Yeah? What does it do? Does the OS blue screen on you, or do the individual apps crash?
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Microsoft Surface Estimated to Have Sold Only 1.7 Million Units Since Launch
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Yeah? What does it do? Does the OS blue screen on you, or do the individual apps crash?
While might be the first year for MS tablet sales, it's definitely not the first year for Windows Phone. If this is a sign of things to come from Microsoft, count me out!
Just to preface this; I have had a Surface RT, Surface Pro, a atom based windows 8 tablet, iPad 2 and a Nexus 7. I also design and develop windows applications for my day job and am working on getting up to speed for some iOS development at night.
I started looking at the windows tablets when I got fed up with my Nexus 7 and the lack of good tablet apps on android. The final straw was when the Time Warner Cable app would not play for more than a few seconds at a time without buffering while my iPhone or iPad would play fine.
My goal was to have a tablet that I could connect to my works VPN if needed when I am away to be able to remote in and fix issues. Unfortunately our VPN provider does not support the iPad or Android tablets.
I started with the Surface RT then moved on to the Surface Pro and then to the Lenovo IdeaPad Lynx.
The Surfaces in general are a nice feeling product, very solid and the type cover is pretty decent. There is not much to be improved there.
The Surface RT went to my sister in law as she wanted something that could do basic office, surf the web, play a few games (solitaire, angry birds, etc) but be more portable than a laptop. It is fine for that. Not as good as the iPads overall but does the office side great with the type cover.
I had the Surface Pro for a week then took it back to the store. It was $999 for the 128GB. For the price it does have some decent hardware. The nice 1080p screen with the Wacom digitizer, an i5 processor, 4GB ram and a 128GB SSD (not eMMC based like the Atom based windows tablets). It was fast, would run whatever windows app I ran on it. The down side is the battery lasted about 3 hours with my usage pattern. The speakers were also not great, even maxed out I could not hear them over the water running when I was doing dishes.
I picked up the IdeaPad on sale for $50 more than the RT ($399) and it works well for what it is. I can do what I need and it has a decent battery life. Windows 8 (modern UI) is much better on a touch interface than a desktop but the app store is a joke compared to both Google and Apples.
The surface products could have been killer products. the RT should not have even happened. It should have been Atom based like the IdeaPad an ran 32bit Windows 8. You can't have a windows tablet without being able to run windows apps. The pro should have been marketed as a ultrabook replacement.
As a developer I have zero desire to write software for the windows store. I would much rather invest the time in to the Apple App Store or even Google Play store. I sort of feel guilty because of attitudes like mine are one of the reasons for the windows store failure.
I started looking at the windows tablets when I got fed up with my Nexus 7 and the lack of good tablet apps on android. The final straw was when the Time Warner Cable app would not play for more than a few seconds at a time without buffering while my iPhone or iPad would play fine.
My goal was to have a tablet that I could connect to my works VPN if needed when I am away to be able to remote in and fix issues. Unfortunately our VPN provider does not support the iPad or Android tablets.
I started with the Surface RT then moved on to the Surface Pro and then to the Lenovo IdeaPad Lynx.
The Surfaces in general are a nice feeling product, very solid and the type cover is pretty decent. There is not much to be improved there.
The Surface RT went to my sister in law as she wanted something that could do basic office, surf the web, play a few games (solitaire, angry birds, etc) but be more portable than a laptop. It is fine for that. Not as good as the iPads overall but does the office side great with the type cover.
I had the Surface Pro for a week then took it back to the store. It was $999 for the 128GB. For the price it does have some decent hardware. The nice 1080p screen with the Wacom digitizer, an i5 processor, 4GB ram and a 128GB SSD (not eMMC based like the Atom based windows tablets). It was fast, would run whatever windows app I ran on it. The down side is the battery lasted about 3 hours with my usage pattern. The speakers were also not great, even maxed out I could not hear them over the water running when I was doing dishes.
I picked up the IdeaPad on sale for $50 more than the RT ($399) and it works well for what it is. I can do what I need and it has a decent battery life. Windows 8 (modern UI) is much better on a touch interface than a desktop but the app store is a joke compared to both Google and Apples.
The surface products could have been killer products. the RT should not have even happened. It should have been Atom based like the IdeaPad an ran 32bit Windows 8. You can't have a windows tablet without being able to run windows apps. The pro should have been marketed as a ultrabook replacement.
As a developer I have zero desire to write software for the windows store. I would much rather invest the time in to the Apple App Store or even Google Play store. I sort of feel guilty because of attitudes like mine are one of the reasons for the windows store failure.
