Microsoft Details Surface Pro Pricing Amidst Reports of Poor Sales of RT Version

[Nabooly]

So disappointed with the lack of thinking these companies are doing.

I mean i was dead set on getting the Nokia 920....except it's only available on 1 carrier.

Then I thought about getting the Surface (ads looked sweet )...except the onslaught of bad reviews.

So I thought I'd wait for the Pro version...except it's going to cost me $999?

Mmhhmm...no thanks. I have a Samsung i9 little 11" laptop, now I;m thinking of skipping windows 8 all together. I'm so disappointed in Microsoft. I want competition for Apple so they can revitalize their brand (too much blahh these days imo). But this is far from competition. And I don't think Microsoft was looking to put out a "niche" product either, they want something people will line up for but it doesn't seem like they have achieved that.

 

[linuxcooldude]

It's a bad business model - it encourages a race to the bottom and discourages more complicated and more useful software from being developed for tablets because that software is not profitable at lower price points.

Not a bad business model, a different model altogether. Apple has already shown it does not have to be a race to the bottom.

Basically mobile has become a budget market because the only way to get stuff on your phone is through a single store that has hundreds of thousands of developers undercutting each other to compete for your attention.

So we don't have developers competing on desktop either? I know they do, I've seen it.

The Pro avoids all this.

As long as the platform allows third party developers, there is not way to avoid it and the Surface Pro tablet is no exception.

10 years ago a tablet was a laptop with a stylus input resistive touchscreen LCD that rotated and collapsed. It wasn't a slate form factor device with a multitouch capacitive screen. OS was XP with some small UI modifications added on, not an OS built from the ground up with touch in mind. And there was no 80 million + unit tablet market back then either. Totally different devices, totally different environment. I owned a Fujitsu P1510 tablet back then and if the Surface Pro was anything like that I wouldn't be buying it

The system requirements to run those applications at the time were not as great as they are now. Applications are now much bigger now they were back then.

Besides it was already mentioned, we already have up to date window PC tablets out right now that can run desktop x86 software.

 

[Eidorian]

The system requirements to run those applications at the time were not as great as they are now. Applications are now much bigger now they were back then.

What applications specifically? What requirements?

 

[OriginalClone]

Good read. So there are 66 million OSX users, Apple sold 40 million iPads in a year and Windows 8 is a flop because it sold 40 million licenses in 5 weeks. Gotta love the logic.

The fanboy behavior is childish and petty. I don't know why people would not want competition. They cry when there's a monopoly, but laugh at companies for trying to innovate and keep competition alive.

 

[lilo777]

A mobile OS? How do you mean? iOS is a BSD based OS, that pretty much shares a lot in common with Mac OS X. The only really big difference is in the user interface. It's designed for mobile computing on devices with smaller screens. You seem to be mistaking a mobile-centric OS for an embedded OS used in some mobile devices.

Furthermore, they never told anyone that tablets were content consumption only. In fact they released a page layout program, a presentation program, and a spreadsheet program at the same time the original iPad was introduced.



I find all the people on this board to be a bit disingenuous for having conveniently forgotten Windows Tablets have been on the market for the passed decade, running full blown Windows. If all you same people are so damned excited by the Surface Pro why in the hell didn't you ever buy one of the original Windows tablets or even one of the current tablets that already run full blown Windows; off the top off my head, Archos. If people were actually excited about having a tablet form factor running a full blown desktop OS, all those tablets wouldn't have failed so miserably.

The fact is, and history has shown, THAT VERY FEW PEOPLE NEED OR WANT A "TABLET" DEVICE RUNNING THE SAME CRAPPY OS AS THEIR DESKTOP COMPUTER.

It is little more than a gimmick. In the end you're still using a desktop OS, so why not have a device that IT WAS DESIGNED TO RUN ON?

So, you are saying that iOS - castrated version of BSD - is better than BSD (a desktop OS). Something is perverted here.

 

[Mainsail]

"Looking at the numbers between the surface and iPad 64GB; The iPad is $700 while the surface is $200 more."


I don't think you can compare the iPad storage to the Surface Pro. Windows 8 and associated applications take up a lot more space than ios and associate apps. Apples and oranges

Really, base iPad is $500 and the base Surface plus keyboard is $1,000. The iPad is designed for touch with a retina display and is a superior mobile device due to its lighter wieght and longer battery life. The Surface will have the functionality of a full computer with Windows 8, but I wonder how satisfying the user experience will be compared to a regular Laptop when in desktop mode....

 

[JohnDoe98]

Far as the 4 hour battery life, an ASUS Transformer Book that uses a more power hungry i7, has a bigger screen, and a smaller capacity battery is rated for 5 hours. So either ASUS is lying or that 4 hour claim that's going around is wrong.

