back to article Windows is TAKING the TABLET market... what's left of it, anyway

Just as demand seriously cools for tab tech, with all of the major makers reporting shrinking sales, there’s a certain little-known upstart in Redmond that is gradually making some progress against the giants. You guessed it: Microsoft is actually boosting tab shipments, albeit off a comparatively small installed base, with …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I'd consider Surface more of a super ultrabook than a tablet

    At least every one I've ever seen was being used as a laptop. People buy them over iPad and Android not because Win8 is a better tablet OS, but because it can run Windows apps and act as a real laptop which the others cannot.

    1. Matt Piechota

      Re: I'd consider Surface more of a super ultrabook than a tablet

      "At least every one I've ever seen was being used as a laptop. People buy them over iPad and Android not because Win8 is a better tablet OS, but because it can run Windows apps and act as a real laptop which the others cannot."

      I concur, people have played with tablets now and see the use of the form factor, but (in my case at least) get frustrated with the limits of "apps". Either the limits of "this doesn't work on a tablet OS" or the limits where the app isn't written with flexibility or reconfigurability in mind. A tablet form-factor with a fully usable OS (Windows I guess falls into that category) doesn't sound so bad.

      I'll give a real-world, consumer example: My wife likes to take pictures of our kid/travels/life and put them into photobooks which she orders (snapfish, etc.) hard copies of. Are you really going to faff about with hundreds of photos, and arrange them on a tiny screen with your finger, and do all the fine adjustments to the layout on tablet? She certainly doesn't, it's back to her clunky old laptop.

      1. Eddy Ito

        Re: I'd consider Surface more of a super ultrabook than a tablet

        Exactly. The older tablets were too limited in functionality and I think the real market will be business folks swapping out their laptops for a Pro 3 and it's possible in a number of cases the upgrade path will be from iOS/Android simply because the added functionality is there. It doesn't hurt that, here at least, a Surface Pro 3 isn't considered a tablet at all as it's on the laptop list and is easier to get signed off since it runs all our standard software.

        1. Grease Monkey Silver badge

          Re: I'd consider Surface more of a super ultrabook than a tablet

          Remember the original tablet PCs way back before iPads and Android. They were a fad that was predicted to be the next big thing. After the shine wore off, the market for those pen enabled, touch screen laptops with removable or fold away keyboards died on it's arse.

          So is this an idea whose time has finally come or just a resurgence of a fad that will fade away again?

          Wake me up when this constitutes a significant market share of either the tablet or laptop market.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            @Grease Monkey

            Surface will never rise above a single digit percentage of either the tablet or the laptop market, it is a tiny niche to serve people who want to say they own a "tablet" because they think owning a laptop makes them look behind the times, but want to use it exactly like they use a laptop.

            If the tablet market hadn't finally been created while Microsoft sat stupidly on their hands having no idea what mobile was, Surface Pro would have failed like all their previous attempts to create interest in tablets.

      2. P. Lee

        Re: I'd consider Surface more of a super ultrabook than a tablet

        It's the MBA you get when you aren't allowed to buy Apple. Sadly, its around $200 more than an MBA of similar RAM/CPU/Storage and using it with a keyboard on your lap is going to be tricky with the screen stand.

        No cheap iLife either but you do get... Solitaire, Sudoku and some paint app!

        The Pro 3 screen is higher-res than the MBA, but I think I'd still opt for the Mac and plug in an external screen, even just to run Windows.

        1. Ian Joyner Bronze badge

          Re: I'd consider Surface more of a super ultrabook than a tablet

          Yes, sadly, there are still a lot of old-time IT people out there who in the old days were only allowed to buy IBM (when there were vastly better mainframes out there) and then succumbed to Microsoft as the replacement IBM, even though the IBM PC was way behind the Macintosh in 1984.

          I get sick of reading specs for orthogonal systems (one's that aren't dependent on an MS ecosystem) that say the solution must be MS based because the IT people are way behind the sophistication of the average user these days.

        2. The Original Steve

          Re: I'd consider Surface more of a super ultrabook than a tablet

          Those $200 also buys you a lighter device (inc keyboard 0.24kg), a rather good touchscreen, faster processor cores (1,4 vs 1,9GHz) and 2 x 5MP cameras.

          Valid point about using the Surface keyboard on your lap. Although I think you'd struggle more trying to use the MBA standing.... ;)

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: I'd consider Surface more of a super ultrabook than a tablet

            Valid point about using the Surface keyboard on your lap. Although I think you'd struggle more trying to use the MBA standing.... ;)

            Not a MacBook Air, but I did use a Toshiba TE2100 standing on more than one occasion, and when that packed up, it was a Toshiba Portégé 7010CT.

