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Microsoft does fail to mention that the keyboard and the pen are both add on, to bring it up to comparable specs to the 11 inch MacBook air is $1178 while the MacBook air starts at $899 So, I could get a MacBook air and a new iPad mini for the price of the advertised Surface Pro.

Great point. Off course the Mini does not have a full OS. BUT an 11 MBA is small enough to treat as a not quite so small and light laptop, leaving you with an Apple laptop instead of a SP3, and a free consumption based tablet
 
No thanks GM (Microsoft). I’ll keep my rock-solid, always reliable Lexus (Mac) over your latest model, which I know will break down soon and has no re-sale value regardless of any new features you may have (Surface 3).
 
I'll bet dollars to donuts that as soon as it happens, it will be a great idea.

No No No

You will end up with a compromised device having OS X on an iPad. Needs OS X ports such as USB? Needs more hardware as one uses Intel, the other uses ARM, hence more weight and battery? Compile instead and have slower performance? More storage required? This is like combing a SUV and a shopping trolley into one car.

Look at it this way. What are the problems being creative on an iPad?
-No stylus, add that
-No File system access, who cares. There is file system access IN the app, look at Goodreader. That needs to be more used.
Make an easy way to copy files from a Mac to an iPad. BT, Apple private wifi, or a lightning to lightning cable, from anywhere on the Mac to the app on the iPad.

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No thanks GM (Microsoft). I’ll keep my rock-solid, always reliable Lexus (Mac) over your latest model, which I know will break down soon and has no re-sale value regardless of any new features you may have (Surface 3).

Wasted post, all emotional bias and no fact
 
Sorry to say but Microsoft Surface Pro 3 cannot and will not be able to replace an ultra book like the MacBook Air. Why? It's less upgradable than an Ultrabook. At least I can take out my MacBook Air and replace it with a new one without shattering the display. I can simply take out my SSD and replace it with a newer SSD without shattering the display.

Finally, this news is way too old.
 
msft still produces enormous profit , and have a higher dividend payout , even more so when you look at the amount of stock you can buy per appl.

maybe its time to sell your apple stock.

Oh that stings. Because I actually did own Mcsft stock for years. I sold it about $30 right before it went on its huge run over the last year or two.
They certainly do make lots of money, mainly because the margin on Windows license and Office is so huge.
But their competitors make a better OS (and give it away for free) and a decently useful office suite (and give it away for free). Mcsft is facing Google and Apple and I'd say losing ground to both of them. So no I would not be a Mcsft shareholder anytime soon.
 
I bought a Surface Pro 3 about two months ago for a new job. It's a PC environment and I go to lots of meetings and take a lot of notes. I also use the Adobe suite often.

It was a horrid experience. Windows sucks in a touch environment. I got memory and other errors on a regular basis. While the hardware concept is nice, I could not stand it and returned it and got a new Macbook Pro.

Life is good now.

The big FAIL with the Surface Pro 3 is WINDOWS. Go figure. :rolleyes:
 
Touch is a major advantage... blunted, though because there's relatively very little Windows software that can take advantage of it. The pen is also potentially an advantage (though in practice is seems like all these pen solutions are a lot more awkward than I'd hope).

But the kickstand is not and the detachable (low-quality) keyboard isn't either.

"It falls apart!"
"You have to fiddle with a kickstand so that it doesn't fall over!!"

These should not be major points of an ad campaign.
 
I think you just described the truth meaning behind the "post pc era", not just "nobody needs pc anymore" like many people misunderstood.

Yep. Folks also think the big battle going on is iOS vs Android. Nope. The battle is between iOS and Windows. And Windows is beginning to have an App Gap with iOS.

So on the one hand if you have money and significant home computing needs, then you have a Mac at home. If you don't have the cash or the computing needs, you have a cheap and kind of old PC. But you also have an iPhone/Android and you end up using that most of the time. The result is that you aren't buying any windows software and this is going to result in there being less windows software.
 
Oh that stings. Because I actually did own Mcsft stock for years. I sold it about $30 right before it went on its huge run over the last year or two.
They certainly do make lots of money, mainly because the margin on Windows license and Office is so huge.
But their competitors make a better OS (and give it away for free) and a decently useful office suite (and give it away for free). Mcsft is facing Google and Apple and I'd say losing ground to both of them. So no I would not be a Mcsft shareholder anytime soon.

those competitors can't do one thing , the thing Microsoft makes almost all their money off of , enterprise.

linux , osx , chrome os, all have non existent enterprise offerings.

Microsofts declining os sales are very unlikely to effect them much , especially when governments and businesses haves hundreds of millions invested in their infrastructure.

i hope you didn't take my original comment as an insult , i did not mean it like that.
 
I thought calling out competitors was never a good marketing strategy. I for one thought the mac vs pc ads were always garbage, glad they're rid of those. Any time I see a company comparing itself to another company I can only think of how the company comparing themselves against the current leader feels jealous of their success.