I hope you're right otherwise this is very unimpressive. The iPad lasts close to 10 hours, and the new laptops typically go 7 hours or more. If the best the Surface Pro can do is 4 hours, that would seem to indicate Apple was right that this hybrid is neither as good as laptop nor as good as a tablet. 4 hours was ok back in 2007, not anymore. I'd find that unacceptable.

As far as the ASUS thing getting 5 hours, you would need to say much more to convince us. The biggest power draw, more often than not, is the screen. Perhaps having a touch screen at the resolution the Surface Pro does means that it will inherently have a much larger power draw than whatever the ASUS is offering. After all, the higher the resolution for a smaller screen, the more light needs to be pushed through in order to make it work. That's why the Apple Retina screens tend to be a little dimmer than other laptops, all those dam pixels block a lot of the light from coming through.

 

[smellysox8]

I'm selling my macbook air for this.

 

[AppleScruff1]

The fanboy behavior is childish and petty. I don't know why people would not want competition. They cry when there's a monopoly, but laugh at companies for trying to innovate and keep competition alive.

You forgot the monopoly is ok, as long as it's Apple.

 

[throAU]

This is the first generation. When Haswell comes to market, battery life will be better, just as battery technology slowly moves forward. This is the beginning of the changing laptop/tablet era.

However, the data will still be on a device outside of the company firewall and the cost won't be any better (you'll just get a faster device for the same $).

Also, the iPad/other tablets won't be standing still either. Battery improvements to those will push life beyond 10 hours and/or enable faster CPUs as well.




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Gotta remember, its got almost the same specs as a Macbook Air, the type cover is almost as good as a real keyboard, and it turns into a tablet.

Microsoft MAY have a winner.

Microsoft may say so, but reviews say otherwise.

Also, due to the kickstand and clip on keyboard with no substantial base to the machine, it sucks for laptop use.

It's a tablet you can use as a tablet, or on a table - not on your lap.

Why would I buy this, instead of buying a regular PC ultrabook which will have a better keyboard, better battery life and run the same OS?

Or hell, one of the other convertible touch enabled laptop machines on the market that will actually work when used on your lap.


Also, i run Windows 7, Windows 8, iOS and OS X 10.5 through 10.8.

Windows 8 is the worst of the lot.

 

[T-R-S]

I tried out a surface in the San Francisco shopping mall last month.
NO LTE Option = Fail half the time I spend using a tablet I need a wireless - I am not going to pull out my phone and set up tethering to get it to work.
Plus it's made out of cheap plastic. Plus low battery life makes surface an epix fail IMO.
If you want to get people to buy your products - you need 2 things - has MUST be better and cost less....

 

[crazycanucks]

I'm selling my macbook air for this.

RT sucks, its underpowered, and was never going to really compete with the iPad anyways, but they needed the entry level tablet.

Im selling my iPad 1 and my MacBook Pro 13 Early 2011 model for the Pro. My wifey will keep the iPad3.

This is the exact thing I need. I bought a MacBook last year , but for my purpose, I find Windows is better suited for me. I have had it for a year, took a bootcamp OSX course (I have more knowledge then 95% of the Genius Bar just from that course alone in one week) to learn the Mac OSX because 20 people out of 300 run Mac OSX.
I work in IT, and the Mac OSX is so anti enterprise thats its so frustrating. Its frustrating because you have a level of service that your users get to experience on the Windows side, and when you try to replicate that to the Mac OSX, its non existent.
They should have better support for the Mac OSX in a Windows world, then they could sell alot more Macs then they already have in the corporate world.

Dont get me wrong, the iPad is awesome, but when you can have a tablet and a fully functional OS all packed into one device, how could you go wrong?

To me the OSX looks dated since Windows 8 came out. If you dont belive me, install Windows 8 (trail version) under BootCamp and see how much better the Windows 8 looks on the same computer. You really have to get the fact that there is no Start Menu anymore to move on. When you see how much of an improvement Win 8 is over Win 7, its really not even close. And Win 7 kicked ass.

I didnt not play with SL all that much, but Lion and ML were big improvements over SL in terms of connecting with Active Directory, but when they fix one thing, another thing breaks.

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However, the data will still be on a device outside of the company firewall and the cost won't be any better (you'll just get a faster device for the same $).

Also, the iPad/other tablets won't be standing still either. Battery improvements to those will push life beyond 10 hours and/or enable faster CPUs as well.




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Microsoft may say so, but reviews say otherwise.

Also, due to the kickstand and clip on keyboard with no substantial base to the machine, it sucks for laptop use.

It's a tablet you can use as a tablet, or on a table - not on your lap.

Why would I buy this, instead of buying a regular PC ultrabook which will have a better keyboard, better battery life and run the same OS?

Or hell, one of the other convertible touch enabled laptop machines on the market that will actually work when used on your lap.


Also, i run Windows 7, Windows 8, iOS and OS X 10.5 through 10.8.

Windows 8 is the worst of the lot.

