As the back-to-school season starts in earnest, Microsoft is hoping to stoke desires for its Surface tablets with yet another discount, mere weeks after steeply slashing the price of the Surface RT tablet. This time around, however, the company is offering a $100 price slash on the Intel-powered Surface Pro tablets featuring the full version of Windows 8.

The offer is available directly from the Microsoft Store and covers only the 64GB and 128GB versions of the touch tablet. A 256GB variant is available online from a number of Microsoft resellers.

With the discount, you can now get a 64GB Surface Pro for $800 or a 128GB version for $900. The offer does not toss in the vital Touch or Type cover for free, and unlike its ARM-based cousin, the Surface RT tablet, the Pro does not come with a free copy of Microsoft Office. The Surface Pro offer expires on Thursday, August 29.

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Microsoft’s Pro price slash comes less than a week after the company revealed earnings from Surface tablets accounted for $863 million during fiscal 2013. Although nearly one billion dollars in revenue sounds like a good number for a first-year product, it falls just short of the $900 million accounting hit the company recently had to take from its Surface RT discount.

In short, as many analysts have been saying for months, the Surface is not selling well, especially when compared to Android slates and the iPad.

The dilemma surfaces

Two reasons stand out when considering why people should not buy the ARM-based Surface RT. It can’t run the wide array of third-party traditional desktop programs for Windows, and the Windows Store still doesn’t have enough useful apps yet—despite having more than 100,000 apps on hand.

But the Surface Pro has no problem running traditional desktop apps; it's virtually an Ultrabook in tablet form factor. Add a Type cover and a wireless mouse and you’ve got a great portable PC that can run anything you need for work or play.

The Surface Pro’s software compatibility no doubt contributes to its outselling the Surface RT. During the three months of 2013, Microsoft shipped 900,000 Surface tablets total, at least 700,000 of which were the Surface Pro, according to a report in May by market research firm IDC. (IDC and PCWorld are both owned by International Data Group.)

But Microsoft still has a long way to go if it wants the Surface to become a blockbuster on par with other tablets. Apple, by comparison, sold nearly 20 million iPads during the same time that Microsoft was moving its 900,000 Surface tablets.

A good time for a discount

As the back-to-school season kicks off, Microsoft’s Surface price cut comes at an opportune moment to convince more people to shell out at least $800 for the Surface Pro.

However, propping up sales with the back-to-school season may not be the only reason Microsoft is choosing a month-long sale for August. Microsoft is also expected to introduce new Surface models this fall that may coincide with the release of Windows 8.1.

A refreshed Surface RT, despite its struggles, is expected to show up with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 chip, while the Surface Pro should swap out its Ivy Bridge Core chips for the newer and more energy efficient Haswell Core processors. Most notably, upgrading to Haswell would improve the Surface Pro’s mediocre 5 hour battery life.

Improved endurance would be a major improvement to the tablet-esque Surface Pro, as the vast majority of tablets utilize ARM or Intel Atom processors that enable eight to 10 hours of battery life. Those competing slates can't come close to matching the sheeroomph of the Surface Pro's Intel Core i5 CPU, however.

But the Pro is still a pricey proposition, especially if you're looking for portability over desktop program compatibility. Even with the price cut, the Surface Pro is still $100 more expensive than a Wi-Fi-only iPad with the same amount of storage.

So, why does MSFT see the need to keep cutting the price?

I welcome any and all answers to this question. Thanks.

Cause the last price cut was for the RT and not the Pro.. They are different models.. 

I don't personally own a tablet, but if I were going to get one I'd probably get the RT version or a reasonably price surface pro... over $400 dollars isn't worth the price to me for a secondary computing product. I have some android tablets in my house 3 - 4 but they aren't mine and honestly i'm not interested in one at all as I have an android smart phone and a mid-range PC.

Well, first of all, I'd like to thank you for the constructive tone of your post.  I actually expect a few naysayers to drop in, but whatever. 

Secondly, perhaps if this doesn't boost sales enough, then they'd drop prices again down to fire-sale esque prices        Perhaps you'd like an android tablet?  

Still way too expensive compared to a laptop. Ya I know it's a tablet with an optional keyboard but still.

The ipad and other tablets boomed because they attracted a different market. This hybrid monstrosity at least to me feels like it's going after the laptop crowd first and tablet second. Slashing the price helps just like with any other struggling product.

Alright, on a slightly different topic, want to discuss the NSA 's strongarming of MSFT and other companies into providing our information?

Sure did you make a new thread with a good OP?

Anyway with the release of the new and smaller W8 tablets around next month , probably a new Surface Pro/RT within the near future and parents investing into new equipement for the new schoolyear its a good time to get rid of the current stock.. Last month they dropped the price of the RT version and now the Pro.. Its not like they are Apple and the products sell no matter what

It is a laptop, not a tablet... I do not think the iPad is sporting an Intel i5 CPU and can run Photoshop, Visual Studio or Diablo 3.
800$ is a damn good price for this device and I strongly recommand it. I'm using it on a daily basis and I love it.

If you want to compare it to the iPad, use the Surface RT which is effectively half of the price (but still a very good tablet).