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Microsoft is all set to cut the price of its Surface RT tablet by $150, if a recent internet rumour is to be believed.


According to The Verge, which is citing "sources familiar with Microsofts Surface plans," the current iteration of the Surface RT tablet could be cut to $349 (for the 32GB model) as early as next week.

The 64GB model will be cut to $449.99, whilst youll be able to add a Touch Cover to either model for $100 extra.

Such a price cut would follow slow sales of the stripped-back Windows 8 RT tablet. Microsoft has even tried to sell the device off to schools in the past for just $199 a piece.

The reports also comes in the wake of news that Microsoft is to launch the next generation of Surface RT and Surface Pro over the coming 12 months. The company outlined its plans to do so at this weeks Worldwide Partner Conference.

We previously reported that the next Surface RT would run on a Snapdragon 800 CPU, which would enable the inclusion of 4G connectivity.

Meanwhile the next Surface Pro, which will run a full version of Windows 8.1, will likely sport a new Intel Haswell processor.

Its also rumoured that Microsoft is working on a new battery-equipped keyboard cover for the next generation of its Surface tablets.

For more than two decades, ever since DOS and Windows 3.1x, dual-booting has been restricted to hardcore enthusiasts who found being able to boot from one or more operating systems convenient and useful.


If the presentation by Microsofts Joe Belfiore last week in Barcelona is an indication of how the mobile market will evolve, were about to see a comeback of dual booting with Android and Windows Phone sitting on the same phone.

The push is likely to come from Microsoft for whom this might be one of the biggest punts of its long history, similar to putting Internet Explorer into Windows 95.

The enemy of my enemy is my friend

The gist of the later part of Belfiores presentation is that Microsoft is working closely with hardware partners to make sure that there is little or no change needed to get a smartphone (or indeed any ARM-based devices) to run Windows Phone or Android.

X86 devices like PCs, laptops and servers run Windows or Linux (or indeed MacOS X) indiscriminately and theres no reason why that shouldnt be the case for smartphones in general.

This is a logical step that is likely to be more helpful to Microsoft than Android - and this tacit agreement will end up being most detrimental to Apple.

How bold is too bold?

It seems likely that Microsoft may encourage partners to offer dual-boot as standard on all Android smartphones by offering Windows Phone for free or for a huge discount.

The cynical among us might suggest that as well as offering Windows Phone for free (or at a low cost), Microsoft will slash the fees associated with cross licensing agreements signed with scores of manufacturers of Android devices to persuade them to put Windows Phone prominently on the Android phone (perhaps on the boot screen).

Either solution will cost money but would enable Microsoft to get Windows into the hands of potentially tens of millions of Android users.

It will hope that they will try Windows Phone and be so enamoured of it that they eventually switch to a solely Windows Phone device or continue to use the two platforms altogether.

This would help Microsoft expand the number of smartphones running Windows Phone exponentially and we might even see Microsoft-backed versions of Android without Googles services (similar to what Nokia is doing), something which would be something of an ironic move.

As always though, the more competition in a market, the more likely innovation will thrive.

The business allure of dual-booting

So whats the point of dual-booting for consumers? Most end-users and consumers are unlikely to gain much from the exercise, depending on how dual-booting devices are pitched to the mainstream.

But there is a category of users for whom this will be a godsend and that is the business/enterprise audience.
Having Windows 8 Embedded or Windows Phone 8 plus Android on a sleek smartphone that can be used both for work and leisure will be an attractive proposal to some.

Microsofts mobile platform offers easy access to Office 365, Active Directory and the entire Windows ecosystem (including Xbox) and is an incredibly attractive alternative to BlackBerry.

Thats the theory many think Redmond will follow because the other option is to see Windows Phone stuck as the third choice after Android and iOS, and seeing numbers of shipped (but not sold) units increase over time.

Piggy-backing on Googles Android is definitely not an ego-boosting move for Microsoft but it is by far the most pragmatic.

It is also one that can yield great results reasonably quickly, which is what Satya Nadella needs at the moment to stamp his authority on the company.

Microsoft Excel 2007 Tutorial – document, simply click on the MS 2007 logo in the top left-hand corner [ ] and the menu bar that you see on your right here will drop down giving you various options, including saving.To get help in Excel 2007, look for the help icon [ ] in the top right-hand corner of the screen and click on it.You will be presented with a window that looks like the one here on the right.To access the slide master, go to the View tab and select “Slide Master”Also, when you have a blank slide (or parts of a blank slide), you can also click on options within these blank compartments to insert pictures. when you have a blank slide (or parts of a blank slide), you can also click on options w/nthese blank compartments to insert tables.

Download: Microsoft Excel 2007 Tutorial