My original post was in response to someone stating that the Surface was a failure due to sales numbers. So I replied that Macs must have been failures for the first 30 years or so since they didn't sell well either. I thought the sarcasm was obvious. I was in no way implying that Macs weren't good due to sales numbers and was implying that the low sales didn't mean the Surface was junk.
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What doesn't it due that the majority of users buy tablets for?
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So numbers only matter if they favor Apple?
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The user I replied to said the Surface was junk because it didn't sell well, hence my Mac analogy.
Yeah. Not BSOD for me but others at work certainly have that issue. Have to say that Windows 7 is great as long as I reboot it every few days.
It's almost impossible to get into the smartphone market these days. Several companies that made an OS that was better than either Android or iOS in either one way or another, but the smartphone market relies more than any other one on the people selling them.
And this is what most experience on different levels with such products as Surface. It's just gets in the way of what they're trying to do.
Battery life for anyone kills off the device. Especially when it's meant to be mobile. A dead device by lunchtime. No sale.
Keep in mind what crap your company is putting on there. I can see a CLEAR difference between my work laptop and personal laptop. The work one has just as good specs too.
I bought a Windows tablet from ASUS using an Atom processor so it had the full version of Windows 8 on it while being as thing as an RT. I really liked it at first but after registering it and configuring it it had a bunch of updates to install so I let it have it.
After 45 minutes of updates the WiFi stopped working. incompatible driver. I had no way of fixing this driver problem. Luckily, Windows 8 has a restore back to original settings feature. So I selected that, waited another forever minutes. Back to working again.
Uh oh - had all those updates to redo again. Well, lets just say after going through that again it broke the WiFi driver again. I was so angry that after just buying the dumb thing all I ever did with it was install updates, break, restore, etc. I couldn't even play with the dang thing.
Yes, this is why people buy iPads and Android tablets. It's so much simpler of an OS. Windows will always be a fix it OS and needing Anti-virus software. It's bloated and slow with problems not really of it's own fault but just trying to be compatible with everything out there.
Hilarious!! Can you imagine an ad featuring a crazy, sweaty and screaming Ballmer, jumping around saying "SURFACE! SURFACE! SURFACE! SURFACE! SURFACE! SURFACE! SURFACE! SURFACE! SURFACE! SURFACE! SURFACE! SURFACE! SURFACE! SURFACE! SURFACE!"?
Also, what's the deal with his pronounced supraorbital ridges? Between the screaming, jumping around, generally poor judgment and those facial features, the only question remaining about Ballmer is whether he's Cro-Magnon or Neanderthal. He really looks and acts like some kind of primate which is lower on the evolutionary ladder than the rest of us. But then again, that's probably why he uses Windows and a Surface vs. using a Mac and an iPad.
And to those Microsloth faithful out there who are going to jump all over me for being some kind of stereotypical Apple douchebag fanboy hipster (even though that's not me at all), just remember you're loyal to a company which is now being managed by a caveman.
I doubt it. Tablets are not replacements for Laptops or a PC. Whether that's an iPad,Android or Windows. To me they are meant to support a PC work base not be the work base. As much as I love my iPad, when I need to do Excel/Numbers, Word/Pages, Powerpoint/Keynote work. I'm on my Mac, not my iPad. When I need to make an adjustment or collaborate with my team in the field. The iPad is perfect for this.
iPads have been deployed by almost all Fortune 500 companies. Not one article I've read states that they have replaced the core system that they use. Same is true for any company that has deployed the Surface. the point of tablets is again, to support the base not be the base. The sooner MS realize this, the sooner they'll have a profitable product.
Please. The majority of corporate America idiots can barely format a Word document.
I, and many others, if not the majority of users can live with only Google Drive or iWork for iCloud, or standard iWork products.
Office is bloated and expensive and an endeavor in mental stress testing. A full blown office suite is not essential for most job duties but people have been conditioned after 30 years of Microsoft enterprise rule.
Personally I don't own office at home, and probably never will again. At work I use office 2013 and really, it's not doing anything better than my Google Drive or iWork to an extent that I need to pay $150.
INCORRECT!
Still offering to give it away if somebody can find a use for it?
I'd pay for shipping!
I really want it. D:
I see a lot of pie charts but what are we comparing? Sales (iPad) versus shipments? Do those numbers include android based e-readers like the Amazon ones? Does it include tablets with no Wifi running Android?
How how many of the android tablets even sold are being used and how many are door stops? How many Android tablets even have access to an store like Google's or at least Amazon's?
100% of iPads sold ship with at least Wifi, have access to the latest firmware and have access to the iOS App store.
There was a recent flawed study showing Android tablets in the lead in Japan but it was flawed because it failed to include iPads sold by Apple on Apple.co.jp, the Apple stores in Japan and the carrier stores.
