Posted on 06/19/2012 5:24:06 AM PDT by C19fan
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has an uphill battle on his hands. He needs to break into the tablet market, taking on both the iconic market-leader, the iPad, as well as as an ever-burgeoning range of svelte Android tablets. However, after Microsoft's repeated attempts over 30 years to break into the tablet market, it now seems the software giant has the right tools to make it right. The Microsoft Surface tablet was officially unveiled in Los Angeles last night, and from the favourable first impressions, it looks like we have a three-way race in the tablet market. The Surface comes with a 10.6" screen, a clever magnetic cover which doubles as a keyboard, and a kickstand to hold it upright on a table. In a huge paradigm shift for Microsoft, the traditional Windows Desktop has been scrapped for Microsoft's new 'Metro' tile-based theme.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
I paid $139 for a Kindle Fire, which does a whole lot of stuff for a whole lot of cheap. If Microsoft is not playing in that price neighborhood, they will not succeed.
Some people will pay a premium for an iPad, because and iPad is the standard, and they feel the price is worth it. These people have so much money that parting with an extra $400 bucks doesn’t matter.
But for everybody else, it’s all about price, price, price. Once you overcome the barrier of functionality, people will pick the cheaper option. Right now, it’s Kindle Fire at $139.
Sigh, what year are you living in? 2007?
Microsoft has had it’s own iTunes interface for about 5 years. It’s moving towards it’s xbox live model now, which is used across it’s PC, XBox, and even android and iPad tablets. It has had it’s video and music download service for awhile.
For me to buy a tablet, it would have to run Windoze applications, and have a USB port.
Looks like this is it.
The iPad is merely a status symbol, nothing else. My wife is caught up in it and it drives me crazy. Her new iPhone isn’t even as good as my Droid2 , which is 3 years old. They still don’t have 4G.
I doubt it will be priced anywhere near that, it actually has good guts and a larger device. It has to beat the 10” varieties out there in price, that’s all.
Sorta like what happened to the iPad, huh? I knew that name was a product killer the first time I heard it. /s
Sarcasm tags aren’t always included.
The iPad does have a great user interface, but I’m with you. Why not get a netbook? I thought I would use my fire-sale HP tablet to surf while lying on the couch, but it’s too heavy, and typing is cumbersome. I prefer to use my smartphone, as do my kids.
Attaching a keyboard to it could get my wife to use it, and get her away from the desktop my kids need for homeschooling. She hates the laptop (?), but I’m hoping she’ll go for the tablet with keyboard. She hated the built-in keyboard.(My regret with the HP laptop was the lack of a Netflix app. It would be perfect as a portable Netflix TV.)
Basically, she doesn’t get along well with computers. ;-)
The soft keyboards already on the market for the iPad are crap. I know this because I have six of them sitting on a shelf collecting dust right now not 30’ from where I’m sitting.
I use the apple bluetooth keyboard. It isn’t a soft keyboard, but I keep it in my briefcase and it works great for me. My primary business uses are note taking in town meetings (I represent a couple of small towns) and other meetings; email and calendars, which update with iphone and my office pc whenever either I or my assstant input them.
What’s with the playschool interface?
I thought I'd be kind and include one anyway ;-)
Close, but not where I want them.
Examples are accessing my WCS remotely. I need to VNC into another machine and access it from there because it doesn't play well on my iPad's Safari.
Another draw back is the available VNC/RDP/SSH/Telnet clients. Sure, they exist... But have you actually tried USING them? They suck. Flat out. I've even wasted cash on some of the paid apps and the best I can figure is that this is the best the interface itself can offer.
Not good enough.
I've already checked the public demo of Win8 and have already figured out all my old tricks on it. Launching an admin cli for tel/ssh/ftp works. If it still does on the Surface, then that much the better.
Other api's use either Java or Flash, hopefully html 5... And Window's runs 'em all.
I'm in a predominantly Mac environment right now and we're trying to move to Linux due mostly to cost and Apple shenanigans with it's Server stuff. I don't want the iTunes store being our Primary licensing center... Madness...
I’m not always that generous. Sometimes I have to backfill, but ususally it gets inferred correctly.
“Microsoft is about technological innovation, while Apple is about marketing and selling overpriced devices.”
Apple isn’t about technological innovation? Who knew? Mr. Ballmer, I’m not buying it.
Microsoft has a long history of doing this. They announce a product, and those businesses that have extensive vendor lock-in with them, get the hint that they should wait a while if they are planning purchasing a similar product. It's a variation of Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt.
Have you used Windows 8? Have you used Mountain Lion. I’ve seen both. I can tell you that there is very little innovative about Mountain Lion. Its pretty, it adds in some iOS stuff, but its not that different from Lion, which wasn’t that different from Snow Leopard. Very incremental improvements.
Windows 8 is a whole new ball game. Totally different than Windows 7. It leapfrogs the competition. I’m not trying to start a holy war with Apple fanboys, but that is my informed opinion. If you disagree, thats fine. Thats why the free market and consumer choice is a good thing.
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