Microsoft and Blackberry drop Surface and Z10 pricing

Microsoft and Blackberry are both axing prices on their Surface and Z10 products in a bid to increase sales.

Microsoft have cut the price of their Surface RT 32gb tablet from £400 to £279 in the United Kingdom. The 64GB model drops in price to £359. In America the cheapest Surface tablet dropped in price from $499 to $349.

In America Blackberry have dropped the price of their Z10 smartphone to as low as $49 with a contract, down from the initial price of $199 four months ago. Both companies are failing right now to compete with Samsung, Google and Apple in the respective fields.

Blackberry have announced an $84 million loss for the last quarter. They said that they have shipped one million Z10's in the first three months of 2013.

Microsoft are struggling to compete in the tablet market against leaders Samsung and Apple. Analyst firm IDC say there was 49.2 million tablets shipped in January, February and March and only 900,000 of those were Microsoft Surface tablets. Apple's iPad and iPad Mini accounted for 19.5 million of the tablets sold.

A Microsoft spokeswoman seemed happy enough though, saying “We've been seeing great success with pricing and cover promotions over the past several months on Surface RT in the US and other markets. People who buy Surface love Surface, and we're excited about all those additional people out sharing their excitement for Surface with other people.”

Kitguru says: The Surface Pro remains at full price however, so no cut price deals on those. Yet, anyway.

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