Won't compete with iPad on quality.
Won't compete with Android on price.
Why should anyone buy this?
Surface Pricing Announced - $499 USD
51–60 of 112 posts
Re: Surface Pricing Announced - $499 USD
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
They have a couple of markets they can go after pretty easily. * Gaming. It's fairly easy to port games between Xbox and Windows, and this device has been shown to integrate nicely with Xbox. Whether that's enough is anyone's guess, but it hardly seems like a hail-mary pass at this point to me. * Enterprise. I do not actually see what you're seeing, at least here in New York, that enterprise tablets either don't exis…
The gaming market would seem to be out, since Windows RT devices can only run apps distributed through the Windows App Store, and the Windows App Store refuses to carry any games rated as containing mature content ( http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/10/11/windows-8-marketp... ). In other words, no matter how easy they would be to port, you couldn't make versions of Skyrim , Borderlands 2 , XCOM: Enemy Unknown , or…
You have a good point, but I've been assuming that Microsoft would drop their refusal to allow mature content, at least for big-title games, if any of the game studios expressed serious interest in porting to Windows RT to begin with. We'll have to see. If I'm wrong, then I'm with you: Windows RT will never be the gamer's mobile platform. But I assume that they'll yield as soon as there's a real reason to do so.
Where it gets screwy in my mind is whether Windows RT still has a shot at being a major casual gaming platform, in the style of iOS. Android, iOS, webOS, and I believe PlayBook all use OpenGL ES. Windows RT (and Windows 8 Phone) only offer DirectX. It's not that it's even that difficult to target both; it's simply that no one has yet done so, because the only meaningful mobile platforms run OpenGL ES. This puts Windows RT and Windows 8 Phone into a very chicken-and-egg position for casual gaming, and I'm not clear that it can win that one.
Re: Surface Pricing Announced - $499 USD
#53I think this is the nail on the already-likely-dead coffin of MS Surface. What's the market they are going after??? "tablet market"? nope - already dominated by iPad "enterprise"? nope - 1) not a market, 2) already dominated by iPad "budget"? nope - priced on par with iPad seriously, how are they going to push this thing? they don't have a channel like Apple nor Amazon, so they need to rely on all their other paths.…
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Re: Surface Pricing Announced - $499 USD
#54More competition to Apple/Android is good for us. I'm surprised such a techy crowd isn't jumping on the opportunity to try out new tech. I just pre-ordered mine and I'm stoked!
I for one really like the idea in terms of hardware, but my bad experiences with the RC of Windows 8 convinced me to not bother.
Same here. Besides, people are buying not tablets, they are buying ecosystems. Apple has the great one. Same with Amazon. Same with Google. What mobile ecosystem does Microsoft have? Very limited at this point. And virtually no apps for Windows RT.
Re: Surface Pricing Announced - $499 USD
#55There are going to be x86 Windows 8 tablets coming out that run all your windows programs ever. A lot of people are going to be pissed and confused about 2 different versions of windows with entirely different sets of compatibility. Also x86 tables will probably cheaper, just like netbooks, just to pour some salt in your wounds you got buying an expensive device that runs no programs.
I don't think anybody's expecting x86 tablets to be cheaper than Surface. But I agree that the situation has potential for lots of customer confusion.
Re: Surface Pricing Announced - $499 USD
#56I applaud Microsoft for doing something new-- the new windows UI is very original. Further, they have managed to meet Apple in terms of pricing for a comparable iPad, something others have struggled with. But the big take-away innovation here, and the center of their marketing campaign, is that it has a keyboard cover. This seems to be about 5 years out of sync. 5 years ago, everyone expected the iPhone to fail becau…
As I posted in the other story that got flagged off front page, the new TV ad is here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mSckyoAMHg
The good thing about the keyboard covers is that Windows RT supports mouse input unlike the iPad and a track pad is included in the keyboard covers. This will help alleviate some of the gorilla arm issues if you're trying to get work done. Native remote desktop with RemoteFX[1] support is good when you have WiFi access, say at Starbucks.
The Surface RT does some things better than the iPad. For example, it has a MicroSD slot and a full USB port. The side-by-side multitasking view is pretty nice to put a chat or Twitter client while browsing/working etc. The built in snap out stand is also pretty cool.
[1]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RemoteFX
PS: Funny to see this story as well getting flagged down. Stay classy HN.
Re: Surface Pricing Announced - $499 USD
#57Does anyone know if this can be used for development and graphics editing? Or if it will run Windows Desktop apps? I could almost see something like this replacing my everyday work computer.
The Windows RT version of the Surface is a consumption device. I feel like the primary use cases are reading, movies, web, e-mail and so on. You'll have to wait for the x86 version of the Surface if you're looking to do graphics editing.
Re: Surface Pricing Announced - $499 USD
#58There are going to be x86 Windows 8 tablets coming out that run all your windows programs ever. A lot of people are going to be pissed and confused about 2 different versions of windows with entirely different sets of compatibility. Also x86 tables will probably cheaper, just like netbooks, just to pour some salt in your wounds you got buying an expensive device that runs no programs.
If they're going to be cheaper, they are also going to be ridiculously slow compared to the iPad (and possibly the ARM Win8), or they are going to have ridiculously short battery life, or they are going to be subsidized by Microsoft (or all of the above ....)
Have you seen a netbook that can deliver 9 hours of real usage on Windows _and_ run at a reasonable speed (for $500, or even more)? I haven't. And the laptops that can are larger and much more expensive.
Re: Surface Pricing Announced - $499 USD
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't think the $500 iPad has 3G?
Correct, it's $529: http://store.apple.com/us/buy/home/shop_ipad/family/ipad/ipa...
Note: I haven't kept up the specs etc.
That's the iPad 2. If it's comparable to the Surface, then your point is valid.
The cheapest iPad 3 with 3G costs $629.
And while YMMV, I don't require 3G on my tablet. I already have 3G on my phone, which is always in my pocket, and I can create a personal hotspot if reqd.
Re: Surface Pricing Announced - $499 USD
#60No 3G at all? Zune all over again.
Apple sells a lot more WiFi iPads than it does 3G iPads. Best data I could find on a quick google is admittedly almsot a year old, but:
90% of the tablets use WiFi only (some have inactivated cellular chipset) meaning that only 10% of the tablets (as of Q4 2011) were cellular activated. Operators who start to bundle multiple devices by single data plans and data buckets are going to see a better yield in this category. We expect family data plans to be introduced in the US market soon.