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Microsoft’s Hardware, Round 2: Surface 2 and Surface Pro 2

arstechnica.com

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Re: Microsoft’s Hardware, Round 2: Surface 2 and Surface Pro 2

#31

Post by methodin »

rayiner wrote: post #11
methodin wrote: post #3

Was it the device itself that caused such poor sales? I assumed all along it was a marketing/image problem which remains unsolved. Has relentlessness by a company ever overcome this issue in the past?

Surface marketing was everywhere. I don't think it was particularly bad marketing at that. The devices were definitely to blame. Surface RT squandered Microsoft's ace in the whole in this space: Office + Outlook + Windows network integration. Not only did Office RT not ship in Metro form, but the product that shipped initially was a buggy pre-release. It was disastrous execution. Besides that, Surface RT sold for an…

Marketing could still be an issue if they aren't sending the right message that resonates with their target consumers. Personally I haven't seen a surface ad in a while except the commercial another poster commented on above. It was a commercial that certainly did not induce excitement - just run-on-the-mill flashiness.

Re: Microsoft’s Hardware, Round 2: Surface 2 and Surface Pro 2

#32

Post by duaneb »

jfoutz wrote: post #30
enko wrote: post #24

Dear Microsoft: Out of ARM and x86, choose one. Just choose one. For the love of god, choose ONE. Can you imagine Apple, or anyone else, deliberately releasing two different tablets, with the same name, which can not run each others' software? It is inconceivable, and for good reason. MS cannot make decisions. That's what will kill them, long term. Just choose one!!

Apple actually just made each executable have the binaries for both platforms. It's a good trick.

Regardless of engineering cleverness it's a very bad decision marketing wise.

Re: Microsoft’s Hardware, Round 2: Surface 2 and Surface Pro 2

#33

Post by MLR »

enko wrote: post #24

Dear Microsoft: Out of ARM and x86, choose one. Just choose one. For the love of god, choose ONE. Can you imagine Apple, or anyone else, deliberately releasing two different tablets, with the same name, which can not run each others' software? It is inconceivable, and for good reason. MS cannot make decisions. That's what will kill them, long term. Just choose one!!

While I agree, and wish they just released a budget x86 version instead of the RT, you are exaggerating the problem somewhat.

Re: Microsoft’s Hardware, Round 2: Surface 2 and Surface Pro 2

#35

Post by Pxtl »

Big thing missing from the line-up: WinRT HDMI-stick.

A Windows-powered answer to the MK808/Ouya/VitaStation and similar products, bundled with a nice wireless keyboard/mouse remote gizmo - something like this: http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/itemdetails/57Y6678/460/4C2830F...

WinRT's consistent support for keyboard/mouse sets it apart from touch-oriented Android. Wireless handheld keyboard/mouse is hard to get right, but touchscreen without touching is harder. WinRT could be great on TVs.

But MS would worry about cannibalizing their XBox sales.

Re: Microsoft’s Hardware, Round 2: Surface 2 and Surface Pro 2

#36

Post by duaneb »

philliphaydon wrote: post #2

Surface Pro with 512gb of space and 8gb ram, if I decide to move country again next year I'm replacing my desktop with a Surface.

I would love to but my hangup would be with the OS: are tablets well supported by Linux these days?

Re: Microsoft’s Hardware, Round 2: Surface 2 and Surface Pro 2

#37

Post by ThomPete »

programminggeek wrote: post #22
methodin wrote: post #3

Was it the device itself that caused such poor sales? I assumed all along it was a marketing/image problem which remains unsolved. Has relentlessness by a company ever overcome this issue in the past?

I think it's a long term problem. Microsoft and its partners trained customers to buy $300-500 PC's in volume (with razor thin margins). Now, they are trying to get people to spend 2-3x as much on what many of them see as a machine that "does the same thing". Apple spent a decade getting people to understand that a $1,000 machine is worth the money. It is a lot easier for Apple to move downmarket than Microsoft to mo…

I think this is probably the best explanation I have heard so far.

You got me thinking differently about this. Thanks.

Re: Microsoft’s Hardware, Round 2: Surface 2 and Surface Pro 2

#38

Post by objclxt »

timthorn wrote: post #18
rayiner wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Surface marketing was everywhere. I don't think it was particularly bad marketing at that. The devices were definitely to blame. Surface RT squandered Microsoft's ace in the whole in this space: Office + Outlook + Windows network integration. Not only did Office RT not ship in Metro form, but the product that shipped initially was a buggy pre-release. It was disastrous execution. Besides that, Surface RT sold for an…

Office RT being a desktop app is as it should be - no learning curve, and each pixel works harder than in Metro. What was wrong was the lack of Outlook at launch, and then the other things like no AD integration, and the inability to run non-signed desktop apps.

...which is one reason why I think a lot of people were really infuriated by the Surface RT.

Microsoft didn't apply their own rules to themselves: they couldn't be bothered / didn't want to re-write Office for Metro, but they insisted that for everyone else the RT only support Metro apps.

If Office had been converted to Metro there would be no reason for the RT to even let you see the traditional Windows desktop. I wanted to like the RT - I really like the Pro - but after a few weeks using it I just gave up. It was a compromised device, from start to finish.

Re: Microsoft’s Hardware, Round 2: Surface 2 and Surface Pro 2

#39

Post by NDizzle »

untog wrote: post #15

The Surface Pro 2 could make for a really interesting developer machine. Plug it into external keyboard/monitor when you're at your desk, then just pick it up and take it on the road when you want to. I'm tempted, but part of me can't shake the idea that I'd be replacing my laptop with a tablet, even know I know that's not quite true. Also: Windows. I used to use it, but I've been working in OS X exclusively for a fe…

I still use windows but most of my day is spent in putty shells, git bash, phpstorm, pycharm, and and dbForge. It's not so bad. I'll probably move to a surface pro 2 with 256 or 512 from my ~3 year old Dell Latitude.
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