Microsoft will pay at least $200 for your old iPad

[Shawn Knight]

We’ve seen Microsoft attack Apple in the past through clever commercial spots and by launching a comparison website but now Redmond is going after Cupertino’s hardware directly. From now through October 27, Microsoft will offer at least $200 to anyone that trades in their old iPad.

There are a few caveats worth mentioning from the get-go. Instead of cold hard cash, traders will receive a gift card to the Microsoft Store that can be used toward the purchase of a Surface tablet or any other Microsoft gear. Eligible devices include the iPad 2, iPad 3 and iPad 4 and you must bring it (along with the power cable) to a physical retail location as it doesn’t appear there is an online option.

It’s all part of Microsoft’s plan to convince iPad owners to dump Apple and play for their team. Doing so thus far has proven difficult as Microsoft was forced to slash prices on existing models after a $900 million write-off.

If you are on the fence about whether or not to get a Surface tablet, you’d be well advised to hold on to your money for a couple of weeks. That’s because Microsoft will be unveiling a refreshed line of Surface tablets on September 23 in NYC. The revised flagship machine is expected to ship with Intel’s latest Haswell processor for improved battery life and 8GB of RAM. The Surface 2, on the other hand, will be powered by Nvidia’s Tegra 4 SoC and will run Windows RT 8.1.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/53996-microsoft-will-pay-at-least-200-for-your-old-ipad.html

 

[Vrmithrax]

Translation: Our new Surface tablets will be priced a minimum of $200 more than anyone thinks they are worth.

I'm betting that, in the near future, Microsoft is dealing with another big write off and wondering what to do with a ton of unsold Surfaces as well as a small pile of old iPads...

 

[wastedkill]

Hmm Time to search ebay for a used in bad condition ipad lol

 

[Guest]

MS is very scare to being put out of the movile SO market.

 

[MilwaukeeMike]

Translation: Our new Surface tablets will be priced a minimum of $200 more than anyone thinks they are worth.

I'm betting that, in the near future, Microsoft is dealing with another big write off and wondering what to do with a ton of unsold Surfaces as well as a small pile of old iPads...

I don't think they're thinking of it that way. Right now they probably don't consider iPad owners to be potential customers. That's a big problem because there are a lot of iPad owners. In order to make them potential customers, MS is offering $200 off a Surface if you trade in your iPad.

I'm not sure it's a good idea though. There will be some iPad users who trade in an iPad because they don't like it and want to try a Surface. However, some iPad 2 owners looking for an upgrade may jump on this deal and get a Surface instead of a new iPad. They won't be too happy when half their apps have to be repurchased and the other half aren't available.

 

[Guest]

Comes off as an act of desperation. Smells bad. What will they do with the iPads? These could be offered to educational institutes or the otherwise disadvantaged and put to good use. But because it is a competitor's product, they would likely be destroyed. Seems pretty ignorant.

 

[negroplasty]

Now they can sit there and poke the iPads with sticks and see if it helps them make a successful tablet/mobile OS. Man, Microsoft is good at embarrassing itself lately.

 

[amstech]

I never really hated Surface but the price just was not realistic/competitive until Microsoft's recent slashing.

 

[DDDBB]

Apparently my Ipad1 is worth more than $200, guess I won't switch.

 

[howzz1854]

I am playing around with a windows 8 surface pro laptop as we speak. I gotta say, some of the UI touch operations are NOT very fluid. try fire up the camera app built into the win8, and try to close that app with your finger by dragging it to the bottom of the screen. 7 out of 10 times I can't. it's really frustrating. I do like the ability to be able to see two apps at the same time, and while keeping one app sort of docked to the side while working on the other one. other than that, the rest I can probably get used to. but I gotta say, windows 8's touch UI still has some work to be done. it's just not very fluid.

 

[howzz1854]

I think it might take MS another iteration to get the touch UI right. just saying.

 

[tonylukac]

howzz1854: Those are just bugs in windows 8. I noticed that too in a new hp touch laptop a client of mine bought. Works with the mouse, but what mouse on a tablet?
In other news, I still have my laptop. That's like a similar story recently that blu rays are obsolete. Maybe movies are obsolete. Buy, buy, buy, but no jobs in america to pay for these things.

 

[Guest]

Maybe this way they'll be able to resell those iPads and possibly turn a profit. In all seriousness though, it's not a bad idea. As much as I hate Windows 8 on the desktop, if I had an iPad I would consider trading it in. Windows 8 as a tablet OS makes sense.

However, I've gone away from proprietary software since the discovery of an NSA backdoor in Windows. I'm currently running Ubuntu on my desktop, and a custom Android ROM on my phone and tablet.

 

[Jad Chaar]

Um, I am fine. I would rather keep my iPad 3 instead of putting $200 towards a Surface.

 

[misor]

Will microsoft pay me 200$ for my archos 28, too?

 

[Guest]

A looser company looser action

 

[cliffordcooley]

What will give everyone a heart attack is Apple giving 200 for your old Surface RT.

 

[Railman]

Comes off as an act of desperation. Smells bad. What will they do with the iPads? These could be offered to educational institutes or the otherwise disadvantaged and put to good use. But because it is a competitor's product, they would likely be destroyed. Seems pretty ignorant.

That would cost a lot to do. The days you could put electrical components in landfill are long gone (in Europe). I would expect they would be given to a recycling company. It is possible they might have to pay a company to take away the devices!

 

[misor]

That would cost a lot to do. The days you could put electrical components in landfill are long gone (in Europe). I would expect they would be given to a recycling company. It is possible they might have to pay a company to take away the devices!

since Microsoft donates computer products to schools (in the Philippines), maybe Microsoft will 'root' the ipads then install windows rt/pro/whatever OS is compatible with ipad's hardware.

 

[Railman]

That would cost a lot to do. The days you could put electrical components in landfill are long gone (in Europe). I would expect they would be given to a recycling company. It is possible they might have to pay a company to take away the devices!

since Microsoft donates computer products to schools (in the Philippines), maybe Microsoft will 'root' the ipads then install windows rt/pro/whatever OS is compatible with ipad's hardware.

For starters the iPad has an ARM CPU so the only OS which is theoretically compatible is Windows 8 RT. In practice it would be difficult to achieve and I would not attempt it if I was MS because any problems would be seen as another black mark against MS.

I believe some folks have managed to get Android working on an iPad but they have experienced problems. Surely easier and cheaper to recycle them.

 

[Guest]

I own and iPad 2, 2 types of android tablets and both Pro and RT versions of the Surface. The iPad 2 collects dust. I never really like the locked down approach that apple took with these devices anyway. I have to say that the kids use the android tablets the most, I use the Surface Pro for work related reasons. I would tell you that I would trade the iPad in for a Surface any day of the week. The Surface has a great UI and it is getting better everyday. I can see me switching completely over sometime in the future. The commercials really make me laugh because having used all other devices you really get to see how limited the iPad is.