            The former is a P4-mobile machine, the latter was a Pentium II. Both predate the MacBook Air by some years.

            Both of these machines, I had set up with Linux, initially with the KDE desktop then as that gradually became more resource-heavy, I switched to FVWM which is one of the most flexible window managers I've known.

            My configuration here made moving between applications possible whilst holding the machine. Only downside was my arm got a workout holding the P4 machine up.

    2. Ian Joyner Bronze badge

      Re: I'd consider Surface more of a super ultrabook than a tablet

      The tablet form is much more suited to content consumption rather than content production. If you are a serious producer, still desktop is best, and laptops have the advantage.

      Apple tailored the OS to the tablet form and it will be more efficient in terms of using limited resources such as memory, processing power, and battery life.

      They have tailored their content producing iWork package for the tablet and this is useful, but you don't want to use it for really serious, every day work. Any tablet will have exactly the same limitations, whether you attempt to run heavyweight software on it or not.

      Of course, the form factors may merge down the track, but for now a rethink of the software as Apple has done is a breath of fresh air. The others have followed, except for Microsoft, which have rushed to play catchup.

    3. Jess

      Re: I'd consider Surface more of a super ultrabook than a tablet

      A good point. They are sold to be used as laptops, but register in the tablet figures.

      Better for Microsoft, they don't look as sad in the tablet market, and it doesn't appear to laptop makers that they are taking their customers.

  2. noominy.noom

    I have to agree with the first three posters here. The mid-size company I work at has several execs with ipads. Those execs that do the most computing work are now also getting a Surface. The last couple of mid level managers we hired opted for a Surface instead of a laptop. They don't do a lot of heads down data entry but they work with spreadsheets a lot. Tablet to awkward and laptop is overkill.

  3. Grease Monkey Silver badge

    2.3% is not a significant market share no matter what size the market. 2.3% share of a market that has shrunk by 12% is even less significant. Slow news week is it?

    An increase in share would only be significant if it brought Microsoft within reach of the big players. The reason the tablet market is shrinking is probably the rise of the big screen phone, and where are MS in that market?

  4. W. Anderson

    Deceptive article title and convoluted reasoning for statement

    If Microsoft is "taking" the Tablet Market, even in reference to "What's left of it", the reality of Microsoft tablets achieving a puny 2.3 percent shouls cause use of the word "taking".

    I sincerely hope Paul Kunert is not one of the many Microsoft 'zealots' posing as a technology article writer in disquise, but is usual Microsoft dupe without any credible technical knowledge or understanding of reality in Mobile or any other apect of technology industry today.

  5. Kev99 Silver badge

    Slabs losing sales? Not surprising

    I've never found tablets, or the previous in thing, netbooks, to be serious computers. Glorified web surfers? Sure. Fancy picture frames? You betcha. Point and shoot snapshot takers? Passably. Capable of doing serious work in a format someone other than Superman could read? Fugettaboutit.

    Where I used to work they decided to get Surface Pros. The first accessory that was bought was a non-standard cable so they could be connected to external monitors. The next accessory was a normal keyboard. Then there were the configuration problems connecting to the network. And as far as running anything more demanding than Word, it was a joke.

    I'm old enough to remember when the computer magazines were normally 200+ pages, on paper, and complaining about how small the screens were and how underpowered were the first portables. Funny how the same boffins and wags fell all over themselves for slabs. For real work, I'll stick with my 17" Toshiba running at 3GHz and 6GB RAM.

    1. JeffyPoooh
      Pint

      Re: Slabs losing sales? Not surprising

      @kev99 "...work... ...work... ...work..."

      Sounds a bit tedious.

    2. Ed Courtenay

      Re: Slabs losing sales? Not surprising

      @Kev99: "The first accessory that was bought was a non-standard cable so they could be connected to external monitors."

      All the Surface Pro systems have used Mini DisplayPort to connect to external monitors - how can that be described as non-standard?

      1. JeffyPoooh
        Pint

        Re: Slabs losing sales? Not surprising

        Mini DisplayPort - "...how can that be described as non-standard?"

        The nice thing about standards is that there are so many from which to choose.

        I've been in the situation where I had a PC with three different video output options and I had a monitor with three different video input options, and the only common interface was VGA. Five weeks later the necessary connector-conversion adapters finally arrived to open up more connectivity options.

        1. Ed Courtenay

          Re: Slabs losing sales? Not surprising

          @JeffyPoooh: "The nice thing about standards is that there are so many from which to choose."

