Microsoft Offers A Free Lumia 950 With Purchase Of A Lumia 950 XL
The market hasn't shown a ton of interest in Microsoft's Lumia 950 and Lumia 950 XL handsets so the Redmond outfit is making an offer it hopes customers will have a tougher time refusing. If you purchase an unlocked Lumia 950 XL smartphone from the Microsoft Store, Microsoft will throw in an unlocked Lumia 950 handset at no additional cost.
That's a savings of $549, the retail cost of the slightly smaller Lumia 950, though you'll have to pony up a premium-tier $649 for the Lumia XL handset. The deal is in play until either May 1, 2016 or when Microsoft depletes its inventory, the latter of which seems to be the purpose behind the promotion.
Lumia handsets haven't been jumping off of store shelves. Microsoft only sold 2.3 million Lumia devices last quarter, a steep decline from the 8.6 million devices it sold in the same quarter from a year prior. Looking ahead, Microsoft doesn't expect things to change all that much in the mobile phone space.
"We expect year-over-year revenue declines to steepen in Q4 as we work through our Lumia channel position," Microsoft's Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood stated during an earnings call.
Microsoft is astutely aware of its position in the smartphone market. Microsoft's Terry Myerson recently stated that the smartphone category is "the wrong place for us to lead," noting that Windows Phone just isn't the way to reach a large number of phone customers at this point in time. And he's right—according to the most recent data from Gartner, Android and iOS account for 98.4 percent of the world's smartphones, while Microsoft's share is just a sliver over 1 percent.
Since Microsoft has other areas of importance to focus on, these kinds of deals aren't surprising. In this specific case, the buy-one-get-one offer comes just ahead of Mother's Day. Gift idea, perhaps? If that's your thinking (or if you simply want to take advantage of this deal), go here.
That's a savings of $549, the retail cost of the slightly smaller Lumia 950, though you'll have to pony up a premium-tier $649 for the Lumia XL handset. The deal is in play until either May 1, 2016 or when Microsoft depletes its inventory, the latter of which seems to be the purpose behind the promotion.
Lumia handsets haven't been jumping off of store shelves. Microsoft only sold 2.3 million Lumia devices last quarter, a steep decline from the 8.6 million devices it sold in the same quarter from a year prior. Looking ahead, Microsoft doesn't expect things to change all that much in the mobile phone space.
"We expect year-over-year revenue declines to steepen in Q4 as we work through our Lumia channel position," Microsoft's Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood stated during an earnings call.
Microsoft is astutely aware of its position in the smartphone market. Microsoft's Terry Myerson recently stated that the smartphone category is "the wrong place for us to lead," noting that Windows Phone just isn't the way to reach a large number of phone customers at this point in time. And he's right—according to the most recent data from Gartner, Android and iOS account for 98.4 percent of the world's smartphones, while Microsoft's share is just a sliver over 1 percent.
Since Microsoft has other areas of importance to focus on, these kinds of deals aren't surprising. In this specific case, the buy-one-get-one offer comes just ahead of Mother's Day. Gift idea, perhaps? If that's your thinking (or if you simply want to take advantage of this deal), go here.