Yeah but there's a difference between the Mac vs PC ads, some of which were brilliant, funny and very effective, versus what Microsoft and Samsung have been doing in their ads. The main difference is that Mac vs PC was more subtle, not directly calling out specific products. MS and Samsung are doing the exact opposite. They try to compare their specific products to specific Apple products, regardless if that comparison is logical or even comparing the most current products. The equivalent would be if Apple ran their ads saying:"hi, I'm a MacBook Core2Duo"..."And I'm a Lenovo ThinkPad." That's a huge difference.
 
But the kickstand is not and the detachable (low-quality) keyboard isn't either.

I don't like the keyboard either, but the kickstand is a damn good idea that's been implemented perfectly with the SP3.

The biggest argument I see against the kickstand is that it sucks when you use it on your lap. That's not how it's supposed to be used! That's like complaining about the Smart Cover on the iPad for the exact same reason. If you're drawing on it, you'll want the screen at a steep angle, almost parallel to the surface you've got it on. The SP3 does that. If you're typing up a report (preferably using a standalone USB keyboard), you'll want the screen standing almost upright. The SP3 kickstand does that. If you want to type using the onscreen keyboard. Pop it up, and carry it around like an iPad.

If you do a lot of typing on your lap, the SP sucks. Get an MBA. You'll be happier. But if you do a lot of drawing, CAD work, or Photoshopping, the SP3 is a very compelling device.
 
Weren't Mac sales up over 20% last quarter? Is this ad campaign working at all?
Why ask a question that has no answer?

Unless every person who purchased a Mac or Surface were interviewed as to whether or not they saw the ad, how would anyone know if the ad campaign worked? How do you know that without the ad campaign Mac sales would've been up 21%?

If it was working, how would you know? And would you admit it?
 
sorry microsoft but nothing can make up for the crappy operating system that's the computer science equivalent of a Swiss cheese.
 
I have many people say that the iPad is great for consuming media and information while the Surface Pro 3 is great for creating media and information. For myself, I would have to agree with that. Being able to run real-world apps on a tablet like device is pretty nice.

What are "real world" apps? I use iWork apps in the real world and on my iPad and my MacBook. Others run office. Are we not in the real world?

I also can run desktop apps like photoshop on my MacBook. Tho honestly I rarely ever do (can't remember last time?). If I'm coding web apps im far more likely to be using a desktop class machine -- so surface offers me no value there.
 
Here's how that briefing probably went:

MS: "So, we need a killer ad touting the Surface 3 Against the Ipad Air 2."
Ad Agency: "BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I haven't laughed so hard since you guys came out with the Zune!"
MS: "Er... how do we do this, then? We need an ad showing how the Surface 3 is a better choice than Apple's product."
Ad Agency: "Hm... let's see... oh, I know! What if we compared it with a totally different category of products? Some slight of hand may even keep the customers from realizing such comparison is utter nonsense. What do you think?"
MS: "Can it be done on a budget of under US$300,00?"
Ad Agency: "Ah... not really. But tell you what: get yourself a webcam, some half a dozen employees, a Surface 3 and some intern to write the script, and we can get you one of our MBAs for the shooting."
MS: "Great! That way it won't cost us anything at all!"
Ad Agency: "Not really: those US$300,00 will get you 5 minutes with our MBA. MS: "Well, we better get it on the first take, then."
(Both shake hands)
 
I don't like the keyboard either, but the kickstand is a damn good idea that's been implemented perfectly with the SP3.

The biggest argument I see against the kickstand is that it sucks when you use it on your lap. That's not how it's supposed to be used! That's like complaining about the Smart Cover on the iPad for the exact same reason. If you're drawing on it, you'll want the screen at a steep angle, almost parallel to the surface you've got it on. The SP3 does that. If you're typing up a report (preferably using a standalone USB keyboard), you'll want the screen standing almost upright. The SP3 kickstand does that. If you want to type using the onscreen keyboard. Pop it up, and carry it around like an iPad.

If you do a lot of typing on your lap, the SP sucks. Get an MBA. You'll be happier. But if you do a lot of drawing, CAD work, or Photoshopping, the SP3 is a very compelling device.

I think it's funny how MS is going after the drawing / photo / design market with the SP's, when their traditional market would be for people pounding out spreadsheets and business communications. But I'm guessing that because the "benefits" of the SP they're trying to sell make little to no sense for their traditional customer, they have to try something that shows these "benefits" in action. I think it really shows just how lost MS is in their marketing and overall business strategy.
 
I know the OS is the key differentiator here, but it's hard to ignore the versatility of the Surface.

Prior superiority won't be enough to keep Apple on top forever. We need some new ideas.

The key differentiator here is that the Surface is a tablet/laptop hybrid. The MacBook Air is strictly a laptop without any touch features (if you don't include the trackpad). IMHO touch features are sometimes less efficient than the touchpad gestures on the Air. And really the pen feature? I find typing much more quicker. The kickstand feature was funny, because they never mention that the Air doesn't need it. As for everything else, I'd rather use a laptop.
 
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