Microsoft Surface Estimated to Have Sold Only 1.7 Million Units Since Launch

[JoEw]

Yeahh .. and my iMac has always been spotty when connects to WiFi. Ironically it's fine under BootCamp. Talking about Apple makes the hardware and software, huh?
And to be honest most of my Mac has WiFi problems at some point.

Putting a new number on OSX and calling it Mountain something does not change how awful and incomplete the OSX really is.

Windows have BSOD yet Macs have KP too, they don't do it less often. So what's your point exactly?

The framework is the inherit problem for the windows operating system, yes it is inferior to mac operating system. Which is why it has never and will never be a pretty non-stressful operating system. Yes, mac incompatibility can be annoying but that is not Apples fault or in their control, software companies must take it upon themselves to make a natively coded app for mac.

If you can really say you have had many problems with a mac as you had with a pc, you got a lemon.

 

[ChrisTX]

Apple has a following that most companies would sell their left foot for, other companies don't have the legions of devoted fans that they do. Also, 2007 is a lot different than 2013. The iPhone was clearly different, which isn't something that can easily be done these days.

Edit: Apple has what I call the "Apple Effect". Most products go "use > purchase", but with Apple it seems "purchase > use".

Re watching the 2007 iPhone keynote is very telling. It's hard to believe that in that day, most people didn't use a smartphone.

Purchase > Use is easy to do when the company whose products your purchasing has a good track record.

 

[Arfdog]

Steve nailed it again:

"When sales guys run the company, the product guys don't matter so much, and a lot of them turn off. It happened at Apple ... and happened when Ballmer took over Microsoft ... I don't think anything will change at Microsoft as long as Ballmer is running it."

And yet fools still say Steve was "all marketing, no substance". Steve was probably one of maybe 15 people in the world who knew how a computer should really work.

 

[Renzatic]

The framework is the inherit problem for the windows operating system, yes it is inferior to mac operating system. Which is why it has never and will never be a pretty non-stressful operating system. Yes, mac incompatibility can be annoying but that is not Apples fault or in their control, software companies must take it upon themselves to make a natively coded app for mac.

Explain to me exactly what you think is inferior about Windows. What makes it so bad?

 

[whiteboytrash]

Will written article on the confusion of Surface

Just thinking about the Microsoft Surface tablets is a head-scratcher. The company offered two products, the Surface RT and the Surface Pro. One came with a pen. They both had USB ports, microSDXC card slots, HD video ports, flip-back stands, different screen resolutions and two types of Windows software.

If all that confused you, you are not alone. While the technologically savvy most likely lapped up those features, average consumers did not.

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/...ngs-simple-for-consumers/?ref=technology&_r=0

 

[IconicM]

I never understand this obsession with Office and tablets.

Blackberry and MS keep wanting us to attach keyboards to devices and use Office like its 2001.

Why is the keyboard just so important to their strategy?

Stop attaching keyboards to everything!

I don't use a keyboard, but yes I would love to have excel. I use my ipad for work, I use Notability for taking notes and keeping a photo-journal of certain field jobs.

If I had excel, I could do even more with it. Current excel-like apps are just not powerful enough.

 

[redassbaboon]

Lower Price

$ 99.95 and I'm in !!!

 

[JoEw]

Explain to me exactly what you think is inferior about Windows. What makes it so bad?

Unix. Nuff said.

 

[SlCKB0Y]

Partnering with Nokia (a dying phone company) to produce a line of bum phones didn't help Microsoft's image either.

Huh? Most people and reviewers agree that the hardware that has been put out by Nokia has been excellent. Almost all the reviews of these Nokia phones cite the biggest problem as being the half-baked OS and completely deficient ecosystem. Both of which are Microsoft's fault.

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As long as Ballmer is CEO, that's one less competitor for Apple.

Why on earth wouldn't you want Apple to have healthy competition from a number of sources? Unless you are exclusively an investor and never a consumer.

 

[APlotdevice]

Nevermind. (Cutting too much of the the quote changes the message.)

 

[SlCKB0Y]

There you go again.
Market share, market share, market share, market share, market share.

Too bad Google can't turn that "market share" into profit.
Google makes more money from ads on iOS than from Android.
Ironic, isn't it?

Do you have a recent source for this?

 

[APlotdevice]

Yeah, they really do.

...though I thought the PS3 came out at $699.

$699 Australian. $599 US.

Technically there was also a $499 version here... with no wifi or card slots*, and only a 20GB hard drive... but Sony intentionally limited their supply.

*Originally it wasn't even going to have an HDMI port, but Sony was sane enough to backpedal on this part.

