Microsoft Takes Another Stab At Tablets, Unveils Surface 2, Surface 2 Pro 381
Dputiger writes "Microsoft has unveiled both the Surface 2 and Surface 2 Pro, updating the former with a Tegra 4 processor and the latter with a new Haswell chip. Among the additional improvements are a more comfortable kickstand with two height settings, 1080p displays for both devices, USB 3.0 support, better battery life, and a higher resolution camera. Pricing for the 32GB Surface without a Touch or Type Cover is set at $449."
Re:Microsoft seems not to understand. (Score:5, Interesting)
People don't want Microsoft on their tablet.
The only people that care are the ipad buyers who want to buy an ipad because its an ipad, and few could even articulate why they want an ipad instead of an alternative, except that they "know" that's the one they want.
The people buying droid tablets largely don't care that its droid. Sure, some of US do, but that's beside the point.
MS can easily take a bite out of the android market by competing on price, if they want.
MS can also go after the premium market with the competitive advantage the Surface 2 Pro has -- the ability to run windows / desktop apps.
And -yes- this IS something there is a market for. One company I work with for example has all it's outbound reps using laptops to enter sales etc. The reps are clamoring to switch to a tablet for portability etc. Sure the point of sale system vendor could come around with a web interface or ios/droid client at some point, but today that doesn't exist.
So the surface pro works for them today. Microsoft can go after and capture that market, even at 'premium' prices.
They can make all the products they want, but the software that people want runs on an OS owned by someone else.
What software is there that's exclusively on ios or droid that you think "people want to run"? Reality is people don't care about that. ipad has its brand name cachet, and droid has the open community, but the average person? Doesn't REALLY care; and the business user? Could very well see a lot of advantages to windows tablets if microsoft puts out a competent product.
hardware vs software (Score:5, Interesting)
Posting as AC for employment reasons. A few months ago, the corporate powers gave us all shiny new Surfaces. Every employee got one, and the lines were an hour deep at times. But I would estimate as of now, 1/3 of them are still in their boxes, and only 1 in 5 are seeing regular use. The problem is that the Win8 IFKAM blinky-tile interface is a hard sell even inside the company, and 8-RT's limited auth model just adds to the confusion. Presented with an RT device in a thoroughly AD-managed environment, it's still totally unclear how to associate the Live/MSN/MSID account with a domain account, and corp versus personal-id usage. Most employees still can't explain how it works. I can't imagine how customers figure this out if the mothership can't get it right.
The real twist is that the Surface hardware is GREAT. I was a fan of the Archos android tablet design (first with a kickstand), and the Surface RT did it better. The Surface RT also kicked ass wrt build quality (partly because initial refurbs were unloaded to internal employees -- you're welcome), screen and sensor quality, speed and memory right up there with Samsung and Asus high-end arm products The Surface Pro screen is top-tier, and the performance is excellent for the form and battery life. The problem is the OS. If I could run Android on the RT hardware, I would use it every day. If I could put *ANY* other OS on the RT hardware, I would. At least on the Surface Pro you can turn off the EUFI cruft and install Windows 7 or Ubuntu or Mint or whatever else floats your boat.... If only the marketing wasn't openly hostile to the way that a lot of users want to use computers.
Re:Why aim for shrinking Market share. (Score:4, Interesting)
No problems with that report, but 3 observations:
1. Total tablet volume shrank.
2. Apple's year-on-year iPad sales were down, but compared with an absolutely stellar quarter in which the retina display was brand new.
3. Most Android market share is in the low end where Apple has no presence at all. Most non-Apple market share is for "Others", followed by Samsung. Samsung does have some tablets which compete directly with Apple.
I don't think anyone expects apple to return to the 70% market share days. I'd be far more concerned if Apple were having trouble with margins. As it is, I think they account for almost 100% of the profit in the tablet space. At the bottom of the market, you can pick up an Android tablet for $50!
(Disclosure: I own AAPL)
1080P? (Score:5, Interesting)
My fucking nook has a 1920 x 1280 screen and cost 150 bucks
Re:Or alternatively (Score:2, Interesting)
How is it that a Surface with RT
...which has lousy performance, a confused UI, and thus a poor user experience...
and remote desktop
Available for a few bucks for iOS.
a full blown USB port
This and/or micro SD would be really nice on iPad.
desktop copies of Office
Stripped down, performs like crap, and for non-commercial use only.
a keyboard
Bluetooth keyboards are available for iPad.
full version of Outlook
Not quite...
a command line etc is more of a toy than the ipad?
The iPad actually has a wealth of apps to meet every need, polished apps at reasonable prices. Can RT boast the same?
It is sad .... (Score:3, Interesting)
Slashdot isn't the same without them.