Price Matters

The Dell Venue 8 Pro Windows 8.1 tablet priced from $99 to $199 sold out at the Microsoft Store in less than 3 minutes this morning.

People love low prices.

Dropping the Surface RT price to $199 beat the Apple iPad at Best Buy on Black Friday.

This morning Microsoft had a two-tier sale – the first 200 Dell Venue 8 Pro tablets went for $99 and the next allotment for $199.  

The US Microsoft Store online sold out at within minutes and the Canadian Microsoft Store still has some left. Update – at noon, the Canadian online store was sold out as well.

“Wow, what a rip-off,” texted my son from Oakville. “The link died at 9:59 and the next price was $199.” He waited on three browsers to get the $99 price.

I snagged one at $199 and got an 8″ full Windows 8.1 tablet that has the latest Bay Trail Atom processor at 1.8 GHz with a 32 GB SSD drive, Micro SD slot, Intel HD graphics, Wi-Fi with Miracast and a Micro USB port. Can’t beat that.

Dell Venue 8 Pro, Windows 8.1 tablet for $99 to $199

On Black Friday, I had to eat my words when I dumped on the $199 Surface RT deal.

I said that no one wanted last year’s model of the Surface RT.

I was wrong. The Surface RT outsold every other tablet at Best Buy.  InfoScout’s Black Friday Breakdown reported that the $199 Surface RT beat the $299 Apple iPad 2 16GB and the $99 Kindle Fire 16GB, $299 Samsung Galaxy Tablet and $199 Xbox 360.

How’s that for a comeback from last year’s dog tablet. The Surface RT didn’t get better, except it now has Windows 8.1 but the $199 price was irresistible.

At Wal-Mart and Target, Microsoft was not tops with the Surface, probably because those stores don’t carry the Surface in big quantities.

Between now and Christmas, we can expect more and more price-chopping deals since they get customers to spend their money.

This was the start of 12 Days of Deals for Microsoft. Tune in early every day before 10 EST or 11 AST to see what’s on the go. I will try to cover them each day.

You can also click on this link for the pre-announcement. Shop 12 Days of Deals at Microsoft! New limited quantity door buster deal each day at 7 AM PST. Available while supplies last.