Microsoft effectively raises high-end Surface prices by discontinuing base models

-



While the Surface Pro and Laptop get price hikes that aren’t technically price hikes, some Surface accessories have had their prices directly increased. The Surface USB-C Travel Hub is now $120 instead of $100; the Surface Arc Mouse is now $90 instead of $80, and a handful of replacement parts are more expensive now than they were, according to recent Internet Wayback Machine snapshots. Generally, Surface Pen accessories and Surface Pro keyboard covers are the same price as they were before.

Microsoft also raised prices on its Xbox consoles earlier this month while warning customers that game prices could go up to $80 for some releases later this year.

If you’re quick, you can still find the 256GB Surface devices in stock at third-party retailers. For example, Best Buy will sell you a Surface Laptop 7 with a 256GB SSD for $799, $100 less than the price of the 13-inch Surface Laptop that Microsoft just announced. We’d expect these retail listings to vanish over the next few days or weeks, and we wouldn’t expect them to come back in stock once they’re gone.

Increased import tariffs imposed by the Trump administration could explain at least some of these price increases. Though PCs and smartphones are currently exempted from the worst of them (at least for now), global supply chains and shipping costs are complex enough that they could still be increasing Microsoft’s costs indirectly. For the Surface Pro and Surface Laptop, the decision to discontinue the old 256GB models also seems driven by a desire to make the new 12-inch Pro and 13-inch Laptop look like better deals than they did earlier this week. Raising the base price does help clarify the lineup; it just does so at the expense of the consumer.



Source link

Latest news

This Is the Next Wave of Political Fundraising

On Monday, streamer and content creator Hasan Piker helped raise more than $56,000 in one stream for Oliver...

Meta Developed 4 New Chips to Power Its AI and Recommendation Systems

Meta announced Wednesday that it has developed four new computer chips that will be used to power generative...

This Digital Picture Frame Wants to Bring People Closer to a Holographic Future

Holograms are a mainstay of science fiction, popping up across the great expanses of Star Wars, Star Trek,...

Meta Ramps Up Efforts to Disrupt Industrialized Scamming

With organized, industrial-scale scamming causing a multibillion-dollar crisis around the world, Meta announced new account protections on Wednesday...

The Fort Strength Training Wearable Tracks Your Sets

Assuming it works, the Fort would be the most attractive and easy-to-use velocity tracker on the market by...

Nick Clegg Doesn’t Want to Talk About Superintelligence

I think its product has a profound democratizing effect. In theory, a kid sitting in a provincial town...

Must read

You might also likeRELATED
Recommended to you