It's a bird, it's a plane, no, it's

... an iPad with a Windows logo.

It's like you're not even trying to troll properly any more.

Herbie

Breaking news: one flat, rectangular touch-screen device kind of looks like other flat, rectangular touch-screen devices.

Obviously MS should've defied convention and made a round tablet.

@Sven Groot:

 It's a bird, it's a plane, no, it's ...Windows Frisbee

1 hour ago, Sven Groot wrote:

Obviously MS should've defied convention and made a round tablet.

Dont give them ideas.

@contextfree`: . o O

All jokes aside, here's the really sad thing for Microsoft.

The iPad was a natural progression from the iPod to the iPhone to the iPad.

Apple had astroturfed the market surface before throwing the iPad at people and they were first in the marketplace with that type of device having a mobile OS and App store.

As with the Zune, Microsoft is throwing this "thing" at the consumer from absolutely no direction what so ever.

Before there was nothing, now there is Microsoft iPad clone. It has a nice case, buy it.

It's not going to be popular. It doesn't have the archival market strength necessary and it's way too late. Product-wise the iPad clone is a shot in the dark experiment, and I am going to bet it will have the same exact trajectory as the Zune. Because of the simple fact that history does repeat itself.

@1001001:

You might not be old enough to know this but the Surface looks much more like the original Tablet PCs than an iPad. You also might not know this but Tablet PC came way before iPad. Next thing you might need to be taught is that MS introduced the concept of the Tablet PC.

Now why the Tablet PC failed originally has much more to do with overpriced hardware (at least $500 premium over similarly specced laptops), any very little tablet-specific software back then.

EDIT: "Before there was nothing, now there is Microsoft iPad clone..." Haha, thanks for making my point.

3 hours ago, 01001001 wrote

All jokes aside, here's the really sad thing for Microsoft.

The iPad was a natural progression from the iPod to the iPhone to the iPad.

Apple had astroturfed the market surface before throwing the iPad at people and they were first in the marketplace with that type of device having a mobile OS and App store.

As with the Zune, Microsoft is throwing this "thing" at the consumer from absolutely no direction what so ever.

Before there was nothing, now there is Microsoft iPad clone. It has a nice case, buy it.

It's not going to be popular. It doesn't have the archival market strength necessary and it's way too late. Product-wise the iPad clone is a shot in the dark experiment, and I am going to bet it will have the same exact trajectory as the Zune. Because of the simple fact that history does repeat itself.

You're looking at it backwards....

Microsoft came out with tablets before the iPad existed, the success of this one compared to the previous attempts depends on whether it hits the right price point and has a tablet-friendly interface.

If it does those things -- which it will, I think -- it will astroturf the market for the adoption of the Windows Phone. Microsoft is trying to use its tablet OS to promote its phone OS, not the other way around, which was the Apple way.

Joe consumer does not equate the iPad and Gingerbreak/HoneyComb/ICS generation devices with Tablet computing.

In the minds of consumers this is not a tablet computer but a whole different device class that Apple basically invented.

Apple wisely differentiated the device in sufficient ways from Tablet PCs that they created a whole new class, and made it stick.

Besides the fact that Apple created this far before Microsoft:

But again, the consumer at the store doesn't care about this.

2 hours ago, 01001001 wrote

Joe consumer does not equate the iPad and Gingerbreak/HoneyComb/ICS generation devices with Tablet computing.

In the minds of consumers this is not a tablet computer but a whole different device class that Apple basically invented.

Apple wisely differentiated the device in sufficient ways from Tablet PCs that they created a whole new class, and made it stick.

Besides the fact that Apple created this far before Microsoft.

But again, the consumer at the store doesn't care about this.

You're right, the iPad is just a giant iPhone that's horrible as a content creation device and not particularly good at anything except reading websites.

Anyway, the problem with Tablet PCs was never that consumers hated the idea, it was what I said --- that they were more expensive and didn't have a touch friendly interface. Whether Windows 8 tablets will be successful is yet to be seen, but I'd hardly consider it a retread of old Tablet PCs.

10 hours ago, brian.shapiro wrote

*snip*

You're right, the iPad is just a giant iPhone that's horrible as a content creation device and not particularly good at anything except reading websites.

Anyway, the problem with Tablet PCs was never that consumers hated the idea, it was what I said --- that they were more expensive and didn't have a touch friendly interface. Whether Windows 8 tablets will be successful is yet to be seen, but I'd hardly consider it a retread of old Tablet PCs.

