Microsoft Corp has taken the company's fight for a larger share of the search engine market to school campuses. The tech titan currently offers free Surface RT tablets to learning institutions where students utilize the Bing search engine of Microsoft.
The move would be a part of Microsoft's new program called Bing for Schools, as announced on Wednesday. Microsoft would provide a version of Bing that lacks advertisements and features a strict refinement of adult content. Currently, Microsoft's discounted school rate is USD249 for each tablet. Signing up for the reward credit program of Bing would also aid a school in getting a free Surface RT tablet.
"We'll aggregate the credits for everyone supporting each school and when they reach 30,000 credits, we'll convert those into a Microsoft Surface RT tablet with Touch Cover that will be sent directly to the school," Bing's behavioral scientist, Matt Wallaert, wrote in a blog post. "About 60 Bing Rewards users can earn a Surface RT a month for a school."
Microsoft was recently forced to reduce the price of its tablets. Last month, it reported a USD900 million writedown in Surface inventory in the company's fourth quarter fiscal statements.
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