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Microsoft offers Apple users $650 off to trade a MacBook for a Surface
- nosound_badday 10y agoDesperado...
- jcmoscon 10y agoNo thanks!
- tristanj 10y agoQuick clarification, it's not $650 off it's "up to" $650 off based off the Apple laptop's trade in value.
- BipolarElsa 10y agoAh, the fine print. So refreshing.
- tedmiston 10y agoVery misleading headline from TechCrunch.
- GrinningFool 10y agoTrue, but that's kind of what TC does...
- dep_b 10y agoThey wanted to give me US$100 for my 2008 alu MacBook. I bet they're going to flip them on fleabay!
- dawnerd 10y agoTo be fair I wouldn't pay 100 bucks for a 2008 MacBook.
- emodendroket 10y agoIs there that healthy a market for second-hand computers that are nearly a decade old?
- Scoundreller 10y agoFor a 2008 Macbook, $100-$200 on fleabay. I have been looking at 2008-2009 27" iMacs, and they still go for US$700-800. Since OS X has to be built for underpowered laptops, it should still perform well on desktops for a while longer.
- zaptheimpaler 10y agoAnd apparently my 2015 Retina MBP is worth $50 according to their page...
- BipolarElsa 10y ago? Looks like Mi¢rosoft is engaging in a publicity stunt to sell their flimsy-ass keyboards. No deal.
- serge2k 10y agoThe surface book has a flimsy keyboard?
- BipolarElsa 10y agoIt's a glorified iPad. I had one and the keyboard was sub-par junk. I actually switched it in for an Air. But maybe that was just me.
- Noted 10y agoIt sounds like you're confusing the surface book and the surface pro. The former is a laptop with a detachable screen, the latter is more like a tablet with an attachable keyboard. (although both run full OSes). The surface book is the macbook pro competitor.
- slantyyz 10y agoAlso, there are two types of keyboards for the Surface - the touch (bad) and type (good) which has real keys.
- rbanffy 10y agoStill, the way the hinge does not make the screen rest flat against the bottom makes me a bit uncomfortable about compressing the closed laptop. It's a machine to be handled with care. It certainly can't tolerate the abuse a MacBook can.
- sctb 10y agoPlease comment civilly and substantively on Hacker News or not at all. We ban accounts that continue to post like this.
- lpa22 10y agoThese trade-in values are laughable[1]. You are better off selling on eBay. Microsoft does sure know their Apple laptop models though [1] https://microsoftsurfacetrade.cexchange.com/online/home/index.rails https://microsoftsurfacetrade.cexchange.com/online/home/inde...
- invokestatic 10y agoIt's just Microsoft-branded CEXCHANGE.
- gist 10y ago> You are better off selling on eBay. Great! Why don't you come here and do all that work for me! (Sorry just a snarky lead in for my commentary). I try to avoid selling at ebay if at all possible. I did just sell an iphone 6 and honestly if you don't sell regularly it's a bit of work plus you have fees and have to worry about the buyer complaining. In my case they wrote to me saying that they thought it was a 6 plus and would I take it back if they paid shipping? (No was no returns) So the withheld feeback and filed a complaint with ebay. It went in my favor (obviously it was listed correctly) however the entire experience I would have rather avoided and it took time and effort and writing to clear it up. The advantage of a trade in program like this is if you are not trying to squeak out the last dollar in value you don't have to worry as much when you ship the item that everything is 100% perfect. Edit: Of course the money does matter so I am talking in general about selling on ebay of course I'd see exactly what the delta was taking into account all fees and time involved.
- massysett 10y agoI will never sell on eBay again and I don't even need to see what the delta is. Ebay is full of non-paying bidders and people waiting to rip you off. I sold a Thinkpad on ebay. I kept getting bidders from foreign countries even though I specified that I wanted bids from my country only. Why can't ebay screen these out? One winning bidder emailed me and said "I don't want this anymore." Ok, you just wasted my 7-day auction, thanks. Another bidder simply did not pay. Sellers get more on ebay because selling there is such a pain that a considerable premium is necessary to justify it. Maybe it's worth it for strange collectibles. For a commodity like an Apple computer? Never worth it. I would sell to Gazelle or MS and be happy with the huge discount.
