Microsoft Pushes Surface Pro 3 with Apple Trade-In, Bumps up OneDrive

It’s discount season at Microsoft (MSFT). Ahead of its Surface Pro 3 shipment date the vendor has cut prices on its Surface Pro 2 models and now it’s giving users turning in their old Apple (AAPL) MacBook Air notebooks up to $650 in store credit toward the purchase of its new tablet.

Microsoft is positioning the Surface Pro 3 as a notebook replacement, so it makes sense the vendor would go after Apple with a trade-in promotion. That it’s targeted at the popular MacBook Air is an interesting strategy but, nonetheless, Microsoft is offering the trade-in credit until July 31.

There are some qualifiers, of course. The MacBook Air must power on—water damage and cracked screens are non-qualifiers—and the trade-in value may vary, so users shouldn’t count on getting the entire $650 credit just for showing up with a MacBook Air under their arm.

Microsoft recently cut prices on its second-generation Surface Pro 2 by $200 on some models and $100 on others, ostensibly to make room for its new Surface Pro 3. The 64GB, Core i5 Surface Pro 2 now costs $799, down by $100; and, the 512GB edition now lists for $1,599, a $200 savings.

The Surface Pro 3 Core i5 128GB priced at $999 and the 256GB model priced at $1,299 are scheduled to ship on June 30, 10 days after its original ship date, while the low-end Core i3 priced at $799 and the Core i7 models are marked to ship at the end of August.

More OneDrive Free Storage

Earlier this week, Microsoft said it effectively was doubling the amount of free storage available to OneDrive users, upping it to 15GB from 7GB, bringing it in line with the same amount of free space Google (GOOG) offers with its Google Drive and more than what Apple’s iCloud and Dropbox provide.

In addition, Microsoft said that starting next mnoth, Office 365 home, personal and university subscription users will get a huge bump in cloud storage space, from 20GB to 1TB—a level previously available only to Office 365 business users.

And, the vendor pared down its monthly price for larger plans—100GB now is priced at $1.99 a month, down from $7.49 a month; and, 200MG of storage, which previously cost $11.49 a month, now is priced at $3.99 a month.

The price cuts aren’t confined just to new users, said Omar Shahine, Microsoft OneDrive group program manager, in a blog post.

“Our data tells us that 3 out of 4 people have less than 15GB of files stored on their PC,” he wrote. “Factoring in what they may also have stored on other devices, we believe providing 15 GB for free right out of the gate—with no hoops to jump through—will make it much easier for people to have their documents, videos and photos available in one place,” said Shahine.