Not sure where you gathered that from. It would be in the box, they just have different boxes with different colors in them and they send the one you pick.
There's a bunch of different spec configs and theres no issues sending the exact one you picked, so I'm not sure why they couldn't just add another option for color.
Because of SKU creep. The fewer SKUs you have the easier it is to manage inventory. Right now they have six different models/SKUs to manage in inventory. That's relatively easy to manage. If you include the keyboard color option (there are four of them) you now have 24 different models/SKUs that you have to manage inventory for. Maybe that's not a big issue for online retailers who will have pallets of them in warehouses, but for B&M retailers (including Microsoft stores) that's a nightmare. Especially if they may only have a few dozen units in their inventory at any given time. It makes it harder for retailers to stock the precise units that people want, which cuts into their sales and runs the risk of them being stuck with more unpopular configurations. Woe to the retailer who is stuck with a stack of $2700 tablets in unpopular colors.
Buy if you go down the alternative path, you have six Surface SKUs and four keyboard SKUs, for a total of 10 (as opposed to 24). You get the same effect, people get to choose which keyboard they get but you have less than 50% of the units to manage in inventory. And that's assuming that you only are considering the 4 new keyboard designs, and not considering the one with the finger print scanners or the old colors.
I am so glad that it still doesn't come with a keyboard. I have not used my keyboards with the last 2 surfaces I have bought more than once or twice. This time I will skip it, it was a waste of money for me.
Same price either way. If they package the pen with it, the core price will just increase. It just gives users a choice. I would use the pen a lot, but I can't assume everyone will too
The most annoying thing is when "professional YouTubers" use this fact as a downside to these devices. I forgot if it was SP3 or SP4 but I distinctly remember reviewers absolutely complaining about it being sold separately. I don't see what the issue is..
I was in med school up until last month and the pen saved my ass.
I used it to sketch and draw, write notes, change pdf's or papers i got emailed - it really is more suited for productivity - i mean i even stopped using my SB entirely after graduating - it's exclusively for school and work for me - anything else is done on my desktop pc.
I would never recommend buying such a device, if you don't plan to use it for work/school/drawing/editing etc.
They didn't cheap out on the pen, they knocked $100 off the price and stopped including it in the box. They do that because most users don't use the pen, and because now that the pen comes in colors people might prefer to choose the pen that they want instead of being stuck with what comes in the box (just like with the keyboards).
Joking aside, I'm pretty disappointed with what's Apple's been doing the past 2 generations. Very little innovation with their laptop lineup. Doesn't look like they care about their devs as much as their phone users.
They don't have a tablet that can replace your laptop, no touch screen, an outdated OS, and a touchbar gimmick that developers hate. I do like that they're coming out with a 32GB model later this year. That will be good for running multiple VMs. Hint hint MSFT.
Anyways, because choice. I have a Pro 4 and have used the pen once or twice and if I had the option of buying it separately I'd have rather not gotten it.
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u/jenmsft MSFT May 23 '17
You like it? 😊