 

[SlCKB0Y]

It's so good that most Android devices running out there are still running Gingerbread.

No they aren't, Jelly Bean is now most widely installed. Besides, Gingerbread was so widely used solely because it had significantly lower resource requirements than ICS/JB and so was suitable for low-end Android devices.

Source: http://developer.android.com/about/dashboards/index.html

 

[SlCKB0Y]

It's so good that most Android devices running out there are still running Gingerbread.

It's also not fact, but why let that get in the way... right?

 

[Xiroteus]

The framework is the inherit problem for the windows operating system, yes it is inferior to mac operating system. Which is why it has never and will never be a pretty non-stressful operating system. Yes, mac incompatibility can be annoying but that is not Apples fault or in their control, software companies must take it upon themselves to make a natively coded app for mac.

As true as that may be it reminds me of what I hear about Linux, it's not their fault yet that does not help someone get done what they need to.

 

[JoEw]

As true as that may be it reminds me of what I hear about Linux, it's not their fault yet that does not help someone get done what they need to.

Considering the mac is selling better then any personal pcs on the market, it has seen a lot more software support in the last 4 years. I remember back in 09 I almost HAD to have a virtual machine on my mac to run some windows only software, now I am pretty satisfied with the newfound mac support from companies (Steam was pretty huge for casual games like me).

Of course there is plenty of non-consumer oriented software that is pc only (and games still *sigh*.

Also lot of software has become redundant because of the internet and advancement of web UI languages. I think it is kinda funny a lot of applications are moving in browser on desktop and laptop and yet on mobile there seems to an ever growing amount of software and has continued to grow, web based applications have yet to really go mainstream on them as of yet.

The best thing about browser software is it truly cross platform, leaving operating systems to compete more for features and security and less about software support.

 

[Cod3rror]

RT is a useless junk and Pro is ahead of it's time.

Once Intel releases couple of more generations and makes it possible to have a Surface Pro that is super thin, has no fans and lasts all day, then it'll be a serious product.

By that time Windows' touch UI will mature as well.

 

[Grohowiak]

Except when Microsoft actually wins and forces everyone to use their stuff. I'm just hoping that Apple wins but won't take so much market share that it's basically a monopoly. Maybe 60% is good. Oh, and I want my 2 friends who use Windows to switch so I don't have to use freaking Skype and Facebook to accommodate them.

Are you for real? "Wins"??

 

[whiteboytrash]

RT is a useless junk and Pro is ahead of it's time.

Once Intel releases couple of more generations and makes it possible to have a Surface Pro that is super thin, has no fans and lasts all day, then it'll be a serious product.

By that time Windows' touch UI will mature as well.

So. Everyone just stop and wait 3 years and everything should be ok.

Not waiting for anything. By that time Siri will be fully fledged and keyboards will become even more irrelevant.

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I don't use a keyboard, but yes I would love to have excel. I use my ipad for work, I use Notability for taking notes and keeping a photo-journal of certain field jobs.

If I had excel, I could do even more with it. Current excel-like apps are just not powerful enough.

Completely agree. But that's up to MS to become a software vendor again and release it on iPad/android.

 

[Amazing Iceman]

It will be an uphill battle for Microsoft Surface to gain market share.....

Unless Microsoft also play the "low margin, high volume" game.

http://www.computerworld.com/s/arti...ple_and_Microsoft?taxonomyId=241&pageNumber=2



Image

What do you expect, $100 tablets sell like lemonade. No wonder it sells more than the iPad.

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No they aren't, Jelly Bean is now most widely installed. Besides, Gingerbread was so widely used solely because it had significantly lower resource requirements than ICS/JB and so was suitable for low-end Android devices.

Image

Source: http://developer.android.com/about/dashboards/index.html

I didn't until July. But e upgrade rate to JB is very low. Users don't care about updating their devices. There was a report about this a few weeks ago.

 

[Michael Goff]

If MS pays its own people to buy the product it could crack 15%.

That's a joke mind you

But they've already spent a billion on advertising this piece of plastic. They've paid developers to write apps for it...

..and still it could only inflict 1.5m of them on the market.

What does that tell you? If free, people still don't want them.

I'm not saying this is a bad device. But it's just not worth it for someone to drop their already excellent device and ecosystem. For a buyer to take that sort or leap of faith it needs to be offering something unparalleled in user experience.

It does not.

No, the marketing was just plain dumb. Seriously, they did a horrible job of marketing them. They could have spent all the money in the world, but their commercials had to be good instead of what they had.

