Microsoft Surface: Designed to win, priced to fail Microsoft has at last released some more details on its Surface tablet – including pricing – but based on what we've seen so far, Apple and Android-tablet makers don't have much to worry about. First the good stuff: Microsoft appears to have created a system that, on the face of it, could give Apple a run for its money – at …
Why is the cover ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS? They could seriously help their marketing by making it a tonne cheaper, there's no way the materials cost is even a quarter of that, I'd be amazed if it costs even $10 to make.
I know economics is a thing, and the whole point is to make shit as cheaply as possible and sell them for as much as possible but jesus christ. $100 (even worse, £100 for us over here) is astronomically high for a cover with a little keyboard built into it.
Duplicate of the xbox pricing story.
At introduction the xbox was more expensive than competitors.
Once distribution channels were fully established, 'sale' pricing and price 'cuts' magically appeared as sales picked up due to customers feeling like they were being smart by waiting for the bargains.
A couple of years later and they own the market.
Same exact deal here.
The surface is going to be a good thing for consumers, driving down the price of the products while increasing the value given.
I'm sorry but the more and more I look at this thing, the more and more it seems destined to fail. At first i thought hmm, it *could* rival the iPad, and more worryingly it could have been the defacto device of choice for my company.
Thank GOD they've dropped the ball, as per usual. Not significantly cheaper than the iPad, £100 for a keyboard, untried and tested ecosystem which will likely bomb...and then, the big feature they are touting 'GET OFFICE FREE' has a lovely little disclaimer at the bottom...
"Office Home & Student 2013 RT Preview and the final version are not for use in commercial, nonprofit, or revenue generating activities. Commercial license options available (sold separately). "
So 'Office is free, unless you want to..i dunno, ACTUALLY do some work on it
The more I think about this, the more I realize that matching the iPad penny for penny, means there's no ambiguity about what factors we're assessing. It's a straight-up match between iPad and Surface to compare features and build. It's pretty much an out and out statement saying to the world: "we think we're better."
Basically, if you cannot be put in front of Windows 8 (without training) and just figure it out - you basically don't meet a basic set of computer literacy and IQ that I would consider neccessary to work in a modern company/ white collar environment. My kids figured it out on their grandads computer running the consumer preview.
Most of the people pouring hate on Windows in here are generally haters (Linux nerds, Mac lovers or even Windows users who haven't "lived" with Win8 beyond poking a VM or the RC).
It's all a nonsense non story. Windows 8 will sell hundreds of millions of copies as per Windows 7. We will move on and no one will care about this debate in 6 months. Windows 8 is fine.
YES it's overpriced. And YES any sane, normal consumer will look at the price tag, shrug and go get an iPad which is cheaper AND is the gold standard of tablets.
(If anybody in here really wants one, just cool your horses and wait a couple of months. They'll be half price after Christmas, I guarantee it.)
In the meantime, WHY do people make such a big deal out of Office availability? Is it cause most people in here are IT professionals? Sure, having Office on a tablet would be cool. But lacking it hasnt hurt ipad sales (Nor Android tablet sales I reckon.) one bit. The vast majority of us who have a tablet get by just fine with Pages or any other 5.99$ Office-like app when we need to do some work.
MS Windows has always been a bit of a pain in the arse; Ubuntu is just as bad. I rarely use any of our PCs or laptops at home. I typically reach for the iPhone 4S, Google Nexus 7 tablet or (less often recently) the old RIM PlayBook. This new wave of Internet access gadgets are all "better, faster, and cheaper" than the old PC way of doing things. None of them are perfect, but they're all miles ahead of Windows PCs for what most people do at home.
Of course at work, it's a PC all day. But that's work.
Really? Your first post and you seem to be claiming that iOS and Android tablets can't use keyboards and other pointing devices?
I don't actually own a Asus Transformer, but only yesterday was using an Android device with mouse and keyboard attached.
Never felt the need to attach a keyboard to my iPad, but lots of choices including a keyboard reviewed on The Register right around this story.
Office is fine on my work laptop, but I use LibreOffice on my home computer and Keynote for presentations on the iPad (though the office is starting to use google docs/drive more).
Huge advantage ? Not so much.
I was wrong for saying you can't use a mouse with Android, It is possible to pair or plug in a mouse and use it to click on things--- When I was commenting about Android devices, I was thinking about the overall experience of using a mouse or trackpad including multi-touch gestures, context-sensitive right clicks, and shortcuts for common options like cutting and pasting. I apologize for over-simplifying in my original comments--- On a second read they were misleading. I wrote this response halfway through my first cup of coffee, so please feel free to rip it apart if I'm again off the mark on Android, but i doubt someone will post here that you have mouse support on an Android tablet across all of its applications that is at a similar level to OSX or Windows 7.
I also have Keynote and Numbers on my iPad. Numbers is good enough for making shopping lists and family budgets, but I couldn't imagine using it for real spreadsheet work. Serious spreadsheet users connect directly to remote databases, access large data sets, and run pivot tables. Alternatively, they create huge matrices and work with them on 27" monitors. Keynote makes great use of the iPad's constrained environment, but when I create presentations I like to have the presentation up on one display and reference material up on another display--- Something that is impossible with an iOS device.
I think it is significant that a Surface tablet has full mouse/trackpad support, dual-monitor support, and MS-Office. After Windows 8 percolates through the consumer environment over the next year and gains broader exposure, I think Surface RT could be a great device for mobile employees like sales reps.
A review that compares a Surface tablet to specifications that were established by the original iPad is missing the full picture.
> MS-Office. ... I think Surface RT could be a great device for mobile employees like sales reps.
Note that Office RT that comes with Surface RT is not full office, it is a 'preview' (ie it doesn't work - working version due March or so), and is 'Home and Student' and _not_ licenced for business use.
"""Office Home and Student 2010 is licensed only for "non-commercial use for members of your household." """
http://www.zdnet.com/businesses-cant-use-office-on-windows-rt-tablets-7000005882/
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