Microsoft Releases Fourth Anti-iPad Ad Highlighting Windows 8 Multitasking Capabilities

[Chupa Chupa]

This ad is the truth whether you like it or not. I love my iPad, but I hate the fact that I can't watch a video and do something else. Or FaceTime and search the internet. I barely touch my iPad anymore and mostly use my MBA.

It's an ad, and like all ads, there is always a sliver of truth. But 30 secs of carefully edited video rarely tells the whole story accurately.

What Microsoft didn't mention was battery life, usability of the OS and the device itself, quality of wireless connection.

Also the ad makes both the iPad and Surface's screens look much better in outdoor daylight than they would actually look thanks to superimposing.

If ad ad was produced in real time under actual sunny day outdoor conditions I doubt the result would be the same for the surface. But it's a hollywood produced ad. In Hollywood any dream is possible as long as its on video or celluloid.

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That's good, because if you look at the market share trends, the trends are NOT going in the direction of iOS. Quite the opposite, actually. The trend is that fewer and fewer people are choosing Apple products.

Really? No, not really. Depends on what day of the month it is. Seriously. There are no trends spelling out doom for either iOS or Android.

http://www.networkworld.com/news/2013/070813-iphone6-ios-marketshare-apple-android-271583.html

 

[mabhatter]

Did they not watch the WWDC keynote?

Microsoft is competing against the iPad as its released now... Not some future iPad. We should carefully line up the features and see that Surface is a more thought out, full featured product right now.

(OK, that is totally ridiculous and I can't keep a straight face.... Microsoft isn't competing at all with the current iPad, and heavily amended IBM's book on competing with future ware. )

 

[JAT]

Does nothing useful? thats like saying a USB hard drive does nothing useful....

Try it. It does nothing useful. I own one. The only thing it does is handled much better via wireless streaming. It was a wasted hardware feature since they didn't implement something actually useful in software. On their phones, it was implemented properly. At least, some phones, I don't know every single one of their products.

And a USB drive would also do nothing useful on a Samsung tablet. Don't bother with analogies when everyone already understands the topic.

 

[mazz0]

Me, on a surface rt. found it excellent.

That wasn't one of the models they had in PC World, I don't think. It worked well then? Like I said, on the models I tried it was a mess. You'd drag in and it wouldn't recognise it, you'd try again and it'd jump to taking up 3/4 of the screen instead of 1/4, etc. You'd try re-sizing it by dragging the separator left to make it 1/4 again and it'd go away completely. A right mess, on several machines.

 

[Menneisyys2]

That doesnt answer the question I asked.

It does. Many sites do return non-full versions when sensing they're "talking" to an iPad - this is what the OP has referred to (and not iPhone-optimized, truly mobile pages). With many third-party browsers (e.g., iCab Mobile) you can change ("spoof") the User-Agent to make these sites return full pages. But not in the stock Safari.

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That wasn't one of the models they had in PC World, I don't think. It worked well then? Like I said, on the models I tried it was a mess. You'd drag in and it wouldn't recognise it, you'd try again and it'd jump to taking up 3/4 of the screen instead of 1/4, etc. You'd try re-sizing it by dragging the separator left to make it 1/4 again and it'd go away completely. A right mess, on several machines.

Dunno - I've handled it (MS' own Surface RT) at a MS presentation organized for iOS / Android programmers. Haven't encountered touchscreen problems.

 

[Mr. Gates]

The ad is absolutely correct. You can, indeed, do two things at once with a Windows 8 tablet. High five.

What I'm saying is... that might not be as big a feature as you think it is.

Apple has sold over 100 million iPads that don't have "proper multitasking"

Are we to believe there are tons of people who are saying "OMG it's finally here! The tablet I can run two apps side-by-side!!!!"

Or... you can ask it in another way:

Was the iPad a failure this whole time because it couldn't run two apps side-by-side?

Because I certainly didn't notice that...

Windows 8 is brand new. They are showing the difference. Nobody is saying the iPad was a failure.

You and most of the other people who are soooooo wounded by this Ad, Miss the Point completely ! ! !

Are people on this forum losing comprehension skills or have they never had them ?

 

[iSee]

Fanboys are a bit annoying...

I have an IPad, and iOS is behind other platforms in terms of overall functions usability, and available APIs for devs. Sorry, it is.. But with that said, "It's all about the apps". And iOS apps themselves are still a bit more plentiful and polished.