- emsy 10y agoThe trade-in value is really low. They offer UP TO $650, but most models are valued lower. Not a good deal for consumers.
- drham 10y ago"Up to $650". You plug in your exact model and get a value thats <= $650 based on resale value, similar to value to just selling to a service like Gazelle. Smart marketing though.
- marricks 10y agoHighlights how much Apple and Microsoft are targeting the same market with very different products, which is good for consumers. Unfortunately consumers can also be the casualties. Less popularized "specs" would be the manufacturing and software issues that have plagued windows devices like the surfacebook being extremely buggy at launch and the del XPS 13 completely lacking drivers when launched with win 10... Apple seems to have a but better of a job at hardware and software integration.
- jrockway 10y agoYeah, the Surface Pro 4 was pretty buggy at launch too, but it's since improved. I use it as my primary personal laptop. Good screen. Plenty fast.
- passive 10y agoI've had to RMA it twice, but otherwise my surface pro 3 has been the most reliable computer I've ever used. My only machine for work and play for the last 2 years, and right now it looks like a Surface will replace it.
- abritinthebay 10y ago> I've had to RMA it twice, but otherwise my surface pro 3 has been the most reliable computer I've ever used. That's... a pretty major "otherwise".
- passive 10y agoWell, my only problems were ones where I got a quick replacement. Day-to-day it simply worked well.
- kyriakos 10y agoHow can you consider something reliable if you had to RMA it twice? or it was just broken at the beginning and been working fine ever since?
- man5quid 10y agoIt only takes a kernel patch to gentoo for it to run linux!
- dorianm 10y ago$50.00 for a working MacBook Pro retina 13", I guess it's just a joke, even they don't believe anyone would trade a MacBook for a Surface-thing.
- mixedCase 10y agoI would in a 1-to-1 deal. They are both overpriced hardware for what they bring to the table, but at least the SPro has a Wacom touchscreen which makes it a great little thing for taking notes and on-the-go whiteboarding. I would've loved one for my daily commute when I had 30-45 mins to kill on the bus. An MBP offers me nothing valuable over laptops at ~half the price.
- bruceb 10y agoAn old Apple MacBook Pro A1150 MA463LL/A 15" 1.83GHz Core Duo gets $150 in trade value so maybe yours is a mistake. Or maybe you meant to type $500?
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- pfooti 10y agoReally? They're offering me $400 for my 256gb / 2.4ghz late 2013 retina model. Pretty bog standard and 3 years old. That's enough to make me seriously consider it, since I've been eyeing the surface book for a bit. Mainly I need to figure out its Ubuntu compatibility now.
- reustle 10y agoIf you're seriously considering it, you'll get way more than $400 selling your MBP on your own.
- duaneb 10y agoMy 2009 13" macbook pro is offered $75, so I'm gonna guess something is wonky on your end.
- SiVal 10y agoWell, it looks as though they are striking while the iron is hot. There is enough disappointment by people wanting a serious unixy workstation who have been using the Mac for that purpose that if MS puts serious effort into their Windows Subsytem for Linux and pushes hard enough, they may well seriously grab developer market share from Apple. I wonder if Apple would even notice.
- wmeredith 10y agoIt's a good question. Apple$ iPhone business alone is bigger than all of Microsoft.
- ant6n 10y agoUh, isn't Apple's Iphone business most of Apple's business?
- thesimpsons1022 10y agodo you have proof of this? microsoft is the second largest company in the world behind apple so it's hard to believe
- unicornporn 10y agoRealized I forgot a out these day after they were presented. Perhaps because they're not even possible to buy here in Sweden... Too bad, because they look mighty fine.
- Steeeve 10y agoThey really blew a good oppportunity. The values they are offering are laughable.
- rocky1138 10y agoDamn. US only.
