Microsoft cuts price on Surface RT tablets to $349

Microsoft cut the prices on its Surface RT tablets on Sunday by as much as 30 percent.The software giant's entry-level 32GB model without a touch keyboard was reduced from $499 to $349, while the 64GB model's price was also reduced by $150, now selling for $499, a price cut of 25 percent.

Microsoft also recently inked a deal to provide 10,000 teachers with Surface RT devices as part of its Windows in the Classroom Surface Experience Project.

Paul Thurrott,Microsoft watcher,notes:"The issue here is simple. Windows RT is the first-generation version of a new kind of Windows that is completely incompatible with the Windows desktop applications you actually use and much of the hardware peripherals you already own. And Surface RT, based as it is on current generation ARM hardware that was designed for smart phones and media tablets, is simply too underpowered to provide a satisfactory experience."

Sales of Surface RT tablets, which debuted a year ago, have been seen as tepid. In March, Bloomberg reported that Microsoft likely sold around 1.5 million Surface tablets to date. Though 1 million of those sales were for the RT version, that number was about half of what Microsoft initially expected, according to Bloomberg.