I don't think you can argue the APIs for developers are lacking while at the same time acknowledge that apps are more plentiful and polished. Clearly the APIs are good enough, at the very least.

Personally, having done development for iOS, Android and Windows 8, I don't think there's that much difference once you get your bearings. I mean, there are definitely things the different platforms do much better and much worse than the others so this varies from app to app but it seems to average out in the end, more or less. (Well, Windows 8 is less mature than the other two, but I expect that will work itself out soon.) Ultimately, an app should be about what's unique that that app brings to the user, not what is already built into the platform.

I think MS is right to focus their advertising on the side-by-side multitasking. It is quite nicely done and one of only a couple significant advantages it has compared to iOS and Android (in my opinion).

Day-to-day, I can grab any of these three types of devices I want, and it's always the iPad I grab. I really don't see how it's behind.

 

[hayesk]

iPad ads show people using the iPad doing tasks that real people actually do.

Surface ads show made up scenarios that nobody does. And they still artificially hobble the iPad with an inept user.

I would wager that there hasn't been a single baseball player signed to a team in the manner depicted.

 

[Menneisyys2]

It's a joke, just like the battery life that deteriorated rapidly after the first few months' use.

My iPhone 5's battery (bought slightly after the launch) dies a month ago too. I've never been used the phone for phoning / everyday stuff chewing thru the battery so it was certainly the battery's fault. Apple exchanged the phone for one manufactored on week 22 / 2013. It seems you should take in the phone for repair or exchange - you may also have a bad battery.

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Are people on this forum losing comprehension skills or have they never had them ?

Apple fanboys continue to hate everything non-Apple

 

[Chupa Chupa]

We should carefully line up the features and see that Surface is a more thought out, full featured product right now.

Haven't we learned the lesson yet that more features does not necessarily mean a better product? A decked out Hyundai Equus is about the same price as the entry level Mercedes E series with fewer amenities. If I'm buying my money goes to Mercedes. Nothing against Hyundai, but its cars are not Mercedes-level anymore than Macaroni Grill's food is worth of a perfect score in Zagat.

Like everything, it's fundamentals first, and usability comes in first. I've played with the Surface many times at the Windows store and left dissatisfied every time. It looks like a slick device on paper. In the user's hand it's anything but.

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Apple fanboys continue to hate everything non-Apple

Would that be in the same vein as Android or Microsoft "fanboys" hating everything their patron saint company doesn't cough up? When anyone uses the word "fanboy" to demean it exposes their motive.

 

[iGrouch]

Wellll.....

If they need to depend on electronic devices to do their job properly, they must not be any good at their jobs anyway.

This is the kind of horse****3 that make tech-head/nerds look like twits and MS are only highlighting their own twittery here. Same with the Samsung adds so on and so forth

 

[mabhatter]

Fanboys are a bit annoying...

I have an IPad, and iOS is behind other platforms in terms of overall functions usability, and available APIs for devs. Sorry, it is.. But with that said, "It's all about the apps". And iOS apps themselves are still a bit more plentiful and polished.

To make a comment like that, you have to give a SPECIFIC EXAMPLE of an app that does not exist on iPad because of TECHNICAL (not rules) limitations or an App that is severely limited on iPad versus Android or Surface. (Again that is not a category of limited apps)

 

[iapplelove]

More free advertisement for Apple! MS just does not get it!

This is all I could think of.

 

[newdeal]

He gets wifi in the middle of a baseball field? They should have used a cellular version, are there any cellular windows 8 tablets?

 

[wigby]

This ad does a great job of pointing out that the iPad is the dominant platform of choice and that all these businesses are going to have to standardize on only one platform. But I still don't know why they would choose the Microsoft solution.

It's like expecting businesses to choose Apple over MS back in the 80's and 90's. Why would they ever have done such a thing?

 

[iGrip]

Fewer by percentage overall? Because they keep selling more products (iOS at least) each quarter than in the previous year's. That means more people are choosing them than before, unless the same people are buying increasing numbers of iOS devices every year, year after year

The overall market is growing. I was speaking proportionately, rather than using raw numbers.

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Does nothing useful? thats like saying a USB hard drive does nothing useful....

It does nothing useful if you use an iPad. Neither do memory sticks and SD cards if you own an iPad. Or an iPhone.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, expandable storage capabilities are extremely useful.

