Microsoft starts selling ASUS' VivoTab Note 8 for $329
ASUS, like many other companies, took to CES 2014 to introduce a number of new products. Among these was the often-leaked VivoTab Note 8, an 8-inch Windows 8.1 tablet with support for Wacom pen input.
Context & Ripple Effects
The VivoTab Note 8 has followed the modern leak-to-launch path: a user manual surfaced in early January, and ASUS made it official at CES 2014 with a $300 price tag and a bundled Wacom stylus. What changed on February 10 is the channel — Microsoft itself is now listing the device at $329, putting the software company directly behind an OEM's small-screen hardware.
The pricing is the story within the story. When ASUS entered Windows tablets in 2012, its Windows 8 slate pricing drew warnings that demand would be low, and the VivoTab RT pre-sales opened at $599.99. A $329 pen-equipped 8-inch Windows 8.1 tablet shows how far the entry point has fallen in roughly eighteen months.
First-order effects
- Buyers get a Wacom-pen 8-inch Windows 8.1 tablet from Microsoft's own storefront for $329, with Microsoft absorbing the retail role that ASUS would otherwise carry alone.
- ASUS gains Microsoft's sales channel and halo for the Note 8, but gives up margin control on a flagship small-tablet SKU priced $29 above its announced $300 figure.
Second-order effects
- Other Windows OEMs face a benchmark: if Microsoft will merchandise a partner's $329 pen tablet, competitors must hit that price-and-stylus combination or concede the small-form-factor niche.
- Wacom pen support becomes the differentiator ASUS leans on against similarly sized Android and iPad mini rivals, pushing component suppliers of active stylus technology into more Windows designs.
Third-order effects
- After the $599 RT era, Microsoft's tablet economics are converging on cheap, small, pen-friendly hardware sold through its own retail layer — the platform owner increasingly functioning as both gatekeeper and storefront for OEM volume.
- If sub-$350 Windows slates become the category's floor, OEM differentiation shifts almost entirely to inputs like styluses and build quality rather than price alone.
The trend: Windows tablets are repricing from the premium $600 RT generation toward sub-$350 pen-capable small slates, with Microsoft's own storefront now anchoring distribution for its OEMs.