Microsoft Surface

Doesn't this violate antitrust? I thought MS couldn't make their own PC hardware.

This looks like a step in the right direction for MS though. They're going to need something incredibly impressive with really good marketing if they ever want to seriously take on the ipad.

This looks like a really interesting piece of hardware with its ultrabook/tablet hybrid design, but the real question is can they market it to the masses? They have a terrible track record with marketing.

 

I totaly saw this coming... just not from MS. It's like the Asus Transformer Prime combined with the Mac keyboard the'd been pimping for over a year now.

That being I'm just not a fan of multitouch keyboards. I need my buttons. I may get used to it but I am not a fan. It'd be like playing a trombone... I never got it.

 

I don't like the touchpad. It's a touchscreen what do we need a touchpad for anyway?? lol

 

Looks nice but the Zune was nice too.

 

So was Windows Phone. Even when MS has a decent mobile product, they never seem to get off the ground because they have no idea how to market them.

Also, I'm not really sure how this is any different from say the Asus Eee Transformer or Dell Latitude XT line of tablets. This idea has been done before, and it never set the world on fire.

 

Now that's hot. Surface is a winner. Dell, Asus, Lenovo, and friends will soon make clones of Surface. It's the new standard.

Everything is on schedule for 2013: Year of the Windows Tablet.

 

Aren't they a little late to the party? I figure everyone who wants a tablet either already has or is going to get an iPad. Also was that Windows 8 Metro whatever it is I saw? Isn't that meant to be god awful? I like the fold out keyboard though, snazzy.

 

They are late to the party, and this thing is going to flop hard. You only do a big announcement like this if the thing is ready to launch and be in peoples' hands in like a week. Apple has that figured out. MS still doesn't get it. People have a short attention span. By the time this comes out in October or November, everyone will have forgotten about it. There was a lot of buzz about Windows Phone too back in 2010, but it took Microsoft two years to get the flagship Nokia phones out, and by that point, no one cared.

And yes, Windows 8 is pretty damn awful and no one wants it. About the only good thing I can say about Windows 8 is that all of the nasty criticism MS is going to get over it might inspire them to create a better OS. They got ripped to shreds over Vista and used the feedback to create Windows 7, which is possibly the best OS ever. So maybe Windows 9 will be really good too. Mostly I think they need to stop with all of the mobile stuff, because they're pretty damn bad at it, and just focus on the only thing they've ever been good at, which is making a traditional OS for laptop and desktop PCs. They have nothing to be ashamed of. Apple is the same way, just the other way around. Apple makes great mobile devices but their traditional PCs suck cock.

 

Very excited about the pro model as a laptop replacement with more portability options. The RT version is apparently very snappy too. It seems like they've made a very solid product, a lot of sites are raving about the build quality to the point where is sounds like it is above anything out now in that regard.

 

@monkey don't forget MS make good consoles too.

 

It's kind of odd that they're putting all the focus on three things that would normally be secondary sales points: the keyboard cover, the kickstand, and the magnesium body.

 

People like to buy things that look cool.

 

The only reason anyone buys an Ipad is for the screen covers and cases.

 

Re: Re: Microsoft Surface

Which is the reason that this genuinely interests me and the iPad doesn't. The USB port alone makes the world of difference to what you are able to do with this.

I see the iPad as a toy, albeit a £500 toy that you have alongside a computer that you still use for the real stuff. This can replace the computer because it effectively is one just in tablet form and the great thing is because it is running a normal OS and normal hardware everything you need to run/use already exists.

Lets just hope M$ don't cock this up as this looks to be a step in the right direction for making tablets into things that you really can use every day.

* Note that my opinion on the iPad being a toy or accessory also applies to Android tablets.

 

I just don't see how that's true. There have been tablet/laptop hybrid things in the past like the ones I mentioned, and they never did very well. The only difference I see here is that the design is more elegant and the keyboard comes out using a different mechanism. I just don't envision consumers getting excited over this. Google, who has been a juggernaut in the mobile phone world, couldn't even get people to put down their ipads and take notice when its tablets came out. And in this case people have a real aversion to Microsoft mobile products. Once again, Microsoft is releasing a "me too" kind of mobile product, and it's about 2-3 years too late to market to be of any relevance.

 

Re: Re: Microsoft Surface

The only "real stuff" that tablets currently aren't running is the high-end professional image/video/3D editing and engineering software. They can all easily run business software etc. nowadays. The "toy" idea is really outdated.

And you've also illustrated a problem for MS: neither their OS or their hardware is really specialized for touch control, which means customers are going to be wondering why they shouldn't just buy an ultra book instead. MS isn't integrating the keyboard and touchpad into the cover because it looks cool. They're doing it because it's a requirement related to the half-and-half nature of the product.