Posted on 06/19/2012 10:05:11 AM PDT by for-q-clinton
LOS ANGELES — June 18, 2012 — Today at an event in Hollywood, Microsoft unveiled Surface: PCs built to be the ultimate stage for Windows. Company executives showed two Windows tablets and accessories that feature significant advances in industrial design and attention to detail. Surface is designed to seamlessly transition between consumption and creation, without compromise. It delivers the power of amazing software with Windows and the feel of premium hardware in one exciting experience.
(Excerpt) Read more at microsoft.com ...
You’d have a touchscreen, although the redundancy is of questionable value. Multitouch enabled removing weight and complexity in the iPad. What does it enable in a touchscreen device that also has a built in hardware keypad? Sounds like the same old feature creep, assuming that if you throw everything against the wall, something’s going to stick with somebody. Inelegant. We’ll find out just how desirable touchscreen is in and of itself, as opposed to the form factor, weight, portability and ease of use. Aftermarket hardward keypad covers have sold but I don’t recall there being any hue and cry for Apple to add it to the product itself. Could be the answer to a question few are asking, in order to create apparent market differentiation. We’ll see, when the thing hits market. The announcement sounded a little on the wafflish side.
Huh? 360 is at market saturation? You need to put the crack pipe down.
Everything I've read and heard, is that the low-end Surface will be available late Fall, and the high-end will be available early 2013. So it's not quite vaporware, they're still ironing out the bugs copying Apple, usually takes two years (in this case three years). Pricing will be $1000 at the low end, and $1500 to $2000 at the Pro Surface model. So MS is pricing this higher than the iPad. They won't make a dent in Apple's market share for a few years until MS can bring the price down to Apple's level. That is where MS is having problems.
Windows 8 will be the core for not just these tablets, but PCs, Windows Phone and XBOX 720. You can share apps between your devices like games, movies and e-mail at no extra cost. I already can watch the same movies from my XBOX 360 on my Windows Phone 7.
With storage in SkyDrive, you will have access to all your files on whatever device you want. E-mail attachments will be links to the SkyDrive, so people stop pushing massive files back and forth over multiple servers. It also is a big plus for collaboration on documents, projects, etc as the file resides in a central place.
Those that do not "get" Windows 8 are still thinking with a mouse and keyboard. It is touch and the UI is far, far superior to iOS and Android.
When you consider the Surface RT will come with MS Office, its expected $699 price is a great deal.
For those who think MS shot themselves in the foot by competing with hardware manufacturers, do any of you think Asus, Acer, Dell, etc, etc, etc are not competing by making Android Tablets?
This is Microsoft's way of saying we will set the bar and others can join the party if they want.
Lastly, MS just patented SMS to Excel so you can do things like send expenses by text message to your Excel file expense report right after dinner concludes.
I would not be surprised if you can send a pic of the receipt as well.
Microsoft is leaping right over iOS and Android and doing what people have been asking for ---- a Windows Tablet.
I expect Apple will merge iOS and OSX down the road and Google will abandon Android in favor of Chrome for everything.
I can't remember the last time one of my Microsoft OS computer crashed. It's been at least 10 or 15 years. We're talking about a lot of different computers here - at home and at work.
But you got to keep the faint breath of this urban myth alive for a few more months.
I for one applaud more choice for consumers. This product is going to raise the bar and Apple will have to respond. Everyone wins that way.
Really? Is the rate of sale for X-Box360 going up, or down? If you were ever interested in ever getting an X-Box360, chances are pretty good you already have one.
When the amount of product provided in a market has been maximized in the current state of the marketplace. At the point of saturation, further growth can only be achieved through product improvements, market share gains or a rise in overall consumer demand.
Product improvement would be larger hard drives and the Kinect system. Consumer demand is stagnant, driven primarily due to replacment costs of the now defunct 1st, 2nd and 3rd generation RROD issues. Further evident in the "Give away" programs MSFT is promoting to students when they buy a new computer
That has long since been eclipsed:
In the 2010 Christmas quarter in which the Kinect was released, it was the "fastest" selling for a short period... then it petered out. It sold according to Microsoft just just 8 million Kinect units during the Christmas season while they sold 6.3 million Xbox units.
Since its November 2010 release MS Kinect has shipped only 19 million units.
On the other hand, in Apple's 2011 Christmas quarter, Apple sold over 15.4 million iPads almost DOUBLE the number of Kinects sold in that Christmas quarter, and 2.44 times the number of Xboxes. In fact, both the iPad 2 and the New iPad exceeded the 60 day record of the Kinect on initial release. The New iPad sold over 4 million in the first FOUR DAYS...
“Microsoft says it has sold 55 million Xbox 360 consoles around the world, and in the first four months of the year sales were up 29 percent year over year.”
http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-21539_7-20068641-10391702.html
Like I said put the crack pipe down :-)
Published: June 3, 2011 9:06 AM PDT Data from over a year ago.
I used to forget what year it was when I used crack...
He must be projecting.
So 360 beat the trends and is still the leading selling console. I didn’t find a current report. Increasing sales this late in a consoles life is unheard of...360 is truly a gem.
Half Laptop, Half Pad, I could dig this, maybe wipe it clean and go with a full Ubuntu Suite, and XP on the side for Windows stuff Wine won't run. The heck with the warantee, it might be worth the risk to try it...
“I’ve already seen numerous incidents where people compromised patient records because of ipads.”
That’s specious, as I’m sure you’re well aware there’ve been myriad incidents of compromised confidential information involving Windows systems, laptops in particular.
Much of information security revolves around due diligence, which is a weak point with every operating system.
As for the iPad, I’m sure it can be locked down to the Nth degree if the IT department wants it to be so.
“Kind of like all those “viruses” that windows 7 users get. They are the users fault and we all know it.”
We all know you’ve just flaunted your ignorance for all to see. Nice job! ;-)
Looks like you are right ... rude .. but right.
It would seem that the Kinect truly augmented sales, because your graph shows a plateau in Yr 5, which corresponds to the introduction of the Kinect (and a fix to the RROD that has plagued nearly 50% of all XBox devices).
Would be interesting to see what the latest sales are, as I suspect another plateau is immenent, if not currently present. I suspect that more than a few potential new customers are holding for the XBox 720
Looks like you are right ... rude .. but right.
It would seem that the Kinect truly augmented sales, because your graph shows a plateau in Yr 5, which corresponds to the introduction of the Kinect (and a fix to the RROD that has plagued nearly 50% of all XBox devices).
Would be interesting to see what the latest sales are, as I suspect another plateau is immenent, if not currently present. I suspect that more than a few potential new customers are holding for the XBox 720
Yep. Perhaps you should read this article. I think the iPad will be very hard to displace in the medical field, and your HIPAA concerns are easily addressable. Doctors will want the same great experience as they've had with their personal iPads, and Win8 is unlikely to deliver.
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