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the keyboard support + office will make this a legitimate player for corporate world already

This. Although Microsoft would love to sell Surface to the Apple demographic they are more than happy to continue their Office+PC model in the corporate world. The move of converging the OS's works to their advantage here.
 
From experience, these sort of flexible keyboards often offer a very crappy typing experience. It would be nice in that you won't have half your screen blocked by a virtual keyboard, but try doing that while standing on a crowded train or reclining on a couch.

I think the reason apple didn't do this was to preseve the form factor and overall user experience.
 
Like I said elsewhere

If the price for the Pro model is around $450 or so and the battery life is comparable to the iPad, I may just check it out.

If it's easy to use and not the headache the MS operating systems usually are, good. And hopefully it'll stay virus free too...:D

I'm somewhat impressed and happily surprised MS is thinking outside of their box.

Competition is very good, love that keyboard cover.
 
From experience, these sort of flexible keyboards often offer a very crappy typing experience. It would be nice in that you won't have half your screen blocked by a virtual keyboard, but try doing that while standing on a crowded train or reclining on a couch.

I think the reason apple didn't do this was to preseve the form factor and overall user experience.

Well, since it's a tablet and it runs Windows 8, you could just use the Windows 8 on screen keyboard when in one of the scenarios you mentioned.
 
If the price for the Pro model is around $450 or so and the battery life is comparable to the iPad, I may just check it out.

If it's easy to use and not the headache the MS operating systems usually are, good. And hopefully it'll stay virus free too...:D

I'm somewhat impressed and happily surprised MS is thinking outside of their box.

Competition is very good, love that keyboard cover.

The pro comes with 64 or 128gb storage and an intel core i5, you can safely assume it won't be $450 :rolleyes:

At least compare like for like hardware when making comments about a silly price that wouldn't even buy you a wifi iPad 3 16gb....
 
At $500 - $600 for the top end model with everything, it could be a formidable product. Certainly better than anything done by android, RIM, or HP.

Though, it does seem like it is targeted for PC buyers more than iPad users.

I personally don't want one, and wouldn't consider trading my iPad for one. Plus I have the Logitech Ultrathin Keyboard cover.

Lastly, I think the Surface will be weighed down exactly as Tim Cook described it

In my view, the tablet and the PC are different. And you can do things with the tablet, if you’re not encumbered by the legacy of the PC. If you view it as different. If you take the view that says this is another PC, all of a sudden you’re pulling along all of the baggage of the PC market…

I love convergence, convergence is great, but products are about tradeoffs. You have to make tough decisions, you have to choose, and the more you look at a tablet as a PC, the more the baggage of the past affects the products.
 
I think the biggest hurdle will be whether or not it truly equals or surpasses the experience of using a laptop. It'll be put up against the iPad, but the experiences between the two might be enough that people will love one or the other, and that the Surface may hurt Android tablets more than the iPad itself.
 
At $500 - $600 for the top end model with everything, it could be a formidable product. Certainly better than anything done by android, RIM, or HP.

If the price for the Pro model is around $450 or so and the battery life is comparable to the iPad, I may just check it out.

If it costs $300, it's a real competitor. If it is $500 or more, it's nothing. Waiting for price...

Just curious, but why are people lowballing the price so much? The iPad is purely a tablet and even that starts at $600 and maxes out at $900. The Surface is clearly aimed to be more of a laptop+tablet so why not guess more realistic pricing ?
 
Just curious, but why are people lowballing the price so much? The iPad is purely a tablet and even that starts at $600 and maxes out at $900. The Surface is clearly aimed to be more of a laptop+tablet so why not guess more realistic pricing ?

There's two versions of Surface: The ARM-Based model, which will ship in 32gb and 64gb models will be priced competitively with ARM-Based tablets. The Surface Pro (Intel-based version) will ship with 64gb and 128gb models and be priced comparably to ultrabooks. So you might see an ARM-based tablet for as little as $500, but there's still about $500 of wiggle room, if not more there. The pro variant could easily cost $1000-$1200 or more, especially with 128GB onboard.
 
Just curious, but why are people lowballing the price so much? The iPad is purely a tablet and even that starts at $600 and maxes out at $900. The Surface is clearly aimed to be more of a laptop+tablet so why not guess more realistic pricing ?

That's exactly the issue Tim Cook expressed concerns about.

You can do a kick ass tablet, or a kick ass PC/Laptop, but its tough to do both.

You can't be in the Ultrabook/Macbook Air competitor and iPad competitor at the same time without compromising both.
 
At $500 - $600 for the top end model with everything, it could be a formidable product. Certainly better than anything done by android, RIM, or HP.

Though, it does seem like it is targeted for PC buyers more than iPad users.

I personally don't want one, and wouldn't consider trading my iPad for one. Plus I have the Logitech Ultrathin Keyboard cover.

Lastly, I think the Surface will be weighed down exactly as Tim Cook described it


They already said a top Surface Pro will be priced comparably with ultra-books. So we're talking $1000 or thereabouts. Add the fact it comes with 64 or 128gb and the keyboard case cost, it's possibly going to be upto $1200

This is not NOT an iPad competitor.


The RT Arm based Surface will be similar priced to the iPad. Windows RT does NOT have that desktop environment, everything will be in Metro and will not run your desktop windows software.
 
At $500 - $600 for the top end model with everything, it could be a formidable product.
I don't know about the low-end model, but I think that's pretty unlikely for the top-end one. The core i5 processor alone probably costs around $150-$200.
 
It's definitely got some cool ideas, but I think at heart Apple had the idea right of a platform tailor made for tablets. I've played extensively with Windows 8 on my desktop (primary OS since Developer Preview), and there's just very little substance to the "Metro mode". I haven't wanted to spend much time at all in any app that is exclusively in that mode, just really using the standard desktop interface.

Also on the tablet space, Samsung has been here and done that with the Series 9 Slate. It runs rather hot, gets atrocious battery life, and its desktop experience is horribly awkward at best. These products are going to end up falling in the same small niche as the Series 9 Slates, a small percent of users that need this type of thing and like it, and ignored by the mainstream.
 
Well, since it's a tablet and it runs Windows 8, you could just use the Windows 8 on screen keyboard when in one of the scenarios you mentioned.

Well, if I search hard enough, I am sure there are IPad peripherals which do the same thing. In this case, it would basically be a smart cover + flexible Bluetooth keyboard. Heck, Logitech recently released their ultra thin keyboard case, did they not?

I find the keyboard smart cover a nice touch, but I am not understanding the fuss over it.
 
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