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Re watching the 2007 iPhone keynote is very telling. It's hard to believe that in that day, most people didn't use a smartphone.

Purchase > Use is easy to do when the company whose products your purchasing has a good track record.

Also helps when people are more willing to ignore most mistakes you make.

 

[whiteboytrash]

No, the marketing was just plain dumb. Seriously, they did a horrible job of marketing them. They could have spent all the money in the world, but their commercials had to be good instead of what they had.

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Also helps when people are more willing to ignore most mistakes you make.

It was dumb.

That's what I mean about the keyboard. Keyboards are useful for both iPad and Surface if and when you need them. But leading with this element in their advertising was crazy. MS thinking that all people wanted was a physical keyboard was just plain stupid. If that was the point of difference what was he point of anyone changing from iPad/Droid to Surface?

300m iPad users don't sit around wishing they had a physical keyboard. Even though the on screen keyboard is terrible they still don't want a real one.

Regardless Siri/Voice control will make redundant the need for proper keyboards on tablets. MS should develop a comprehensive voice offering. That could be the point of difference.

I just can't be bothered shifting everything across from iTunes to a new platform. I'm sure android users are the same. You get to the point where you don't care anymore but don't expect me to spend an entire day or more transferring my life to a new system. Can't be bothered.

That's why it comes back to my point earlier on. The device is no longer king. Data is. The next big revolution is not OS or the device but access to data.

Cloud. Data. Big.

Thus the best device will be one that doesn't get in the way of accessing your data.

Music, movies, emails, PDFs -> everything.

Trust me.

 

[Renzatic]

300m iPad users don't sit around wishing they had a physical keyboard. Even though the on screen keyboard is terrible they still don't want a real one.

That's not totally true. Bluetooth keyboards and keyboard attachments are among some of the best selling accessories for the iPad. I don't think they sell 1 to 1, but there are quite a few iPad users out there who have one.

 

[spinedoc77]

It was dumb.

That's what I mean about the keyboard. Keyboards are useful for both iPad and Surface if and when you need them. But leading with this element in their advertising was crazy. MS thinking that all people wanted was a physical keyboard was just plain stupid. If that was the point of difference what was he point of anyone changing from iPad/Droid to Surface?

300m iPad users don't sit around wishing they had a physical keyboard. Even though the on screen keyboard is terrible they still don't want a real one.

Regardless Siri/Voice control will make redundant the need for proper keyboards on tablets. MS should develop a comprehensive voice offering. That could be the point of difference.

I just can't be bothered shifting everything across from iTunes to a new platform. I'm sure android users are the same. You get to the point where you don't care anymore but don't expect me to spend an entire day or more transferring my life to a new system. Can't be bothered.

That's why it comes back to my point earlier on. The device is no longer king. Data is. The next big revolution is not OS or the device but access to data.

Cloud. Data. Big.

Thus the best device will be one that doesn't get in the way of accessing your data.

Music, movies, emails, PDFs -> everything.

Trust me.

I like Siri most of the time, on my iphone I find it useful while driving 80mph down the highway. I do agree it will evolve, but I don't think it will replace keyboards any time soon. People speaking to their tablets/phones in public will be a large factor in keeping this from being mainstream.

As for the ubiquitous cloud that everyone keeps saying is arriving, or has arrived, the only caveat to that is data. Cellular data is quite expensive in the US, and no one truly has unlimited data. Downloading or streaming a HD movie will eat up a huge huge portion of your data. I know it's hard to believe, but wifi is not very prevalent. So you can access the cloud when at home on wifi, but once you leave the front door poof, no more cloud because you are at the end of your data allotment. It's a shame because I agree, every device should be a thin client with access to unlimited cloud storage and shopping, but unfortunately that doesn't count in the cellular providers greed and data is THE big thing to make money off of currently.

Edit: Just to add, and bring the topic back to the original idea Skydrive is absolutely fabulous, I'm very impressed with it and how seamless it is with all my documents, pictures, Office, etc. They just released a new version which allows for offline viewing, but you don't actually download the file, you just have a placeholder so you can preview it. Skydrive also knows what resolution your device has and automatically allows for that. I've been using OneNote with a stylus and Skydrive and it's hands down the best note taking app partly because it syncs so incredibly well, even with my iphone.

 

[whiteboytrash]

That's not totally true. Bluetooth keyboards and keyboard attachments are among some of the best selling accessories for the iPad. I don't think they sell 1 to 1, but there are quite a few iPad users out there who have one.

Completely agree. But it's not the reason they bought the device. Physical keyboards are an accessory for tablets. They never should be standard or feature in the main marketing material.

Period.