Microsoft Can't Sell Its Tablets To Consumers, So It's Selling Them To Schools For Cheap

Microsoft is giving out its newest tablets like candy. Last week, Microsoft announced it would give away Surface RT tablets to the 10,000 teachers attending the International Society for Technology in Education conference later this month.Earlier this month, Microsoft offered highly discounted Surface RT and Surface Pro tablets to those who attended TechEd North America 2013.

Now, Microsoft is launching a new program this week to sell heavily discounted Surface RT tablets to schools, Mary Jo Foley of ZDNet reports.

As part of Microsoft's new offer, schools throughout 25 countries will be able to purchase Surface RT tablets in bulk for more than 50% off per unit. Though, they will only be able to buy variations of the 32 GB Surface RT models. Microsoft's program starts June 24 and goes until August 31. Microsoft's Surface RT tablet debuted last year as the company's direct competitor to Apple's iPad. But with just 1.8% of the tablet market share, Microsoft is clearly trying to get its tablets in more hands. xs43DAs43

In Q1 2013, Microsoft sold a total of 900,000 tablets, most of which were the Surface Pro, according to a May report from the International Data Corporation. Compare that to 19.5 million tablets Apple sold, and the 8.8 million Samsung sold. In short, the Surface RT is Microsoft's least popular latest android tablet.

To make matters worse for Microsoft, its Windows 8 and Windows RT mobile operating systems aren't very popular, either. The combined shipments of Windows 8 and Windows RT in Q1 '13 reached 1.8 million units. Its Windows RT operating system is also one of the least popular, making up for just 0.4% of the tablet operating market share.

Earlier this week the folks from AT&T announced they’ll be the exclusive carrier of the Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 tablet with 4G LTE. At the same time they detailed a pretty stellar deal offering the tablet for $199 (instead of $399) when bundled with participating Samsung Galaxy smartphones. A deal indeed. Today Samsung’s confirmed Verizon wants in on the fun, and will be doing the same for the rest of June.

From what we’re hearing, Verizon will be offering $100 off any Samsung 10-inch tablet with Verizon 4G LTE as a bundle deal for those purchasing the Galaxy S4, or the Galaxy S III. Instead of paying full price for the tablet, they’ll give you $100 towards the tablet of your choice if you’re also getting a new Samsung Galaxy smartphone.

And of course this requires a new 2-year contract, but that was expected. Samsung shared the details this evening over on Twitter, and Verizon’s also updated their Q88 Tablet support page with the $100 off sticker for those interested. They only have two 10-inch tablets available, but this is a good deal for those in need of a good smartphone/tablet combo for summer, or starting College soon.