Posted on 07/27/2017 10:19:11 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
When Microsoft unveiled the first Surface tablet five years ago, it was a spectacular failure.
At the time, the Apple iPhone was well on its way to conquering the technology industry, and the iPad appeared set to lead an even more devastating invasion of Microsoft’s office-worker kingdom. Microsoft conceived of Surface, an innovative laptop-tablet hybrid, as a way to show off the versatility of its software. Windows machines, it argued, could work as phones, personal computers and tablets. And didn’t everyone love Windows?
Nope. Microsoft soon took a $900 million write-off for unsold Surfaces. Another effort to break into the hardware business, its acquisition of the limping phone-maker Nokia, dug a deeper river of red ink — a $7.6 billion write-off. By the summer of 2015, Microsoft’s hardware dreams looked crushed. Even today, the Xbox One, Microsoft’s latest gaming console, is losing to the Sony PlayStation 4.
Still, Microsoft persisted — and today, the company is making the most visionary computers in the industry, if not the best machines, period. In the last two years, while Apple has focused mainly on mobile devices, Microsoft has put out a series of computers that reimagine the future of PCs in thrilling ways.
Yes, Apple loyalists, that’s just my subjective view. And yes, Microsoft’s latest financial results aren’t exactly on my side here — the company announced last week that though its cloud software business is growing rapidly, revenue for its Surface division declined by 2 percent over the last year (because of changes it made in its launch schedule).
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
The surface pro is a great ultra thin laptop. It’s a HORRIBLE tablet as it has awful battery life and the touch screen functionality is subpar on windows 10 compared to android or iOS.
The problem is that apple wont add touch screen functionality to macOS and the iPad is too underpowered to act as a laptop replacement. Also Timmah is an idiot as Apple’s CEO and has let both lines languish.
That said I still recommend apple over MS for anyone just needing email and web browsing functionality. Windows 10 is a nightmare.
Love my Surface Pro 2. Battery life has seldom been an issue.
Win ping.
I’m not an Apple fanboy, but this sounds more like a Microsoft press release than real news.
switched to Apple 10 years ago - was amazed at the effortless user interface. never looked back.
Just set up a win 10 machine for a friend. What torture and how counterintuitive of a interface.
However, Tim Cook and Co. are steering the interface in the wrong direction. I notice certain updates are less intuitive than before and require more nerd thinking rather than people thinking .
Steve Jobs - memory eternal
No issues here with Win 10. Works great.
Using a Surface Pro 3, very fast and powerful. Battery life excellent with power management settings allowing for superb life. Touch screen used in combination with the keyboard is magic; will never go back to keyboard only.
Surface pen is a dream, unbelievable utility and programmability.
Microsoft security is without peer. Great protection 24/7. They are highly active and anticipatory.
I want to know about the keyboard on the Surface...I’m looking for a laptop with a type “M”, or “IBM” type keyboard...I hate the rubbery, membrane keys on the others. I’m a trained, touch typist, and I need the spring back and the travel of a keyboard to be accurate. Until then, I refuse to buy a laptop.
Right now, on my tower, I use a Series 4000, Microsoft, wireless keyboard/mouse. I love the “IBM Selectric” type keys.
Anybody know?
Having used Win10 since before its official release, I cannot disagree more strongly with your assertion.
I’m a trained, touch typist, and I need the spring back and the travel of a keyboard to be accurate.I'm also a touch-typist, but my favorite keyboard at the moment is one of those Apple thingies that has almost no key travel; just enough to keep my spine happy.
That being said, the nicest keyboard I ever used was on an IBM Office System/6 word processor. Looked, sounded, and felt exactly like a Selectric.
MS are not very good at the whole solution. The OS is pretty good (in recent years) but the hardware not so much.
My son had an XBOX. Not the best designed system.
I chose the professional integrator like Dell.
No reason you couldn't use your existing keyboard/mouse combination on a laptop just as easily as you are using it on your desktop.
I agree: Windows 10 and a Surface Pro are both superior products. If you have a problem with either it is likely the “man behind the keyboard” that is at fault...
Thanks guys. ;)
Looks kinda that way to me too.
I'm gonna read it over tonight before sending out a Windows Ping List ping -- Hopefully I'll find enough useful info to ping it. But I catch more than enough hell for pimping Surface kit as it is. :-)
Note the surface pro 4 keyboard is different from the SP3 and I have the SP4.
I’m sitting next to an M keyboard I rescued from goodwill years ago! The SP4 keyboard is decent with plastic switches over a rubber membrane so you get a small amount of click and resistance feedback. Certainly better than pure rubber membrane keys but not nearly as good as a decent laptop keyboard (but darn close). The keys are a bit more closely spaced so travel is different but overall I like it and recommend it heartily.
Apple is the most non intuitive interface I have ever used. Tried it on two different iMac and sold both of them after a few weeks of try g to learn the new paradigm in computing as one Apple Genius store employee called it. I don’t need a new paradigm I need something that works. Windows works. I have never understood the slavish devotion Apple fanboys have to beloved products. Windows 10 in tile mode is one of the easiest GUI’s I have ever used. I have become so accustom to using virtual keyboards I have trouble using a real one anymore. Throw in Cortana and the Windows operating system is the easiest, most intuitive interface available today.
Having used windows 10 since windows 3 I disagree with your disagreement.
Windows is windows - but AS a tablet it is nowhere near the usability of droid or iOS.
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