So basically, it did not include sales of iPads from the major sales channels for iPads.
PS. Do these pie charts include all iPad sales or just from the irregular sales channels?
How how many of the android tablets even sold are being used and how many are door stops? How many Android tablets even have access to an store like Google's or at least Amazon's?
100% of iPads sold ship with at least Wifi, have access to the latest firmware and have access to the iOS App store.
There was a recent flawed study showing Android tablets in the lead in Japan but it was flawed because it failed to include iPads sold by Apple on Apple.co.jp, the Apple stores in Japan and the carrier stores.
So basically, it did not include sales of iPads from the major sales channels for iPads.
PS. Do these pie charts include all iPad sales or just from the irregular sales channels?
Guess I'm too late then.
I think the surface pro is pretty great myself. I am all over the place with technology. For laptops and desktops, I use Macs almost exclusively and love them. Smartphones, I moved to android awhile back and it just works much better for me than iOS. I grabbed a surface pro when it came out simply because I needed an ultra-portable windows machine for the road. I friken' love it. Vastly exceeded my expectations. It does have some quirks, such as being clumsy when using it on your lap. I do use it on my lap frequently, so it is by no means unusable that way... but it is a little awkward that way. It needs better battery life which I hope is addressed with the next iteration, but from a purely functional standpoint it is wildly impressive.
I genuinely hope it catches on a little better with a surface two for no other reason than the fact that I really don't want this to go away.
NEWSFLASH! iOS is OS X. It was just altered where it needed to be to fit as a mobile OS. Other than that, its the same. No Microsoft wasn't first. And since virtually no one wants to buy Windows Phones and Windows Tablets, they still have no viable mobile OS to this day. And Microsoft might never ship a successful mobile OS. Android already occupied the market position for cheap knockoff OS. There is no place for third second mover.
And because everybody hates to use Windows 8 with a mouse don't deny it it is actually destroying its own value as a desktop OS. Why should you want to use the same UI on a 4" phone like on a 27" desktop? Where is the benefit? There is no reasonable explanation for this. iOS was successful because it adapted to the needs of mobile computing. Windows 8 is a mess because it adapted desktop PCs to the needs of mobile computing.
This is insane. And you know it.
To fair android is heading in that direction..
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It is so true, pc's can not even handle switching wi-fi to ethernet without corrupting drivers, asus laptop and dell xps.
It has the problems it always has, putting a new interface on it and calling it windows 8 does not change how awful the core structure of the operating system is.
You validated my point exactly. With a full Windows tablet the need for dedicated apps is significantly lessened and therefore not as potentially lucrative for would be developers.
Also, as a fellow Lynx owner (@$349) I concur, it gets the job done.
Cheers,
He was talking about using the same user interface. iOS and OSX might both use Darwin under the hood, but the user interface is definately not the same.
See, you're thinking of the way things are right at this moment, not necessarily the way things are going to be a year, two years, three years from now.
With a keyboard and a stylus, there's no compelling reason not to use Excel/Numbers on a tablet, provided they have enough power to do it smoothly (which they eventually will). I use Pages and Notebook all the time for writing tutorials and other things that take up at least 5-10 paragraphs. I think it's great. I just prop up my iPad on my desk, and start typing away on my bluetooth keyboard. It's only a matter of time before we have tablets taking the place of a Macbook Air.
The biggest difference between MS and Apple in the tablet space is that Apple is willing to take its time getting to that point, giving us small steps towards it while offering a compelling reason to use one now. MS is trying to rush that moment a little ahead of it self, and isn't able to offer a nice interim experience in the meantime.
Eventually, iOS is going to be considerably more powerful, and Windows will have a good touch environment. When that day comes, you're not gonna feel the need to use your Mac for the big tasks, and your iPad for smaller, quicker ones. Your iPad is gonna be good at both. We're already seeing this happen now. It's only gonna become more pronounced as time goes on.
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Do wuh? Are you speaking from personal experience here, or just playing the OLOL Windows sux game?
I do that all the freaking time, and I've NEVER had a single problem with it. Either you're lying, or you really don't know what you're doing.
I always have to chuckle when I see comments like this. I haven't had driver issues, BSOD or any other old windows annoyances since the days of Windows, 98/NT and Vista.
Windows 7 and 8 have been extremely stable for me. I still prefer OS X on my desktop and laptop but I really have no complaints about Windows 8 other than getting used to the new UI.
Cheers,
Given half a chance, I bet he'd talk about how Windows sucks because of DLL hell and having to boot into DOS to install drivers. It'd be about like me saying Macs suck now because of all the problems OS6 had when I used it back when.