- mentat2737 10y agoAgree... No love for EU users :/
- ssivark 10y agoIMHO, this is a marketing attempt to get the word out that Surface Pro/Book are competing for the same market as the Macbook <whatever>. They could spend a lot of money on advertizing and try to reach end users, or come up with a scheme like this where they might not actually fork out too much money and let news media do the job for them. At the sortof discounts they'll actually end up giving on average, its a win for them irrespective of how many people actually make use of the offer. (Quite clever, methinks)
- matthjensen 10y agoShouldn't Microsoft have made the trade in page prettier if the goal is to get the word out that "Surface Pro/Book are competing for the same market as the Macbook <whatever>"?
- adventurer 10y agoSure, but Microsoft isn't exactly known for fancy marketing.
- exodust 10y agoYour opinion is spookily similar to the Techcrunch story we're discussing.... "Sure, it’s all promotion, but it’s the sort of gag that affords the company opportunity to showcase its perceived advantages over Cupertino as the company looks to appeal more and more toward creatives – a category long dominated by Apple" You didn't read the article did you.
- blitzd 10y agoAny way I could trade my Surface Pro 3 for an old MacBook? I'm tired of MS breaking it every 2nd week with 'updates'.
- nu5500 10y agoSounds like you have a lemon then and should have it replaced. I'm on a SP3 right now that I bought two years ago... since then upgraded to Win 10 and then to the Anniversary Update. Other than the battery drain issue that struck earlier this year, it's pretty much been flawless and I bang on it every day. I for one am sold on this form factor.
- WrkInProgress 10y agoThis is nothing new and Microsoft has had programs like this in place from time and time (including trading in old versions of Surface / Surface Pro). As someone pointed out, it's just a re-branding of am existing third party "trade in" company. Here's one for the Xbox https://microsoftconsoletradeca.cexchange.com/online/home/index.rails https://microsoftconsoletradeca.cexchange.com/online/home/in...
- dpweb 10y agoIf they were serious they would make it 1000. Or even refund almost new prices. It would work. Ms in the past was very aggressive when they put their minds to getting market share. Remember when they offered web browsers for free. Bye Netscape. They offered 30pct a few years back on everything on eBay, these were compelling deals. I do not like iPhone but sorry iPads are nicer than surface tablets. They should go hard if they really want to displace iPad. As a tablet surfaces are a little too heavy and expensive.
- cuchoi 10y agoI was open to trade my Mid 2012 (upgraded RAM and HDD to SDD), but they offer me $350. I just bought a new charger for $80 dollars (you have to include it in the trade to be eligible)...
- passive 10y agoThey aren't trying to displace iPad...
- ralusek 10y agoSurfaces, to be fair, aren't really direct competitors with iPads. iPads run a mobile OS, surface run Windows. You're using Photoshop, Flash, Illustrator on a Surface, not iOS apps.
- sheeshkebab 10y agoClever marketing, but very misleading and trade in values are mostly nowhere $650. Went browsing apple.com macs after seeing all their $2k+ prices on surface books...
- countryqt30 10y agoOf course: The Surface is WORTHLESS! That's a great deal for Microsoft.
- a13n 10y agoAnd by $650 you mean "up to $650"... I have a MacBook Air that was appraised at $260. Screw that...
- dangero 10y agoIf they would have actually given me $650 off I would have done it, but since they are only offering $150 for my model and I wasted my time looking into it, I feel an even stronger dislike from Microsoft than I felt before. Nice work Microsoft marketing team. Very shortsighted.
- jonknee 10y agoYou should channel your dislike towards Tech Crunch who wrote the headline...
- dangero 10y agoI partially agree, but: 1. Microsoft has a huge PR division and had at least some influence on this article. 2. The entire promotion from Microsoft is meant to be click-bait because they aren't providing any value I couldn't get already. There are already resale markets for used Macbook pros that provide the same pricing.
- bastardoperator 10y agoMy experience with Techcrunch is that you write the article and pay them to publish it.
- eric_the_read 10y agoMy question is: How is Microsoft going to dispose of these MacBooks? My follow-up question is: How do I get in on that action?
