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Surface with Windows 8 Pro – Pricing

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Re: Surface with Windows 8 Pro – Pricing

#111

Post by secalex »

binarycrusader wrote: post #39
borlak wrote: post #31

Are these still "64gb" as in it's really 45gb with the OS files and such installed?

Yes, if you look at the specs page there's a disclaimer noting the OS takes up a significant amount of the space: Storage 64GB*, 128GB *System software uses significant storage space. Available storage is subject to change based on system software updates and apps usage. 1 GB = 1 billion bytes. See Surface.com/storage for more details.

iOS is made out of Unicorn feathers and does not take any of the iPad's advertised space.

Re: Surface with Windows 8 Pro – Pricing

#113

Post by tluyben2 »

cooldeal wrote: post #85
Bud wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not just a keyboard. If you want to use it like a real laptop, you will need a mouse or other pointing device, as well. Touch on a vertically-oriented screen is not going to cut it for laptop-ish kinds of uses, as has been proven in years and years of UX studies. Clarifying edit: Touch is great if you are holding the device in your hands, of course, like an iPad. But once you are using a keyboard and Surface's kickst…

>because Ballmer is trying to enter the market that he publicly mocked in 2007 (iPhone) and 2010 (iPad). I'm tired of these kinds of statements. The golden rule is that companies' employee publicly have to put down their competitors' new strategies. Imagine if Balmer said the iPad is great it's going to kill us, or if Jobs said 7" tablets are good but we'll make only in two years, so wait for us to make it. Or even A…

> The more puzzling thing to me is, why do so many people actually think that these people say what they really believe and really believe what they say?

Because most people here are developers? In most manager courses one of the lessons is; focus not on what people say but why they say it. Those things are often not the same thing. Ballmer (etc) are in the eye of the press, which means that not only do his words influence the stock price, they also influence the 1000s of people working for the company and their partners. All need to have their eye on the ball (MS MS MS) meaning the rest of the world is just shit. No matter if it is/he thinks it is or not; that's not relevant at all.

Re: Surface with Windows 8 Pro – Pricing

#114

Post by netpenthe »

maybe it'll be good as a backup laptop.

i just bought an X1 Carbon that needs to be sent back for repair.. i have done away with my desktop years ago so now i need a backup whilst my X1 is in repair.. the Surface Pro seems to fit this pretty well...

Re: Surface with Windows 8 Pro – Pricing

#115

Post by absconditus »

moconnor wrote: post #59
eykanal wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everyone's blown away because they priced themselves out of their target market. Whether they agree or not, this is going to be compared to the other tablets (i.e., the iPad) out there, and for the base models, the cost is almost double. For a company attempting to play catch-up, their giving themselves such a tremendous handicap is pretty unexpected.

I don't think their target market for the Pro is the hobbyist, or Mom and Pa, it's the enterprise business market, where the iPad has seen little penetration. This market doesn't care if the kickstand works on your knee. Or about a few hundred dollars here or there. Exchange integration, legacy internal applications, these things matter. Note taking in meetings.

Enterprise users are still stuck on IE 6, 7, and 8. How are they going to use tablets with IE 10?

Re: Surface with Windows 8 Pro – Pricing

#116

Post by bjustin »

wvenable wrote: post #98
eykanal wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everyone's blown away because they priced themselves out of their target market. Whether they agree or not, this is going to be compared to the other tablets (i.e., the iPad) out there, and for the base models, the cost is almost double. For a company attempting to play catch-up, their giving themselves such a tremendous handicap is pretty unexpected.

The 64GB iPad is $699 vs. $899 for the Surface Pro. That's not double. I'd say that's entirely in the same market. In my opinion the Surface Pro is better value since it is a full PC.

The cheapest version of a device gets people in the door. Many people will, rightly or wrongly, compare the $499 iPad 4 with the $899 Surface Pro. That one has 16 GB of space and the other has 64 GB (well more like 48 GB since Windows and Office take a lot of space) comes into play after people are thinking the iPad is way cheaper than the Surface Pro.

Re: Surface with Windows 8 Pro – Pricing

#118

Post by JuDue »

seunosewa wrote: post #92
WrkInProgress wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm curious as to how this isn't as good (on paper) as something like a Macbook Air or a PC Ultrabook ?

- A crappier keyboard. - A rigid display whose viewing angles can't be adjusted. - The keyboard doesn't work very well when you use it on your lap. You have to place it on a table. - It's more fragile, especially in tablet mode.

And portrait mode that has a bad aspect ratio. It's a fundamental mistake for a tablet.

People thought the RT was slightly heavy to hold as a tablet. Will be interested to see their opinions of this.

Re: Surface with Windows 8 Pro – Pricing

#119

Post by binarycrusader »

secalex wrote: post #111
binarycrusader wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, if you look at the specs page there's a disclaimer noting the OS takes up a significant amount of the space: Storage 64GB*, 128GB *System software uses significant storage space. Available storage is subject to change based on system software updates and apps usage. 1 GB = 1 billion bytes. See Surface.com/storage for more details.

iOS is made out of Unicorn feathers and does not take any of the iPad's advertised space.

I'm uncertain whom you're replying to as I never mentioned iOS nor implied anything about it.

iOS does take less space than Windows at last check, but that's to be expected.

I personally think it's pretty disingenuous that more vendors don't advertise the usable space instead of total space.

I'm not thrilled about how much usable space I actually have left on my Nexus 7 16GB as an example...

Re: Surface with Windows 8 Pro – Pricing

#120

Post by gonehome »

tluyben2 wrote: post #113
cooldeal wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>because Ballmer is trying to enter the market that he publicly mocked in 2007 (iPhone) and 2010 (iPad). I'm tired of these kinds of statements. The golden rule is that companies' employee publicly have to put down their competitors' new strategies. Imagine if Balmer said the iPad is great it's going to kill us, or if Jobs said 7" tablets are good but we'll make only in two years, so wait for us to make it. Or even A…

> The more puzzling thing to me is, why do so many people actually think that these people say what they really believe and really believe what they say? Because most people here are developers? In most manager courses one of the lessons is; focus not on what people say but why they say it. Those things are often not the same thing. Ballmer (etc) are in the eye of the press, which means that not only do his words inf…

I'm not sure if I agree that that's what happened in this case. I think Ballmer actually believed what he said which is why they were so slow to react and is a part of the problem.

Google's reaction is a good example. After the iPhone launched in 2007 They immediately threw out the original blackberry like android device they were planning to release first and focused on their more iPhone like variant. Microsoft just mocked Apple and did nothing.

As far as the surface goes I think it's an interesting idea and could be great, but they're doing annoying marketing things again that are hurting it. Making people pay an extra $120 in order to get the actual product is annoying, why sell the crippled version without the keypad when that's the entire point of it? Just include the keypad at the lower price point instead.

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