          Very true, but DisplayPort is hardly a niche standard - and at least it's a standard as opposed to being a proprietary connection as I suspect @Kev99 was trying to imply.

          1. Danny 14

            Re: Slabs losing sales? Not surprising

            we got dell venue pros with docking stations. The majority never leave the docking station (large external monitor, USB KB/Mouse and Ethernet. Quite a few do pick their up and take them home though (we have magnetic keyboards for them too).

            They were a reasonable replacement for the laptops and base units they replaced, the newer ones have decent CPUs (we didn't get the i3 version).

            1. 0laf

              Re: Slabs losing sales? Not surprising

              Same here. Execs have tried iPads and finally admitted that they were a solution looking for a problem. Switched to Dell Venue 11s provided a dock and the battery pack keyboard. They now get a reasonable desktop performance with the option of a SFF laptop with 17hr battery life or a tablet with 8hrs.

              Very few complaints and no demands to go back to iPads.

              1. Ian Joyner Bronze badge

                Re: Slabs losing sales? Not surprising

                "Execs have tried iPads and finally admitted that they were a solution looking for a problem."

                Just a meaningless slogan. In fact it is the opposite. Apple look at the way people will use the platform and build the platform around that. MSes attempts to build a pad earlier were very much a solution looking for a problem, but the success of iPad has very much been because they found what the problem was and built a solution around that. They have always worked out ways for the masses to use computers - not geeks, nerds, and managers.

  6. Fungus Bob

    the market is “highly penetrated”

    Is that another way of saying its f*%#ed?

  7. JeffyPoooh
    Pint

    Duh. They've been slashing the prices of many Win 8 gadgets...

    I've recently bought an Asus X205 cute mini laptop, a Surface 2, an HP Stream 7 and a Win Blu Jr unlocked phone - all this for about $630 total + tax, shipped.

    Enough Win 8 gadgets for a while.

  8. Necronomnomnomicon

    I'm not surprised

    We just bought a Surface Pro 3 as a trial, and we're using it not as a laptop & tablet, but as a dual screen desktop, a tablet and laptop. We're currently in a situation where our guys have a laptop + second monitor, or a desktop with two screens, and a few have iPads in addition. Three types of device, and I can see all of them being phased out in favour of the one. That's pretty significant.

    I'd not buy one for personal use yet, because I want something that'll play newer games worth a damn, but in a generation or two they might meet that challenge as well.

    1. Danny 14

      Re: I'm not surprised

      look at the dell venue pro with docking station; the extra USB and VGA cuts down on cable/dongle clutter. The newer ones have much better CPUs then the older ones (which were still usable). The docking station also means you can image them without much of an issue too.

  9. Mage Silver badge
    Facepalm

    Growth and MS Tablet

    When you have nearly nothing even 10,000% growth can still be nearly nothing.

    The MS tabs are really ultrabooks. Didn't they cut the price? Do they actually make any money on these?

    I guess the sales are almost entirely corporate?

    It's still not a big enough share to be significant.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    2.3%?

    It's a small share of the market, so after 2-3 years of catchup, it is clear Microsoft is doomed.

    In other news, Linux has less than one percent of the desktop market after a couple of decades, but this definitely is the year of Linux on the desktop. Again.

    1. Danny 14

      Re: 2.3%?

      Actually it is significant. People buying MS are not buying apple. If they can convince apple owners to buy MS tablets rather than ipads then this is one area that will hit apple hard. They will get less hardware sales and less app store sales. It is only a small step to the apple owner possibly jumping ship into a different phone - that will make a massive difference to apples line when people look elsewhere.

      1. Ian Joyner Bronze badge

        Re: 2.3%?

        That just shows a lot of old IT people just want to damage Apple.

        Give up Apple have for a long time produced better hardware and software as well as having the right ideas in the first place.

        The old computing environment was propping up IBM by FUD against worthy others such as Burroughs, this was then applied to MS against Apple.

        This is the old industry - time it died.

  11. Ian Joyner Bronze badge

    What are computers for - the two basic paradigms

    The discussion here is really based on the two basic views of computers. IBM's view was based on business - computers become the focus of work and drive the workforce to do data entry, etc. This is the first paradigm - computers control people. That's the 'Business' in IBM.

    Apple came along (with Xerox PARC) and said people should control computers and use them as a tool for creative purposes. This overturned the thinking of a lot of the industry. A lot of people still don't like this reversal of the paradigm and hence bash Apple at every opportunity.

    There is actually a third paradigm that John McCarthy (inventor of LISP) believed in - that AI would completely replace human intelligence. But that paradigm seems rather pointless.

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