Microsoft Announces Surface 2 and Surface Pro 2

[JohnGrey]

When is Microsoft going to release Word for the iPad?

It's been years now that the iPad has been a hit, but Ballmer won't support it?

MS could have been raking in the big bucks instead of taking a $900 million write off for the failure of Surface 1.

They release it about three quarters after the first successful Surface...so never. The only thing that the whole Surface family has going for it is access to Microsoft's full productivity suite. Ballmer, like the a$$hat that he is, is convinced that that exclusivity is more important to the brand than the billions that the release would generate.

 

[wackymacky]

Interesting, but the Surface 2 should have been full Windows. At that price, nobody wants a dumbed down Windows OS...

The Pro looks good.

I remember when the first iPad was released. There were cries around the world: 'It's going to flop. We wanted full OSX'

I wonder if the Office has anything to do with the 'Free works' with new iOS devices.

 

[phoenixsan]

Ok.....

the sharks had smell the blood......MS have the big pockets to have a hobbie (like Apple with the AppleTV.....). Can succed based in the user base of Windows. Maybe a selling point can be a competitive price in function of the iPad......

But coming to my first line....MS are in business to make money. And if money is flowing in the tablets market, they will want to try and make competition there.They offer a standard and stable environment, not the fragmentation of the Android camp. They have already the apps too. And the patience and money to wait. That is not HP and the Slate/WebOS disaster......

 

[sitsonthefence]

I'm not a fan of Microsoft, but I have used their products for many years. While they are not the leading company they once were, they generate an awful lot of cash. Which means they can afford a few mistakes.

And that's good - as they and others will get better and force apple to improve too. Or just get better than apple. And that will be cool as I'll continue to get better and better products.

 

[pacalis]

The only Surface I've ever seen, and actually saw someone using, was the one my friend got when he attended the Microsoft Developers conference where they were giving both the Surface and the phone away. The only time he uses it is when Microsoft comes out with another stupid commercial bashing Apple so he can needle me. Of course it doesn't work on me because I know that everyone can choose what they want, I've made my choice, and I've been very VERY happy with Apple products.

If you're in a coffee shop I agree, MBAs and MBPs everywhere. iPads too.

But I rarely see a MBA on a plane. It's not a corporate computer, and the screen res sucks. Also you get pretty poor battery life on bootcamp. I sometimes see a few MBPs (the 15's are awful to use on a plane, I have one) or other crappy laptops like dells, hps and lenovos.

I think the main thing holding off surface pro v. 1 sales was the lack of battery life. Now that they've fixed that, it looks like a dream for work travel. That's the market I see and I think it's going to be big.

 

[Yaboze]

The Pro looks nice and has good specs. It's just too much $$$.

 

[HenryDJP]

This is MACRumors, not MicroSCOFF Rumors, correct?

Understandable but I think this time the majority of the forum is okay with this bit of news.

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surface 2 had 3.5 hours battery life. 75% increase = just a bit more than 6 hours.
still crappy

once that thing has 10-15 hours battery though, id be tempted.

Actually it's the Surface Pro 2 that got the 75% battery increase, which most likely won't amount to much since it was already very bad.

The Surface 2 (not Pro, stupid naming scheme ) only got a 20% increase in battery.

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Newsflash: Macrumors forums biased against Mircosoft.

I know right? It's funny too because Macrumors never ever ever ever criticizes Apple.

 

[ReallyBigFeet]

Still going to be a failed device launch (again), but I have to give credit...that's an incredibly fast product refresh cycle for Microsoft. Not something I was expecting from them really.

 

[charlituna]

Interesting, but the Surface 2 should have been full Windows.

That would be a Surface Pro.

But given they wrote off more in RT losses than they made on both models I agree perhaps they should cut the whole RT idea.

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Oct 15., Apple announces new iPads, sells a lot of them. People continue to ignore the Surface.

If they move the whole line up to the A7/M7 processor etc, yeah this will likely be true.

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1 month wait for delivery? What are they thinking? On the other hand, this is classic Microsoft.

Probably haven't made any of them yet. Waiting to see the orders so they don't make stock that doesn't sell. Like last year

 

[ibuyufo]

Has anyone who is making negative comments about the surface actually used one or is this just from 2nd, 3rd, or 4th hand stories and speculations that you read in the internet?
I have a surface rt along with an ipad and I can multitask better with the surface. The OS is stable and it's pretty fast for what it is which is a competitor to an ipad and not a full blown macbook pro or air. I've been using the ipad less and less and opting for the surface rt instead.

 

[charlituna]

It comes in white now.

I've heard the surface pro won't be available until next year. Why announce it now if it won't be available for sales for months?

Theory is that folks won't buy an iPad cause the 'real' tablet will be out soon.

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havent even seen one in a shop!

I have. Two of them in fact. At the local Staples. The RT wouldn't turn on and the Pro had BSOD.

 

[FelixAng]

How long until you can pickup a Gold 64GB 5S in your local shop?