Consumers also never got much of a chance to try out Tablet PCs. Every one I ever saw in a store was locked down in some metal anti-theft frame (sometimes in laptop mode for convertibles), and the (required) stylus was nowhere to be seen (and the blueshirt had no idea where to find one to demo). The iPad you can just walk into a store and play with one.

11 hours ago, brian.shapiro wrote

*snip*

You're right, the iPad is just a giant iPhone that's horrible as a content creation device and not particularly good at anything except reading websites.

Mmm. Seems Avid and a whole host of other folk didn't get that memo.

13 hours ago, 01001001 wrote

In the minds of consumers this is not a tablet computer but a whole different device class that Apple basically invented.

Apple wisely differentiated the device in sufficient ways from Tablet PCs that they created a whole new class, and made it stick.

I think you'll find that Microsoft does know this, which is why they gone to a lot of effort to try to push this whole keyboard thing, highlighting the lack of a real keyboard on the iPad as a design deficiency.

The only problem is that if I want to iPad keyboard/case combo then I just buy one of these:

or if I'm environmentally-minded, one of these:

or if I want something that is far more adjustable than the Surface kickstand/keyboard/case/combination, then I go for one of these:

So I'm not so sure if the 'Look! it has a real keyboard!' strategy is going to pay dividends.  

I had a look at the Surface website, and specs seem very vague for something that has apparently been in development for three years:

Actual size and weight of the device may vary due to configuration and manufacturing process

Really??  

That's quite the 'get-out' clause.

And of course there is the still open-ended question of the price. This is a wondrous piece of kit that has been conceived with few compromises, right down to the Magnesium casing – and that can't be cheap (Steve Jobs built the original NeXTCube machines with magnesium casings, so MS is definitely aiming for something a little out of the ordinary). 

I was more interested in the Surface Pro. If MS sticks to those measurements, that will be quite an engineering feat at 13.5mm thin (without keyboard). With they type cover, that goes up to an anorexically svelte 16.5mm. 

Stunning, but only half a millimetre thinner than a Macbook Air – which has a full travel keyboard. Going for the full travel keyboard on the Surface makes it 1.5mm thicker than the Macbook Air. So I guess I'm a lot more impressed with what Apple actually managed to pack into the Air several years ago, than with what MS says they can pack into the Surface in six months time.

But again, all this depends on 'configuration and manufacturing'.

@Ray7: The problem with third party iPad keyboards is that iPad software is (and pretty much has to be) designed on the assumption such a thing doesn't exist. And unless Apple produce an iPad with keyboad combo, it'll always be that way.

Now they could do that relatively easily, but it would make Tim Cook's Refrigerater+Toaster comment start to look a bit daft, as well as making the Mac faithful wonder why they can't now run Mac apps on their iPad.

4 hours ago, Ray7 wrote

Mmm. Seems Avid and a whole host of other folk didn't get that memo.

I'd say so. At least I would never buy an iPad to do content creation. And if I wanted to read books, I'd buy an e-ink reader where I have no glare. Of course, video editing is the easiest type of content creation app to port to the tablet since it requires the least amount of precision or writing . Surface will work with pen input, which will open up new possibilities.

4 hours ago, Ray7 wrote

The only problem is that if I want to iPad keyboard/case combo then I just buy one of these:

Compared to the Logitech keyboard, the Surface keyboard is better engineered to work well with the device and stay attached as a cover, its thinner, and has a touchpad so it can work with desktop apps.

4 hours ago, AndyC wrote

@Ray7: The problem with third party iPad keyboards is that iPad software is (and pretty much has to be) designed on the assumption such a thing doesn't exist. And unless Apple produce an iPad with keyboad combo, it'll always be that way.

I see this posted a lot, but I've never seen an explanation as to what this exactly means. When I use a third party iPad keyboard, I open the same apps that have text input and type on the external keyboard instead of using the on screen keyboard.

I waited until late 2011 before getting a case, and I hardly ever use it except on trips in hotels.

It was $24. When I sold my iPad 1 and frantically got my iPad 3 on launch day which I photo blogged here on Channel 9, I simply kept my 1 year old $24 BT case which I still consequentially never use except in hotels on trips.

I understand that I'm just one consumer, but if you look at the sales numbers, they are indicative to the fact that most people did the same exact thing.

These are experiences most people in America had 2 years ago, and Microsoft is trying to flash everybody back in time like Marty McFly to sell theirs today???

I just don't know if that's going to work out so well. Oh wait, this one has .NET and WinRT, but oh wait, who really truly cares. Or maybe I'm wrong. Maybe people really care about WinRT and what a few sweaty developers did locked away in an underground bunker(apparently) in Redmond. Maybe that's how it works now adays.