Monday, March 7, 2016

Microsoft Surface Book not coming to India anytime soon

Microsoft will not launch Surface Book in India. Instead, they might make up for that by launching the even more powerful Surface Book 2 which is likely to be launched this fall.

Microsoft has no plans to launch its Surface Book in India anytime soon because of poor Surface Pro 4 sales in the country, our sources close to the company's Indian subsidiary revealed. Microsoft announced the Surface Pro 4 in January, which will be available exclusively via Amazon.in for the first six months before making the hybrid available through other retail channels.

However, while the SP4 has earned critical reviews and continues to sell in sizeable numbers, the same however isn't reflected in India. And, it's attributed to the relatively high price tag that the Pro 4 sells for in India.

The Surface Pro 4 range starts at INR 89,990. This applies to the base model with a Core i5 chip, 4 GB of RAM and 128 GB SSD storage (Surface Pen and Type Cover sold separately). Next up is the version with a Core i5 chip, 8 GB of RAM and 256 GB SSD memory that is priced at INR 1,20,990. And, the top-shelf model comes with a Core i7 chip, 8 GB of RAM along with 256 GB SSD and is priced a quite hefty INR 1,44,990.

All efforts towards making the Pro 4 more acceptable in India has so far failed to evoke the kind of enthusiasm among buyers as Microsoft might have expected and they don't find the right spot for Surface Book in terms of price tags, say sources.

Last October, Microsoft had launched the Surface Pro 4 along with the Surface Book. While the Pro 4 features considerable improvement over its predecessor, the Surface Pro 3, the Surface Book happens to be the Redmond giant's first foray in the laptop segment.

The company, however, had to face a lot of customer ire as the Surface Book initially ran into quite a few problems, the primary among which was sleep/wake issues associated with the laptop. Those have seen been rectified thanks to the latest drivers and firmware update that was released a few weeks back.

It was in January that Microsoft had announced the availability of the Surface Book in 10 new regions worldwide. These included Austria, Australia, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Switzerland, and the UK. Earlier, the Surface Book was only available in the US and Canada since October.

However, while the Surface Pro 4 and the Surface Book managed to instil a lot of user confidence to Windows 10 ecosystem, the same unfortunately isn't applicable to the Lumia 950 and 950 XL both of which were designed to be the flag bearer of Windows 10 Mobile operating system.

That is understandable considering the host of issues that Windows 10 Mobile faced with. The OS has often been criticised for not being stable enough while also having a very limited app store compared to Android and iOS.

Fortunately for Windows fans, Microsoft has embarked on an ambitious strategy of presenting Windows 10 as a single platform for developers to make apps for, something that is being put forward as the UWP apps. The company is already expected to have something important to announce at the upcoming BUILD 2016 conference that, apart from UWP apps, is also expected to touch upon other aspects as well. These include Redstone 1 update due in June along with an enhanced version of the Xbox One.

Meanwhile, those eager for the Surface Book to launch in India, maybe Microsoft will have something more exciting to offer its fans in India. The new Surface Book 2 might well be it, and is due out in October.


Source: Microsoft Surface Book not coming to India anytime soon

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