Considering I just received mine by UPS today, 3 days.

 

[gMac]

But will it sync with my Zune?

 

[PracticalMac]

while the Surface Pro 2 includes double the memory (8GB),

RAM?

WTH would it need 8GB or RAM when iPad does fine with 512MB?

(but if its drive space, epic fail, even with SD slot)

 

[JBytes]

Never actually seen one out in the wild.

I saw one on a commuter train last week. The fellow had it laid out -- keyboard, kickstand and all -- on a backpack which was resting on his lap. The whole setup looked so awkward and cumbersome, I couldn't help but chortle.

 

[PracticalMac]

Originally Posted by nick_elt View Post
havent even seen one in a shop!

I have. Two of them in fact. At the local Staples. The RT wouldn't turn on and the Pro had BSOD.

It would not be MS if it worked.

 

[charlituna]

This directly affects Apple because Microsoft is trying to compete against the iPad.

So create a 'backpage' section for all the news that isn't directly about Apple. They have it like that in the forums so it's not out of line.

But they won't because this is really whateverwethinkwillgetuspagehits.com

 

[Tiger8]

Windows XP was not fantastic, the security on it was/is terrible. 7 is fine. As far as Office is concerned, it's still the "standard" but it's a lot less relevant than it used to be. Office productivity in the cloud is changing the game a lot and quickly for that matter. If Office was so important still most likely MS wouldn't be throwing it in with their Surface tablets. When a company throws in everything they used to charge a lot for it boils down to two things, relevancy and importance is dropping rapidly.

Windows XP had its bugs in the early 2000's, it was a radical upgrade, but with various Service Packs (particularily SP2 and beyond) became the gold standard for most fortune 500 companies. Forget average Joe at his home, millions of employees, to this day, use Windows XP at work. I'm sorry, it can't be 'terrible' security wise if it's still the world's most popular OS, 12 years later. If there is one thing Balmer did right at Microsoft, it's XP, followed by 7.

The cloud is promising, but for serious productivity, no, Office still has the advantage. I don't talk about a colorful excel sheet; I'm talking about Micros, VBA, and other advanced features that quite frankly are leaps and bounds over anything Google or Apple offer.

 

[Renzatic]

RAM?

WTH would it need 8GB or RAM when iPad does fine with 512MB?

(but if its drive space, epic fail, even with SD slot)

Yeah, and the Commodore 64 worked great with 64k of the stuff. If it worked fine, why get more?

 

[BoRegardless]

Too Little, Too Late

I feel bad for Microsoft. I don't know how they get things back on track. I think there is going to be more decline before recovery,

Warren Buffett gave warning to Bill Gates clear back in the 90s when he said Berkshire wouldn't invest in Microsoft because 'We don't see long term value in software.'

The wisdom of that insight should have spurred Gates/Microsoft to embrace hardware at that time.

Don't know if there can be a meaningful recovery now, given that MS wasted over a decade while the world moved to UNIX/Linux/OSX hardware.

 

[Renzatic]

I'm sorry, it can't be 'terrible' security wise if it's that widespread.

Actually it was terrible for one very specific reason: every damn person who used it was given full admin rights without any need to for escalation permissions to install stuff or change settings. That's the major reason why XP became the center of a huge malware poopstorm back in the early 2000's, and why so many people still thinks "Windows = virus ridden crap" to this day.

Don't know if there can be a meaningful recovery now, given that MS wasted over a decade while the world moved to UNIX/Linux/OSX hardware.

Wuh? A good 90% of all the desktops in the world run Windows. Even though the future isn't nearly as certain for MS as it used to be, I'd hardly say everyone has moved on yet.

 

[osofast240sx]

2 answers for your question. Windows is becoming less relevant and people are sick of Windows and Microsoft's monopoly. People prefer alternatives and today's market isn't so highly dependent on MS products which is a great thing for the consumer and the business world.

+1 to add, iOS and Android is an escape from windows.

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Actually it was terrible for one very specific reason: every damn person who used it was given full admin rights without any need to for escalation permissions to install stuff or change settings. That's the major reason why XP became the center of a huge malware poopstorm back in the early 2000's, and why so many people still thinks "Windows = virus ridden crap" to this day.



Wuh? A good 90% of all the desktops in the world run Windows. Even though the future isn't nearly as certain for MS as it used to be, I'd hardly say everyone has moved on yet.

A good 80% is by force. If given a choice the number would be quite different

 

[gpat]

Why would that have been the logical choice?

Because it's a fast chip with all-day battery life which also enables the tablet to run regular Windows software in desktop mode as it's a x86 processor.
That's the reason for which every other OEM is focusing on Bay Trail for their Windows 8 tablets.

 

[Brian Buttplug]

Yay

I'll be the last in the line to get one

-Brian

 

[nutmac]

Microsoft should've killed Windows RT and focused on Surface Pro only. Also, not updating Windows 8 Metro with Surface Pro is a big mistake.