do I want to use a system feeling free as a bird, enjoying my experience knowing that the company behind my system is looking after my system?
Or do I want to spend half my life dodging and hoping that I, yes I lmao, don't allow invaders in, and then banging my head against a brick wall constantly clearing up the mess.
Don't give me you should know what your downloading rubbish!

Your hyperbolic screed is silly. I have multiple PC's and laptops along with my MBA. Only one of those PC's have added virus protection installed, and it's my teenager's machine; because kid. No one in my family, including said teenager, spends their life dodging anything or banging their heads against brick walls (Could you have been more dramatic?). Is Windows more targeted? Yup. The ubiquity of the OS is it's own enemy. Is it as dire as you make it out to be? To borrow your phrase, lmao.

No one says you have to like the Windows environment. But your "sky is falling" tale of doom and gloom is beyond reality. There are pluses and minuses to any OS.

 

[Michael Goff]

Coffee shop. I see lots of Windows desktops on MacBooks.

It's a coffee shop near some Microsoft Research buildings...

So ... no empirical evidence, just "I see".

It's on me...... Exactly!
Do I want to use a system feeling free as a bird, enjoying my experience knowing that the company behind my system is looking after my system?
Or do I want to spend half my life dodging and hoping that I, yes I lmao, don't allow invaders in, and then banging my head against a brick wall constantly clearing up the mess.
Don't give me you should know what your downloading rubbish!

So you download things without knowing what it is? Also, I don't go dodging and hoping and I still haven't had an infected system since XP days. Seriously, I barely give any thought to security because I use common sense.

Dang, they predicted what I was going to try. (Just kidding, still wouldn't be a good deal.)

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Meanwhile, it takes skill to mess up an iPad like that. Still not even easy on a MBA. When I used to use Windows in Boot Camp, I had to actually worry about which junky program I installed so I could open an <insert archive file type here> file. Every single thing you'd install had to use a freakin' 3rd-party installer; you can't just drag an application in. And half those installers tried to bait you into installing the Bing/Yahoo!/Ask/Babylon/Conduit bar, even Adobe's own Flash installer. Nothing used standard installation directories, so files got lost in places the Windows search couldn't find. What a waste of time that was.

Even on OS X, the worst that could happen is you install MacKeeper, some other scammy cleanup utilities, and a Norton free trial.

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Hahaha, good one. Before you even get to try the OS, it eats up half your device's storage capacity. That alone makes it deserve rejection.

The install size of Windows 8 is less than 20gb. On the SP3, there's also a recovery partition that you can take off. It's hardly half of the space of the device. Also, 7zip opens just about every archive type. And .... if you install random crap because you can't pay attention, that's hard the fault of Windows.

Seriously, it sounds like you messed things up and then you blamed Windows.

 

[Naimfan]

The install size of Windows 8 is less than 20gb. On the SP3, there's also a recovery partition that you can take off. It's hardly half of the space of the device.

Seriously, it sounds like you messed things up and then you blamed Windows.

I think people are reacting to the install size differential from OSX to W8. When I've had to install 10.9, it comes in at about 5.4 GB (IIRC). So triple that seems like a lot, and takes up somewhere between a quarter and a third (give or take) of the space available on the base model.

I agree completely regarding people messing things up and then blaming Windows. The only point I'd make is that Windows earned itself that reputation and it will take time for it to dissipate.

 

[Michael Goff]

I think people are reacting to the install size differential from OSX to W8. When I've had to install 10.9, it comes in at about 5.4 GB (IIRC). So triple that seems like a lot, and takes up somewhere between a quarter and a third (give or take) of the space available on the base model.

I agree completely regarding people messing things up and then blaming Windows. The only point I'd make is that Windows earned itself that reputation and it will take time for it to dissipate.

 

[Parasprite]

If they can't sell these to Windows users, what on earth makes them think they will ever be able to sell them to Mac users.

Sell them on eBay or to 3rd party resellers? I'd wager on the latter since they probably had made a deal long with one before they decided to put up this offer.

 

[Naimfan]

Image

Interesting!

Thanks - wasn't aware of the relative sizes, etc.

 

[sracer]

Image

I do not think that chart is accurate, or is now obsolete. The Macbook Air comes preloaded with iWork, Garageband, and a variety of other applications, which are not technically part of the operating system. When I bought my 128GB MBA I installed the usual suite of apps that I use on my iMac and ended up with 98GB free... BEFORE removing any preloaded apps. I could get well over 100GB free (maybe even 110GB) if I were to uninstall those preloaded apps.

 

[Michael Goff]

I do not think that chart is accurate, or is now obsolete. The Macbook Air comes preloaded with iWork, Garageband, and a variety of other applications, which are not technically part of the operating system. When I bought my 128GB MBA I installed the usual suite of apps that I use on my iMac and ended up with 98GB free... BEFORE removing any preloaded apps. I could get well over 100GB free (maybe even 110GB) if I were to uninstall those preloaded apps.

Of course it is. 8.1 lowered the footprint and the latest update lowered it even more when it comes preinstalled. So a SP3 would benefit from both.

 

[sracer]

Of course it is. 8.1 lowered the footprint and the latest update lowered it even more when it comes preinstalled. So a SP3 would benefit from both.

I wasn't referring to the Windows figures, but the OSX figures. The gray area is labeled "OS, apps". That favors Windows but penalizes OSX because OSX comes loaded with more apps. the out-of-the-box functionality is not equivalent.

 

[Michael Goff]

I wasn't referring to the Windows figures, but the OSX figures. The gray area is labeled "OS, apps". That favors Windows but penalizes OSX because OSX comes loaded with more apps. the out-of-the-box functionality is not equivalent.

For the average person, Windows and OS X are equally functional.

 

[sracer]

For the average person, Windows and OS X are equally functional.

Hardly. But if you want to believe that then feel free to continue to do so.

OSX comes with iWorks (word processor, spreadsheet, presentation), GarageBand, etc. Those things don't come with Windows.

 

[Michael Goff]

Hardly. But if you want to believe that then feel free to continue to do so.

OSX comes with iWorks (word processor, spreadsheet, presentation), GarageBand, etc. Those things don't come with Windows.

I said average. I still haven't come up with a use for GarageBand. Also, Windows has a word processor built in that's only slightly worse than Pages. I also don't know many people who make spreadsheets or do presentations. I don't know who you're around that uses them.

 

[randj89]

Hello

You should try it, if you live near a Microsoft Store, before you call it crappy. I've tried it and I found it to be an excellent machine. It is very smooth and responsive. The resolution is out of this world compared to the Air. Just saying...

Hi bud! I'm not saying the Surface Pro is a crap.... I'm saying the deal they are trying to make is a crap. I know the Surface Pro is a great machine and actually I'm getting it. I own a mbpr dec 2013 and HP Laptop and my next one will be that SP 3. But don't think trading a MBA makes sense to get this machine.