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Microsoft Surface Beats iPad in Design, Productivity, and Accessory Use in New J.D. Power Study

DrumApple said:
No surprise at all. Surfaces aren't bad at all besides a few funky things like the power cord and less than stellar battery life.

iPad = a big phone, minus the phone part for most
Surface = actual convertible computer that you can get **** done on and not just doodle
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Maybe, just maybe, the iPhone is a very powerful mobile computer, and the iPad is a bigger version of an excellent mobile computer that features an OS designed from the ground up for touch and gives a larger canvas to work on than an iPhone?
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freediverx said:
There are all sort of workarounds possible, but I don't think I should have to jump through hoops in attempts to emulate the basic file management capabilities I've always had on desktops.
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It must be nice for "the PC industry" how they can compare their collective sales numbers to that of a single company.
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I wouldn't really call that jumping through hoops. In the main window when you open Pages, you literally touch Locations and it shows a list of places where you have files stored.

I get it, I'd love to see some improved document management, but it's not that you need some insane workflows to make it happen right now.
 
JungleNYC said:
Windows 10 is great. What are you talking about? Have you even seen it in the last few years? MSFT has done a really great job in responding to Apple…you should check it out. You'll be surprised.
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Why do Microsoft fans always assume that Windows' detractors base their opinions on older versions of Windows? Yes, we've seen and used Windows 10. Yes, it looks prettier than the crappier versions of Windows that preceded it. But it still sucks compared to macOS, especially when you look underneath its surface (pun intended.)
 
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mi7chy said:
No surprise. Fully functional Windows OS vs iOS with training wheels that was designed for iPod.
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Well, what's no surprise is that Performance was not one of the categories where the Surface won. I mean, a Windows OS carrying all the baggage going back to the 80s, being half baked into a touch device, vs an OS that was designed from the ground up for touch first mobile computer use.
 
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I tried surface pro 4 for few months and returned it. Battery life was bad, only around 4 hours use per charge. It was also quite heavy compared to ipads and not nice when fan kicks in (noisy) Otherwise quite nice tablet/laptop, but i prefer ipad for my tablet needs and macbook air or pc for other computational needs.

Surface tries to be truck and sports car same time, end result is compromise. I like my sports car and truck as separate vehicles :)
 
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The iPad Pro primarily needs a better keyboard to compete with the Surface. The Smart Keyboard falls short in not having an adjustable angle, not working on your lap, and the keys are not so good.

Google nailed it with the Pixel C Tablet. Detachable, adjustable angle, lap usable. Put that on an iPad Pro and you have a workable laptop replacement.

iOS will need to grow up a bit as well, but those are software changes. Easier to make and retrofit. I don't think the "two interface metaphors in one device" approach of Windows is the way to go. But only time will tell.
 
I use my surface at work away from my desk without a keyboard all the time just fine. Seems to work just fine as a tablet, sure some of the older windows applications I use don't have scalable UIs but it isn't exactly hard to tap the elements of their UIs.

We stopped giving out iPads at our hospital and started giving Surface Pros to Admins, Doctors and Directors and so far everyone is loving them. Deployed over 100 so far.
 
profets said:
Like this you mean?

qohikz.png


Obviously I don't have dropbox here, but it seems that via extensions dropbox could make their folders available I would imagine?
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The only way I know to get access to Dropbox is via some convoluted WebDAV setup.
 
Rogifan said:
So if Apple was #1 in this survey would people here be saying Apple is out-innovating everyone else? I think not.
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Of course they would, people would be crowing how great they are, and to be honest, they'd deserve those accolades. The case is, Apple hasn't done much with the iPad other then making it thinner (except now for the latest version) and their sales are showing that. iPad sales are shrinking not growing.
 
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freediverx said:
I'm just sick of people telling me why I should hate my Apple products.
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If that aint the pot calling the kettle black.:rolleyes: Pretty sure there are many people in this thread sick of you doing the exact same thing... only your hate is directed at MS products. Opposite side of the same hate coin. Neither side valuable.
 
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Rogifan said:
That comparing the Surface to an iPad is silly. I'll bet if a survey was done between the Surface Pronand Surface Book the Surface Book would win. All that tells me is for the people surveyed laptops beat out tablets.
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The funny thing is that it is a tablet and you cannot move the goal posts because it doesn't suit Apple.

Apple decided to use a phone operating system for their tablets and while that gave them some initial dividends, but the lack of power in the OS has been highlighted and people want something that does more.

