Microsoft Surface: $199 (?) (1 Viewer)

[Hanson]

Without Google Play, what's the point? Are you going to set up your own app ecosystem and work out payments, and updates, and all that shit? That's why they pay Google licensing fees -- not for the OS, but for that infrastructure.

 

[mattCR]

Originally Posted by Hanson /t/322997/microsoft-surface-199#post_3963443
Without Google Play, what's the point? Are you going to set up your own app ecosystem and work out payments, and updates, and all that shit? That's why they pay Google licensing fees -- not for the OS, but for that infrastructure.

Like I said though, they aren't just paying google. They pay MS IP royalties - almost every one of them. And now Apple wants royalties, and from the looks of the Samsung trial, just like Microsoft they are going to get a lot of vendors to just sign and pay them a fee on every Android tablet shipped rather then face lawsuits. So, you're a vendor shipping a google Android product. The OS is free. But you pay a kickback to Microsoft, and now, probably a kickback to Apple. The "Free OS" now isn't so free.

 

[Sam Posten]

Without Google Play, what's the point? Are you going to set up your own app ecosystem and work out payments, and updates, and all that shit? That's why they pay Google licensing fees -- not for the OS, but for that infrastructure.

This stuff is hard. Yup. If you don't want to be squeezed out you have to run with the big boys and control the whole stack.
Amazon is doing it.
Sony
Valve ?!?!
And lets look at the road of dead companies who controlled their own stack and still failed:
HP. Palm. RIM. Nokia.

 

[Hanson]

Official price $499 for 32GB, keyboard covers extra:

http://www.theverge.com/2012/10/16/3509982/microsoft-surface-price-499-pre-order

So it's the same price as the 32GB Android tablets. The pressure sensitive keyboard cover is an extra $120.

Not the "blow me away" price some people were expecting.

 

[Sam Posten]

Launch high, see what the market will bear, then dump.

 

[Hanson]

Any price reduction on the Surface RT tablet means it's another bust of a product. If they do reduce the price, it's an admission from MSFT that they have yet another failed product launch on their hands.

That said, I fully expect the Lumia 920 and all the other WP8 phones to be $99 by Xmas and .99 by January. So unless MSFT wants two dead products on their hands, they'll have to go all in with Surface RT. I'd see a keyboard bundle before a price drop.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Maybe they'll also eventually do a Win8-PC+Slate promo purchase bundle (and/or a bundle w/ Win8 phone) at some point since the real goal for them is the software platform (and subsequent software sales), not the tablet sales itself.

_Man_

 

[DaveF]

Did I understand right that you can't buy the 64 GB version without spending an extra $100 for case? That seems an odd strategy, refusing to take people's lots-of-money unless they're willing to spend lots-and-lots-of-money.

It worked for Nintendo when they were the best selling console, and could force bundles. And so I could imagine Apple pulling off such a stunt. But I don't see how it works for Microsoft.

 

[Hanson]

Topolsky gives the Surface RT tablet a 7.0 - astroturfers turning brown from paid-nerd rage.

http://www.theverge.com/2012/10/23/3540550/microsoft-surface-review



Quote:

The promise of the Surface was that it could deliver a best-in-class tablet experience, but then transform into the PC you needed when heavier lifting was required. Instead of putting down my tablet and picking up my laptop, I would just snap on my keyboard and get my work done. But that's not what the Surface offers, at least not in my experience. It does the job of a tablet and the job of a laptop half as well as other devices on the market, and it often makes that job harder, not easier. Instead of being a no-compromise device, it often feels like a more-compromise one.

Zoiks!

 

[Sam Posten]

Are you saying he's giving it too much or too little credit? He has been a Windows phone fan for years and lukewarm on iOS and Android so not sure what you expected...

 

[Hanson]

Topolsky is not a Windows Phone fan. When the Lumia 920 was revealed, he tweeted that he would pay a lot of money to have that hardware with Jellybean.

I think that for all of the MS "fanboys" at The Verge (many of whom are likely MSFT sock puppets due to the completely disproportional representation of MS fanboys there vs anywhere else), Surface RT was going to score well over an 8.0, a score that would be competitive with the iPad and Nexus 7. But a 7.0 is bitterly disappointing, hence the major spamming in the comments section (the review was posted last night around 10pm and had 1200 comments by this morning).

I'm sure Topolsky gave the tablet the amount of credit it deserves.

