Microsoft Surface

[Apostrophe Spacemonkey]

MS are entering the tablet market with thier own tablet hardware.



It will come in two flavours, a lighter ARM based table, with Windows RT, which can only run ARM applications. And one with a Inter i5 chip, which will let it run the full version of Windows 8 Pro.

It comes with a detachable keyboard which also doubles as a cover, there is also a slightly harder, thicker, blacker keyboard cover.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/257840/microsoft_announces_new_surface_tablet_pc.html

Windows RT Version Specs

• 676 grams
• 9.3 millimeters thick
• 10.6” ClearType HD Display
• 31.5 hours of battery life
• microSD, USB 2.0, Micro HD Video, 2x2 MIMO antennae
• Office Home & Student 2013 RT, Touch Cover, Type Cover
• VaporMg Case & Stand
• Configurable for 32 GB, 64 GB

Windows 8 Pro Specs

• 903 grams
• 13.5 millimeters thick
• 10.6” ClearType Full HD Display
• 42 hours of battery life
• microSDXC, USB 3.0, Mini DisplayPort Video, 2x2 MIMO antennae
• Touch Cover, Type Cover, Pen with Palm Block
• VaporMg Case & Stand
• Configurable for 64 GB, 128 GB

The hardware looks good, question is price.

[mattnz]

Too much functionality, I doubt it will catch on.

[Retardobot]

Totes excited about this.

[Apostrophe Spacemonkey]

Too much functionality, I doubt it will catch on.

How is too much functionality a bad thing?

How does it have too much functionality?

[Benji77]

I like it.

Will be interesting to see how it runs.

[Xenolightning]

Like the idea of the arm version, Intel version meh

[Emrico1]

Could be quite a good one.
Still prefer to avoid microsoft wherever possible, oh and screw apple for the record.

*all opinions raised are from an android fanboy

[mattnz]

How is too much functionality a bad thing?

How does it have too much functionality?

The keyboard that barely anyone will use.

It's the whole 80/20 thing, most people want a tablet as an angry birds machine/e-reader/status symbol. The fluff (like funny folding keyboards) unnecessarily confuses these people. Apple has that market cornered.

[The Demon Lord]

The keyboard that barely anyone will use.

It's the whole 80/20 thing, most people want a tablet as an angry birds machine/e-reader/status symbol. The fluff (like funny folding keyboards) unnecessarily confuses these people. Apple has that market cornered.

But for the business market - I can see these things taking hold, as good as Ipads are, there are a lot of things that they don't natively or easily support (apart from Exchange). We are itching to get our mitts on one of these at my work

[mattnz]

...illustrating the 80/20 rule. Yes, for a minority of customers the extra features will be a major selling point, but for most they'll just be meh, and add extra weight and cost to the product.

[Aloysius]

Wait, how does that apply here? I must be looking at it the wrong way.
I would have thought that the people you described would form the majority, not the 20% causing 80% of the design features.

I agree with you though that the detachable keyboard will probably stay detached for the most part.

[Apostrophe Spacemonkey]

The keyboard that barely anyone will use.

It's the whole 80/20 thing, most people want a tablet as an angry birds machine/e-reader/status symbol. The fluff (like funny folding keyboards) unnecessarily confuses these people. Apple has that market cornered.

People barely use keyboards? That's news to me. Am I typing this with my mind?

Apple has the tablet as an angry birds machine/e-reader/status symbol market cornered.

This is a tablet that can run Word and Excell, and the full version of windows, and any program that runs on windows (included any windows based game), hence a detatchable keyboard is a usefull addition.



If a detatchable keyboard confuses people, then they are idiots.

[dirtyape]

This is precisely what some of my business clients want. Mobile windows platform which integrates nicely with existing systems. I have some peers that are implementing large scale iPad deployments in business environments. They'll be fucken gutted haha

[Lias]

If a detatchable keyboard confuses people, then they are idiots.

And if they are idiots, they probably own an Apple product.. ;-P

[mattnz]

People barely use keyboards? That's news to me. Am I typing this with my mind?

Apple has the tablet as an angry birds machine/e-reader/status symbol market cornered.

This is a tablet that can run Word and Excell, and the full version of windows, and any program that runs on windows (included any windows based game), hence a detatchable keyboard is a usefull addition.



If a detatchable keyboard confuses people, then they are idiots.

Then it's just a touchscreen laptop. Sorry, but I just can't see this having too many points of differentiation from a laptop for a lot of consumers.

Who knows, maybe you're right about it catching on in business, but I'm not sure that the interface looks ideal for spreadsheets and shit.

[Apostrophe Spacemonkey]

Then it's just a touchscreen laptop. Sorry, but I just can't see this having too many points of differentiation from a laptop for a lot of consumers.

Who knows, maybe you're right about it catching on in business, but I'm not sure that the interface looks ideal for spreadsheets and shit.

It's not a touchscreen laptop, it's a tablet.


Did you not see the picture where it is a tablet?

[mattnz]

I can see that it's different, I said it's not different enough.

But y'know, Microsoft are pretty good at dislodging entrenched market leaders. Now where's my Zune.....

[Craigor]

(Something about people at work wanting them without wanting to invest in the SOE environment first and then whining how it doesn't do what they want)

[Xsannz]

i can see the use in one of these.

[Black Heart]

I shall wear my lol smirk just for the early adopters, apparently it froze during the demo. I'm not interested in the arm one, the x86 one might be good for some highly mobile business clients. People that want the wanky shit for home are losers. As for competing with apple I expect the price will determine that rather than the merits of one or the other. As apple seem to made a vast fortune from relatively small sales I expect theres some room to undercut.

[mycoolcar]

M$ need a badass app store and then it will sell.

Where is the 3g/4g?

[Zenith]

Quite like the look of it.  Seems to be more of a netbook and I would like it better than an Ipad for work use, ditch the laptop and use it for reading manuals out of the office or emails away from base.
Happy to pay a little more for it if it has the power of a low end laptop.
What will break it is the apps.  unless they can tap in to the Android app market (which a while ago was pretty weak for tablet apps anyway) or have and Ipad emulator.  
MS may have to cut the price and try and get a lot out into the market.

[camy205]

Microsoft has sucked since Vista was released, my guess is that it will become the Zune of tablets, too little too late.

I'll stick with my $400 netbook that does everything I need it to do (Facebook and porn)

[mycoolcar]

Microsoft has sucked since Vista was released

erm what, win7 is awesome.

[camy205]

erm what, win7 is awesome.

Oh right. Everything besides that....