Additionally, if you look at the iPad Pro with the keyboard and stylus, its a virtual clone of the Surface Pro except on the software side.
 
freediverx said:
There are all sort of workarounds possible, but I don't think I should have to jump through hoops in attempts to emulate the basic file management capabilities I've always had on desktops.
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It must be nice for "the PC industry" how they can compare their collective sales numbers to that of a single company. But that's OK, the numbers still favor Apple regardless:

Worldwide Mac Sales Hold Steady as PC Market Sees Shipments Decline 9.6% in Q1 2016
https://www.macrumors.com/2016/04/11/gartner-idc-pc-shipments-1q16/

http://i.imgur.com/BPjUPfX.jpeg
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you should read the whole article.

Apple's sales "Held steady" with a minor .3 decrease in volume. Dell grew 3.1, Lenevo grew 14.6. Everyone else shrank.

and that's just in QoQ. in YoY, Apple's PC sales decreased from their own high in 2015.
 
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GeneralChang said:
I don't know that what you're describing would be all that helpful in iOS...
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I was speaking with regards to using an iPad as an alternative to a MacBook. For me, real work involves projects, and projects revolve around a variety of related assets of different types. if I'm working on Project A, I need a folder where I can organize all of the files associated with that project, regardless of which app the individual files were created with. iOS makes it difficult to impossible to work like this.
 
profets said:
Well, what's no surprise is that Performance was not one of the categories where the Surface won. I mean, a Windows OS carrying all the baggage going back to the 80s, being half baked into a touch device, vs an OS that was designed from the ground up for touch first mobile computer use.
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My windows computer with win10 boots in 3 seconds. Games run at 1080p over 70fps. All applications load instantly.

None of my Apple computers operate as quick. Not even OSx installed on the same hardware operates as efficiently, or nearly as fast.

I like both OSs, and I like some aspects of OSx better than others

But as both an admin of a wide range of hardware and infrastructure with knowledge and support offered in over a dozen operating systems

Your opinion is wrong. You're entitled to it, But you've based your opinion on personal bias and NOT real world performance.
 
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profets said:
Maybe, just maybe, the iPhone is a very powerful mobile computer, and the iPad is a bigger version of an excellent mobile computer that features an OS designed from the ground up for touch and gives a larger canvas to work on than an iPhone?
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I wouldn't really call that jumping through hoops. In the main window when you open Pages, you literally touch Locations and it shows a list of places where you have files stored.

I get it, I'd love to see some improved document management, but it's not that you need some insane workflows to make it happen right now.
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Do you see Dropbox in the Locations menu?

OK, here's another example:

Let's say you've just created a new Keynote file on your iPad. By default, it's saved locally in Keynote's sandboxed area. To move it to a desired project folder on your iCloud Drive, you must tap the share button, select "Move to", select the Keynote file, and now scroll your way down to the desired destination folder. A bit clunky but no big deal, so long as you don't have a lot of hierarchically arranged folders on iCloud Drive.

If you do, though, you realize that the interface is presented to you in a small, non-resizable window while all folders and subfolders nested within are expanded. There's no way to display folders collapsed so that you can efficiently navigate directly to the desired subfolder which may be nested many layers below. There's no way to toggle between a folder and list view. There's also no way to quickly go to the desired folder by typing in a few characters in a search field, nor any way to save aliases/shortcuts to frequently used folders.

I realize that all the missing options I described above as precisely what confuse less computer savvy users. But by omitting these features and options, Apple is making it infinitely harder for someone like me to get any work done. Every time I try to do some real work on an iPad, I feel like the operating system is fighting against me.
 
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Baloney. And I don't say that to dis Apple or Microsoft. The only true way to measure "user satisfaction" is by talking with those who use and are truly familiar with both products and platforms.
 
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I've got a Surface Pro a my work 'laptop' and an iPad Pro for personal use. They are frankly not in the same category. The Surface Pro is a very mediocre 'tablet' but an ok ultra-portable laptop, even though it pretends to be a tablet.
 
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dominiongamma said:
macOS is needed on the iPad.
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That would ruin the iPad for everyone who actually uses one that doesn't want Pro behavior. Granted I have no idea which customer base is bigger. But I'd quit being an iPad customer if it ran macOS.

iPad doesn't need macOS. What it needs is something in the middle that more seamlessly meets the needs of the pro users without ruining the experience for the non-pro users. Or if the customer base really is bigger for full desktop usage, Apple can just quit offering a solution to people like me who actually like what the iPad is presently.
 
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ChazSch said:
windows bad. Period.
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Compared to iOS? How so? iOS is such a toy OS with training wheels that in 2017 I can't even put an active SSH session in the background without it getting killed by iOS after 3 minutes. That's a basic feature on Windows or any non-iOS OS for the last 20+ years. Even Android keeps SSH sessions running in the background indefinitely. Don't get me started on proper file manager, mouse/touchpad support, etc.

The problem with iPads isn't so much the hardware. It's the OS.
 
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