 

[Hanson]

So Topolsky wasn't the only lukewarm reviewer:

Microsoft Surface RT Reviews Are In - And They're Mostly Mediocre

BTW, The Verge score is 7.0, not 7.5 as reported in the article.

 

[mattCR]

I received mine today. I haven't had enough time to really play through it and get a feel. I have the keyboard. My gut feeling at this point is this: I like the hardware, a lot. The ease of connectivity with most of the things I care about (Exchange) is pretty flawless.. and it does work exactly as I want. That having been said, the key knock is apps - as is pointed out above. The hardware itself is exactly what I want, it's snappy, fluid, video playback is very good.

What it needs to be perfect: someone to develop CODECs or a splitter to put MKV playback in it or more file formats (I'll take VLC RT?), and a larger app base. Right now, the "killer app" for it is Microsoft Office (with it) but that won't be enough for everyone.

It's a different animal, I'll play with it through the day and figure out what I think.

 

[Hanson]

Isn't it MS Office RT and not full Office?

And you can't playback mkv files? I mean, that's a complete deal breaker, although to be honest, there's no way I'd own a Surface tablet unless someone gave me one. And even then, I'd probably look to sell it.

 

[mattCR]

Originally Posted by Hanson /t/322997/microsoft-surface-199/30#post_3993124
Isn't it MS Office RT and not full Office?

And you can't playback mkv files? I mean, that's a complete deal breaker, although to be honest, there's no way I'd own a Surface tablet unless someone gave me one. And even then, I'd probably look to sell it.

It's Office RT. That having been said, so far I've had no difficulty opening/editing anything Office2010, so I don't know whether or not that makes enough of a difference.
Yeah, the lack of CODECs is not so good so far; MKV doesn't play, and it doesn't want to grab some of my AVI's, etc. for CODEC reasons. That having been said, trolling the forums, it looks like an MKV splitter is coming soon.

 

[Hanson]

I can read and edit Office 2010 files with Documents to Go on my Android tablet. I get Exchange Active Sync emails as well.

I can see the attraction to power users like you, by and large, I don't think most users really need Office RT over Docs to Go or equivalent.

 

[mattCR]

Originally Posted by Hanson /t/322997/microsoft-surface-199/30#post_3993196
I can read and edit Office 2010 files with Documents to Go on my Android tablet. I get Exchange Active Sync emails as well.

I can see the attraction to power users like you, by and large, I don't think most users really need Office RT over Docs to Go or equivalent.

Yeah, it's not comparable (Documents to Go) not even by a longshot..

The more I use this, the more I realize that there is a set of users who will go nuts over some of the elements. Throughout the day it seems as though more apps are being added to their store, so I think since tomorrow is supposed to be the official day, a lot of things will be in tomorrow. But I'm not as worried with the apps as I am some of the things I've played with and went: yeah, that's pretty cool. There are some parts of it that work like nothing else on the market, Microsoft's acquisition of Skype definitely comes into play here, because the Skype client for the Surface RT is fantastic.

There are apps that have already went through at least one update I know of (both netflix and amazon, it appears, have updated their apps), and that's for the better. In the end, this makes me think if they stick with this type of form factor, the Surface8 (the i5 based Surface tablet) will be far more up my alley. But as a device, I'm pretty impressed so far, I'm at 9 hours on one charge, and that's not bad (I'm down to 12% so I'll put in on the charger).
One other thing that will tick Sam off: Unlike on my iPadHD, I can correctly browse HTF. My Ipad3's inbuilt browser doesn't seem to consistently work right with the iPad. I have no such trouble at all on the Surface. Works like a charm.

 

[Sam Posten]

Not gonna make me mad at all. My issue is with Huddler and their implementation and priorities not OSes. I run OSX, Win 7, Win 8, iOS, Android ICS and JB and 3 forks, and will surely run RT as soon as one of these isn't rediculously priced for what you get. $199 and I would have been there day one. I am not sure what my price point IS exactly but it's not what Surface is getting right now.

 

[Sam Posten]

Having said that, the weird ass Potemkin stores creep me out, and Marco nails why:
http://www.marco.org/2012/10/26/an-alternate-universe

 

[DaveF]

I was about to post the Marco review. Given the strong dislike for his Fire review last year, I'm curious what people think of this.
(I agreed with his Fire comments from my little time. And found this review appealing.)
As for Huddler: does the Surface not do hovers and not require you double tap every link? Does it make the text lines not 160 char long? Does it make the column view not change width as ads disappear? I'm trying to figure out what a different browser does to make it all work right.