 

[mabhatter]

If I understand it correctly, it is more related to the hardware design rather than software right? iOS should be able to do multitasking just the HW might not be able to support?

iOS doesn't do "multitasking" because of CHOISE OF PHILOSOPHY, not just technical limitations. The USER can only choose one thing at a time, and the DEVICE should devote 100% of its attention to THAT thing not 20 others. That philosophy is moving to OSX as well. Did you see how many new features are related to getting "housekeeping" or non-user input pushed out of the way both to improve performance and battery life.

Apple is SPECIFICALLY trying to kill the idea that PCs have hundreds of little private background apps going for every little developer whim. Apple DOESN'T WANT apps that download torrents while you watch chat heads and text your friends, yes, they are preventing that...

Part if the issue is that these are all post-type-A personalities... They don't just do "a lot" of things well, they CHOOSE what to do well before ever starting the task... They don't do 20 things at once anymore.

 

[osofast240sx]

Only the Nexus 7 is sold below costs - not even the 4 / 10. Samsung has a nice profit - and even noname Chinese manufacturers.

2 years ago when the company I worked for moved off of BB to Android. The carrier practically begged my company to go android. My company paid $9 per handset, were talking hundreds of phones. 2 years later every employee has an iPhone and iPad. I'm sure there are lots of other companies that have this deal. Androids market share is bloated.

 

[iGrip]

Market share of idiots who "don't get it." That's soooo what Apple needs to grab!

Are you saying that Apple doesn't like profits generated by "those people"?

My guess is that, as a giant megacorporation, Apple is happy to take money from pretty much anybody. That is why they go to work in the morning.

 

[Konrad9]

You know things are bad when you release your fourth anti Apple ad

You know things are bad when you have to release an ad trying to convince people your products make the world better.

I know literally zero people with a Win8 device or tablet, but the blind hypocrisy in these comments is literally insane.

 

[iGrip]

Apple DOESN'T WANT apps that download torrents while you watch chat heads and text your friends,

But that is exactly what users want. Hence the perception by M$ that such a lack in Apple's products is a selling point for Windows 8 tablets.

 

[uknowimright]

oh man, hilarious thread

love the part where posters don't actually pay attention and automatically think this is a Surface

also for those of you saying there is no WiFi around

Wireless
Wireless Connectivity7
Dual-band WiFi (802.11a/b/g/n) Bluetooth 4.0

AT&T 4G LTE mobile broadband option

http://www.dell.com/us/p/xps-10-tablet/pd

 

[Benguitar]

That's good, because if you look at the market share trends, the trends are NOT going in the direction of iOS. Quite the opposite, actually. The trend is that fewer and fewer people are choosing Apple products.

Most people will always sacrifice data security, smooth operation, and bloat-ware free for something "new" for the sole purpose of having something new.

It doesn't even have to work, as long as its new.

Now with that being said, I'm not entirely on Apple's side. I think they could have been doing things better to help prevent themselves from turning into the next BlackBerry.

I believe the updates that iOS 7 are bringing (workflow and appearance wise) should have been updated at some point around iOS 4 or iOS 5 at the latest.

However with that update, users would have been given the ability to customize their experience to their liking. As in, if they prefer double-tapping the home button and making the applications wiggle to quit them than the new swipe off the screen thing I think iOS 7 is doing now.

Small things like that I think would have made iOS more appealing early on before Android truly got established.

We all know true multi-tasking is an issue with iOS and frankly I like how Microsoft demoed their solution for multi-tasking, and I can only hope Apple is wise enough to adopt that in some way, shape or form.

I think Apple's problem is Microsoft's strong point, and while I might be going out on a limb here. It's the concept of Windows 8.

Microsoft has done a fantastic job at making a very similar experience on both PC and mobile device computing. Which allows for a more natural integration of features like multi-tasking.

While Windows 8 has not been widely excepted for its integration purposes, I use it on my gaming PC at home and have had very minimal problems with it other than a random glitch once or twice and the small things that OSX does that just make life easier (being able to have a window open in front and scroll in a window behind it).

At the end of the day, I still haven't found the "perfect" machine, nor do I think the perfect machine will ever exist.

 

[Mattstkc]

While I like the feature, the Windows App store is about as barren as it's userbase.

 

[nope7308]

But does it come with a liter of cola?