Buy a Surface RT Tablet, Get a Touch/Type Cover Free

News
By Kevin Parrish
published

Microsoft is pushing Surface RT units with a free cover for a limited time only.

Microsoft reports that for a limited time only, the company is handing out a free Touch Cover, Touch Cover Limited Edition, or Type Cover to customers in the U.S. and Canada that purchase a Surface RT tablet from the Microsoft Store or other Surface retailers. On their own, the Touch Cover retails for $119 whereas the Touch Cover Limited Edition and the Type Cover each costs $129.

"Touch and Type Cover do much more than just protect and personalize your Surface RT," says Brian Hall, General Manager of Microsoft Surface. "They let you get real work done. With Office Home & Student 2013 RT pre-installed - which includes versions of Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and OneNote - a keyboard that goes everywhere with you really is the perfect accessory for your Surface."

The Surface Touch Covers come in cyan, red, magenta, white and black, and the Surface Type Cover is only offered in black. Want to add a little spunk and flair to your Surface RT tablet? The Touch Cover Limited Edition comes in cyan with a skull pattern, and magenta with a flowers pattern.

The move to offer a free cover is likely to push what has been thus far lackluster sales of both the Surface RT and Surface Pro tablets. In March Bloomberg reported that Microsoft had sold around 1.5 million Surface units since the launch in late October 2012, 1 million of which were likely Surface RT units, half of what Microsoft initially expected.

OF course, the pricing of Surface RT isn't helping sales. The 32 GB version retails for $499 USD whereas the 64 GB model costs $599 USD. Throw in the black Touch Cover prior to the promotion, and the price increases $100. A two-year warranty and technical support service is an additional $99 on top of that. Even more, the device does not support Windows-based desktop software that runs on Intel and AMD processors (x86).

Microsoft's Surface RT features Nvidia's quad-core Tegra 3 SoC clocked at 1.3 GHz, 2 GB of RAM, and a 10.6-inch ClearType HD 5-point multi-touchscreen with a 1366 x 768 resolution and a 16:9 aspect ratio. Other hardware specs include two 720p HD cameras (front and rear-facing), a full-size USB 2.0 port, Wireless N and Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity, a battery promising up to 8 hours of "mixed activity", and Microsoft Office Home and Student 2013 RT Preview.

The current Surface RT free cover promotion begins May 31 and ends on June 30, or while supplies last. That said, will this new offer help push Surface RT units? Maybe.

Kevin Parrish
12 Comments Comment from the forums
  • m32
    It should be included in the first place.
    Reply
  • southernshark
    The Windows RT was nothing but a reactionary mistake. Instead of leading the market, MS tried to follow it with a predictable lack of success. Windows should have made x86 tablets the first and only priority (along with x86 phones).
    Reply
  • slomo4sho
    YES!!! It was the lack of a cover that was holding me back from buying a surface tablet!
    Reply
  • hoofhearted
    Why not the Pro?
    Reply
  • w8gaming
    The fact that Surface Pro does not get free cover might shows that Surface Pro does indeed sells better than RT. This also shows how misjudged Microsoft senior management and marketing department had been.
    Reply
  • stevejnb
    Personally don't consider this a worthwhile buy at that price, even with the touch cover included. Windows RT makes it a glorified toy, without the app selection of the other toy tablets.
    Cut the price in half or less for both the tablet and the cover - then I'd consider getting an RT tablet
    Reply
  • w8gaming
    The fact that Surface Pro does not get free cover might shows that Surface Pro does indeed sells better than RT. This also shows how misjudged Microsoft senior management and marketing department had been.
    Reply
  • teh_chem
    I'm just dumbfounded that they'd make a detachable keyboard without an added battery for longer use. That was the nice thing about the ASUS TF series. But close to $150 for just the keyboard for the Surface...yeah, right.
    Not to mention that you're at the whim of the Surface' lame kickstand. It's very infrequent that I have a flat surface for working/playing on the go where a kickstand would suffice. A proper dock/keyboard with battery would have made sense. A dumb kickstand and a detachable keyboard-only is dumb.
    Reply
  • thebeastie
    Microsoft desperately want to imitate Apple and instead of a minimum of $100 going to Intel for their silicon they want that money to go to them by using ARM silicon.
    Problem is MS didn't work there way up to that product quality like Apple did over the last 10 years with iPod, iPhone, iPad.
    MS just jumped out of the bushes with an ARM tablet and said give me all your money now, because we know your hopelessly addicted to our software.
    Turns out people aren't quite that addicted and MS simply were giving a bad deal with RT when you consider upto %50 of your SSD flash storage is eaten up by the MS Win8 RT OS. This was incredibly arrogant.
    I still like the RT+ARM model very much from MS. I think its going to take a long time to work if ever.
    Intel are releasing the new Silvermont Atom CPU which is well priced (ONLY BECAUSE OF ARM) but this CPU is still crap.. its real crap. Intel STILL want minimum $100 profit per piece of silicon and they are adjusting their plans to swim back towards that and people hating Windows RT falls right into Intels plans.
    I think MS should continue on the RT+ARM path with a full version of MS Office and more generous amounts of flash instead of leaving customers with a bad taste in their mouths when you can have half your SSD flash space taken up by the RT OS.
    Reply
  • vertigo_2000
    "The current Surface RT free cover promotion begins May 31 and ends on June 30, or while supplies last." That last part really made me feel like I should take advantage of this promotion. /end sarcasm
    Reply