- saberworks 10y agoAs always, I'm creeped out by the fact that Microsoft is tracking how often everyone uses touch input. Are they tracking what app the user was interacting with? Exactly where/how they touched? What was under the touch? I'm just not comfortable sharing that information with anyone. If they were to provide a complete opt-out of all information sharing I'd definitely consider it, but until then I'm out. This is in response to the giant quote box they have in the article on the actual blog post. "97% of people that have a Surface Pro 4 or Surface Book use on-screen touch input regularly."
- marricks 10y agoThat has to be one thing Apple has going for then, security. They don't often talk about it on stage but the thought and work that goes into protecting users looks pretty strong. The touch ID in the new Macbook pro actually uses an apple watch chip with security enclave on it, and the web cam is routes through there too so the CPU doesn't have direct access, making it harder to hack. I'm not sure I've heard Microsoft talk about protecting users or avoiding exploiting their data...
- j45 10y agoUpgrading to Windows 10 enterprise/Pro allows turning off of such creepy telemetry. I understand they probably want to understand how users are using touch that they may not have taught yet but it should not be forced on regular Windows 10 users. Still, on regular windows 10 home devices, tools like Spybot's anti-beacon seem to be at least somewhat effective in minimizing such calls home. https://www.safer-networking.org/spybot-anti-beacon/ https://www.safer-networking.org/spybot-anti-beacon/
- oridecon 10y ago> Upgrading to Windows 10 enterprise/Pro allows turning off of such creepy telemetry. Isn't this option enterprise only? And it doesn't disable everything I don't know what's the situation now but when I checked what a W10 enterprise installation leaked in a VM I was really shocked. Even after using a few tools, and the policy editor, I remember that even explorer.exe (the file manager I mean) was making network calls. Not trying to spread FUD about MS, I'm tired of ALL telemetry, from apps to Apples. I would love to see some privacy advocating foundation or public service that released constant unbiased reports about what each OS version is collecting from you. And, like I said before, if MS wants me to consider using Windows (outside of my daily job, that I have no other option), they should offer a PAID option with ZERO data collection. I don't care if you offer Windows for free in exchange for the user data, but I don't want any of it. And you can have my money for that.
- twblalock 10y agoSome people here are complaining about the trade in value, but Microsoft's quote for my 2011 Macbook Pro was pretty close to what I could get for it on eBay. However, I would not expect the resale value on any Surface product to be very good at all. One of the nice things about owning Apple products is that you only pay full price for the first one -- when you replace it, you can trade in or sell the one you have for a lot more money than any non-Apple product of a similar age.
- randlet 10y agoUS only unfortunately.
- ruffrey 10y agoDoes it run Linux?
- stoic 10y agoClearly a ploy by Microsoft to snag some decent hardware for their own staff on the cheap. Nice try, slugheads!
- bitmapbrother 10y agoTitle is misleading. It should be "up to $650". The trade in values are ridiculous, though and on par with pawn shop quotes.
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- stomato 10y agoMy answer would be "No, thanks." Even though the new MB pro has the weird strip and lack of function keys, the OS is still better. Windows 10 has more quirks.
- nkozyra 10y agoSo put OSX on the Surface ;)
- bobwaycott 10y agoIs that even possible?
- kyriakos 10y agoYes just not legal (well it is sort of legal if you consider the EULA is not a law just don't advertise you are doing it). On the other hand, OSX would be the worst OS to install on a convertible tablet/laptop - you're better off with Linux.
- kelukelugames 10y agoI traded in my broken mackbook air for a surface pro 3. Microsoft sent someone to film me because of it. I think not a lot of people made that deal.
- orsenthil 10y agoBut, can you install Linux on it?
- thr0waway1239 10y agoReminds me of Bing Rewards. They should probably refrain from offering people money to try their products because it devalues their own brand.
- aq3cn 10y agoWhat Apple does with purchased MacBook? It will be funny if Apple puts ban on reselling these devices and disable their iTune accounts.
- pinkskip 10y agoSurface is nice, But would i trade my Macbook for it, No!