The surface may not be perfect but it certainly has ruffled a few feathers in the industry.
With apple abandoning their pro line a huge amount of professionals have moved on... if they are using windows workstations it makes sence to use windows portables.
Especially with how poor the newest gen MBP has been and how poorly structured the mac line up is. Full of compromise and product similarity that actually makes choosing a product extremely difficult. The forums are full of these questions and it shouldn't be this difficult.
Same with Mac OS, HS has been a joke. With most professional apps now cloud based the OS is not as integral because they offer the same experience across platforms... With apple refusing to give people tech options. These days its put up shut up or move on.
People are fed up and the latter seems the direction of a lot of people.
At least with the competition there seems to be an interest are re imagining what the laptop is and what it can do. Having a touch screen with the pen with a fully fledged OS is probably the best thing thats happened for creatives in the industry for a long time.
To get the same experience you would have to buy a full desktop machine then then buy something like a wacom cintique which are as expensive as a laptop on its own. This is such a great plus for an artist, illustrator, designer or photographer. Once you have used a machine like this its hard to go back. So much more tactile.
On the other hand you would need to buy a macbook pro and an ipad to have the same functionality on the apple side. The iPad still doesn't offer fully fledged apps, the apps it does are half baked with half the functionality meaning its not a replacement for anyone serious and yet the ipad pro is £1000 in a decent config.
Yet the macbook does everything better, better keyboard for email, word processing, it stands on its own if you want to watch in bed instead of holding it. Main thing it doesnt have a touch screen or a pen... yet anywhere you would want to use the amazing functionality of the pen and touch screen on the iPad doesnt give you the full control like a fully fledged desktop app... Because IOS is gimped. Two products that are defined by an OS and the experience but try to do the same thing... screaming to take the best bits and make a new product line.
People get hung up on the 2 in 1 tablet option in comparison to an iPad. I dont see it like that I see it as I can detach the screen and use it in scenarios where having the base isnt necessary. Like if i wanted to edit some images casually on the sofa and use the pen...
The macbook line is super stagnant.
In all honesty what extra use case has the Macbook pro offered since the line was established in 2006? It exactly the same. Nothing has changed apart from spec bumps and movement with similar technology, screens, ports etc. They have become less reliable and Apple have taken more away than added. The things they have added are gimmicks nobody asked for like the TB, then only put it on the high end products which makes adoption even slower as we all know the low end machines are the best sellers. They added the TB as an upsell, but pros spend more for more speed not gimmicks.
To add insult to injury the price has increased significantly. The worst bit is they just arent pro anymore. 3-4 years ago there would have been no question that the Macbook pro was the market gold standard, now its not so clear and its sitting in a haze of really good products some significantly less that offer similar like the Dell XPS and others like the surface that is trying something new at a similar premium price point.
Its interesting that mobile tech review made a video titled "best laptop for photoshop and lightroom" and the macbook pro in any form wasn't highlighted at all.
Simply because there are better products now and apple has sat on its laurels.
I applaud Microsoft for filling the gap and innovating where apple has left it wide open. Competition is good. The surface may not be perfect but they will crack it, they are already impressive but has the problems and bugs of a new product.
The 2006 macbook pro moved me to the mac. The surface is pushing me back. Especially when all my work machines are dell workstations because the 2013 mac pro was a joke. 5 years on there is still no option to the 2010 and 2012 mac pro.
Its a whirlpool effect... one product being missing in the line causes you to move on, being on multi platforms doesn't make much sense and apples direction doesnt fill me with confidence going forward.
With apple abandoning their pro line a huge amount of professionals have moved on... if they are using windows workstations it makes sence to use windows portables.
Especially with how poor the newest gen MBP has been and how poorly structured the mac line up is. Full of compromise and product similarity that actually makes choosing a product extremely difficult. The forums are full of these questions and it shouldn't be this difficult.
Same with Mac OS, HS has been a joke. With most professional apps now cloud based the OS is not as integral because they offer the same experience across platforms... With apple refusing to give people tech options. These days its put up shut up or move on.
People are fed up and the latter seems the direction of a lot of people.
At least with the competition there seems to be an interest are re imagining what the laptop is and what it can do. Having a touch screen with the pen with a fully fledged OS is probably the best thing thats happened for creatives in the industry for a long time.
To get the same experience you would have to buy a full desktop machine then then buy something like a wacom cintique which are as expensive as a laptop on its own. This is such a great plus for an artist, illustrator, designer or photographer. Once you have used a machine like this its hard to go back. So much more tactile.
On the other hand you would need to buy a macbook pro and an ipad to have the same functionality on the apple side. The iPad still doesn't offer fully fledged apps, the apps it does are half baked with half the functionality meaning its not a replacement for anyone serious and yet the ipad pro is £1000 in a decent config.
Yet the macbook does everything better, better keyboard for email, word processing, it stands on its own if you want to watch in bed instead of holding it. Main thing it doesnt have a touch screen or a pen... yet anywhere you would want to use the amazing functionality of the pen and touch screen on the iPad doesnt give you the full control like a fully fledged desktop app... Because IOS is gimped. Two products that are defined by an OS and the experience but try to do the same thing... screaming to take the best bits and make a new product line.
People get hung up on the 2 in 1 tablet option in comparison to an iPad. I dont see it like that I see it as I can detach the screen and use it in scenarios where having the base isnt necessary. Like if i wanted to edit some images casually on the sofa and use the pen...
The macbook line is super stagnant.
In all honesty what extra use case has the Macbook pro offered since the line was established in 2006? It exactly the same. Nothing has changed apart from spec bumps and movement with similar technology, screens, ports etc. They have become less reliable and Apple have taken more away than added. The things they have added are gimmicks nobody asked for like the TB, then only put it on the high end products which makes adoption even slower as we all know the low end machines are the best sellers. They added the TB as an upsell, but pros spend more for more speed not gimmicks.
To add insult to injury the price has increased significantly. The worst bit is they just arent pro anymore. 3-4 years ago there would have been no question that the Macbook pro was the market gold standard, now its not so clear and its sitting in a haze of really good products some significantly less that offer similar like the Dell XPS and others like the surface that is trying something new at a similar premium price point.
Its interesting that mobile tech review made a video titled "best laptop for photoshop and lightroom" and the macbook pro in any form wasn't highlighted at all.
Simply because there are better products now and apple has sat on its laurels.
I applaud Microsoft for filling the gap and innovating where apple has left it wide open. Competition is good. The surface may not be perfect but they will crack it, they are already impressive but has the problems and bugs of a new product.
The 2006 macbook pro moved me to the mac. The surface is pushing me back. Especially when all my work machines are dell workstations because the 2013 mac pro was a joke. 5 years on there is still no option to the 2010 and 2012 mac pro.
Its a whirlpool effect... one product being missing in the line causes you to move on, being on multi platforms doesn't make much sense and apples direction doesnt fill me with confidence going forward.