How is Win 8 the worst? Was there a feature that was in 7 no longer in 8 that made it worse? Did you work in Vista? That was way worse mate.

 

[spacepower7]

Install a torrent client on your iPad, I dare you. Or any other Mac program.

You can't do it, I'll tell you why because everyone is confused :That's a big iPod touch !

This is a full OS WITH ...( W I T H ) touch

Why would I want to install a torrent client on a device with a 4 hour battery life? Grrr you pirate, whoops, you want to download some Linux iso file.

I had to use an XP convertible tablet with a pen back in 2003. The touch features in Win8 should have come out in 2007 with Vista.

I'm wondering if this is a good product for a second PC or even 3rd at this price point.

So would I always have to use it at a table and plug in external USB drives to access al my photos, music and movies? Or do I stream them from the other PC I own?

How loud are the fans?

How does portrait mode work?

I'm a fan of competition, but I'm still trying to understand this niche like Wall Street was trying to figure out the iPad.

The problem is that I get many of the internal Wall Street bank and hedge fund memos, and as far as they they are pro-windows, they all seem to think WTF is Microsoft doing?

 

[AppleScruff1]

Ivy Bridge almost feels like a stopgap. It is better off as a testbed for the 22nm process than power improvements over Sandy Bridge. Haswell is where the real improvements show up with 10W ULV and SoC-like single chip builds show up. It is just months away too.

I can't wait until the post silicon chips arrive.

 

[ikir]

It's not just a tablet.

It's a full blown Windows machine

Better as a tablet indeed that a crappy Windows PC.

 

[scottw324]

At the very same price, Surface or Macbook Air...
Well, hello!!??

Air, it would fit well into the rest of my Apple electronic device realm of iPads, ATV3s, and iPhones.

And this is coming from a PC guy.

 

[Chlloret]

Install a torrent client on your iPad, I dare you. Or any other Mac program.

You can't do it, I'll tell you why because everyone is confused :That's a big iPod touch !

This is a full OS WITH ...( W I T H ) touch

That is exactly why a surface pro will fail. A full blown windows is NOT what a tablet is for. Nor is a full blown OSX. Both are NOT touch operated systems for 10" screens. The ModBook showed that and the surface pro will show it again.

There will always be niche markets for a pro mashine, one or two programs for a specific reason, as they are Windows tablets for the last 20 years available. I have one here, running windows98, quite snappy with 128MB RAM and 233Mhz (overclocked) Prozessor. Pen and all.

That is no reason, a full Windows tablet is all over suddon selling like hot cake. A tablet is not there to have a fan, heat, 4h (realy? REALLY?) battery and the capabillity to run 3D CAD programs. MS did not get that memo, they have to learn the hard way.

BTW, a BitTorrent client for the iPad is available. Called iTransmission. But seriously, what are you going to use a thing like that for on a tablet?

 

[MacDav]

Microsoft feels more like Rodney Dangerfield everyday.

Don't get no respect? or Dead?

 

[4D4M]

Indeed. Do you think Microsoft now regrets the day Bill Gates agreed to bail Apple out with an injection of $150 million back in 1997?

Probably not, since it was a calculated publicity stunt to deflect the antitrust attack dogs.

 

[usman8001]

hiii its Cheaper than I thought it would be.

lots of people were probably waiting on the Pro.

 

[gnasher729]

4 hour battery life? DOA.

Not Dead On Arrival.
Dead Four Hours After Arrival.

Really, if you put this tablet, an iPad, and a MacBook Air side by side, _nobody_ would buy the Surface tablet.

 

[4D4M]

Tell that to the 650,000,000 people using Windows 7. And throw in that many again for XP and Vista.

Most of them probably WISH Microsoft was dead.

 

[gnasher729]

Good read. So there are 66 million OSX users, Apple sold 40 million iPads in a year and Windows 8 is a flop because it sold 40 million licenses in 5 weeks. Gotta love the logic.

Apple didn't just sell 66 million copies of MacOS X, they also sold 66 million computers. Microsoft sold 40 million OEM licenses of Windows 8. Apple is not in the operating system market. There is no doubt that Apple could sell an awful lot more licenses if they wanted to. They don't even try.

 

[MacDav]

Good read. So there are 66 million OSX users, Apple sold 40 million iPads in a year and Windows 8 is a flop because it sold 40 million licenses in 5 weeks. Gotta love the logic.

You're comparing Apples to Oranges or hardware to software. Besides that, the number of OSX users has nothing to do with the iPad. "Gotta love the logic"

 

[jca666us]

I think that's the key to this device. It's what a lot of people said they were waiting for. The price point seems a bit high and the battery life seems a bit low. But the big determiner of its success will be its adoption by businesses.

To me, windows compatibility is an albatross around the neck of the surface.

A 1/2" thick tablet with heat vents and 4 hours of battery life is absurd.