Microsoft is thinking of launching a premium color version of the Surface Pro tablet. How would you quantify the benefits of this service?

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Microsoft is thinking of launching a premium color version of the Surface Pro tablet. How would you quantify the benefits of this service?

Asked at Microsoft over a year ago

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Caavi · Answer 1 · 2020-07-27T19:49:46+0000

Clarify:

Is this launch for a specific market or worldwide?

US Only

Is this a limited series or going to be available through out the year?

Plan is to make it available through out the year - Depending on the success of the initial launch.

Can I take a quick look at the Surface Pro website? Yes

Currently it is available only in Black and Grey. When you say premium color how many variants are available?

Few colors - Red, Blue, Purple, Gold & Pure White

Majority of the customers or target customers seems to be White collared professionals and looks like this is aimed at Millenials (College students) and Genz. Is that right?

Yes

Okay. Let's do some math

There are roughly 80mil Millenials
and 80 Mil Gen Z (Born between 1990-2000)
Currently the users pay anywhere between 799- 2299. The 2299 is high end and comes with color option.
Since there are options for color for high range PCs, the company need not spend money on color mold.
Windows OS has 70% market share currently

Average (non working professionals) tend to spend somewhere between 800-1200. If the plan is to attract these customer segment described above then providing this option to 800-1200 range would make more sense as it is already ahead interms of mac book

pro configuration at these levels and comes with touch screen and easily portable (Less heavy compared to Mac book pro)

Other Cost:

There will be an increase in marketing cost as this specific customer segment needs to be educated about this and to show case it as an upcoming trend
Partnership (% sale cut) with School Bookstore & Barnes and Nobles

Overall Upside:

Microsoft gains an entry to Gen Z's radar (A good chunk of marketing cost can be attributed to this as well)
Marginal SKU cost to maintain the separate SKU - Especially given the fact that high end surface pro offers this option anyways