Monday's big ​announcemen​t.

... other forums presumably rely on witchcraft ....

And again...

and again...

Buggiest forum. Ever!

I'm not convinced this will be a major player in the market, or that it will cause problems with OEMs.

MS makes nice keyboards & mice, but they don't exactly dominate the market or discourage OEMs from competing with them.

I see this as more MS showing OEM's what they need to do in chasing the Tablet market with Win8 - and the response they may get if they are prepared to make the commitment to more than just 'good enough' engineering.

MS pushed the tablet idea years ago, but could never get OEMs to commit to anything really useful or groundbreaking in hardware... it was always just minimal modification to existing designs, pen-only interface, and everyone lost interest in it.

MS can't risk that happening this time around - this is pretty much their last roll of the dice in this market, so they need to put a bomb under the OEMs and get them to be serious about it. Either make something better than this benchmark, or lose your tablet sales to it.

I'll bet that Acer, Asus and Samsung respond pretty quickly with something better.

I'm also guessing that Apple will soon roll out something to try and top it (or roll out a bunch of patent claims if they can't) now that they've seen this.

4 hours ago, elmer wrote

... I'll bet that Acer, Asus and Samsung respond pretty quickly with something better.

They already owe that to MS from their mishandling of tablets when first introduced to the world by MS. I doubt their offerings will be any better, in fact, I predict terrible hardware from a rush to market from 3rd parties.

We've already seen the future devices from most OEMs, and for the most part it's "meh". Just look what was shown at Computex. The only interesting devices weren't interesting as in "I want that" but as in "what a strange idea" (http://www.geek.com/articles/chips/asus-taichi-windows-8-laptop-tablet-ships-with-two-displays-2012064/). There are a few devices that would be worth owning, and were what I figured I'd get before the Surface came along, but there was nothing that was truly differentiated and would compete strongly against the iPad. The Surface Pro trumps every last device we've seen from OEMs todate, and it's a little late now for them to catch up. I mean, heck, Microsoft spent significant time just ensuring the sound produced when you close the kick stand would "sound like closing the door on your sports car". If the OEMs haven't been working on something for the past year, at least, they won't be able to answer this device any time soon.

On the price discussion, it's been reported that Digitimes (rumor house, so weigh info accordingly) claims Pegatron Technology is the ODM. Based on this they say the minimum prices are $599 and $799. The $799 figure hits the sweet spot, but that $599 price sounds high. The Surface RT needs to be priced comparable to the iPad. "At $599 that would price the RT tablet at the equivalent price to the 32 GB iPad with WIFI only, making the price not as expensive as it appears." True, but consumers are going to expect it (or some third option) to be priced comparable to the entry level iPad. http://microsoft-news.com/digitimes-microsoft-surface-rt-to-be-599-surface-pro-799/

So apparently the big cheese at Acer thinks Microsoft are just giving OEMs a kick up the backside and will pull out of the tablet business as soon as possible. I have to say I really hope this isn't true - the Surface looks to be a unique device well executed and I have no faith in Acer, or anyone else, to replicate it.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-57456636-75/microsoft-will-withdraw-later-from-tablet-market-acer-founder/?tag=txt;title

1 hour ago, blowdart wrote

*snip*

I tried to remove them to save your blushes. Except, umm, it errored

LOL. Why am I unsurprised. In future I may just avoid posting while on my WP7 as editing posts on that is a b*gger.

11 minutes ago, GoddersUK wrote

So apparently the big cheese at Acer thinks Microsoft are just giving OEMs a kick up the backside and will pull out of the tablet business as soon as possible. I have to say I really hope this isn't true - the Surface looks to be a unique device well executed and I have no faith in Acer, or anyone else, to replicate it.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-57456636-75/microsoft-will-withdraw-later-from-tablet-market-acer-founder/?tag=txt;title

Wishful thinking let's hope. Third parties are like grown children who won't leave the nest. Blech.

I would absolutely suspect Acer's spin is motivated to speak to their shareholders with truth or lies, whatever works best.

@JohnAskew: If third party vendors start delivering devices that meet that kind of quality bar, I don't really mind whether or not Microsoft actually have a device themselves.

2 minutes ago, AndyC wrote

@JohnAskew: If third party vendors start delivering devices that meet that kind of quality bar, I don't really mind whether or not Microsoft actually have a device themselves.

I agree, but only MS will care enough about quality to deliver it.

I gladly pay a premium for quality. My gripe is all about quality.

27 minutes ago, AndyC wrote

@JohnAskew: If third party vendors start delivering devices that meet that kind of quality bar, I don't really mind whether or not Microsoft actually have a device themselves.

Yes, but I don't think anyone's holding out for that to happen...

1 hour ago, GoddersUK wrote

So apparently the big cheese at Acer thinks Microsoft are just giving OEMs a kick up the backside and will pull out of the tablet business as soon as possible. I have to say I really hope this isn't true - the Surface looks to be a unique device well executed and I have no faith in Acer, or anyone else, to replicate it.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-57456636-75/microsoft-will-withdraw-later-from-tablet-market-acer-founder/?tag=txt;title

If (and that's a pie in the sky if) the OEMs produce worthwhile hardware, I could maybe, possibly see Microsoft pull out (assuming they think that is a better business decision for them, which if the Surface is making money is unlikely). But the article simply says the goal is to " prod device makers to bring out Windows 8 tablets", to which I call BS. OEMs are already falling over backwards to create Win8 devices. They all want a piece of the Apple (err... iPad) pie. They're already trying that with Android devices, but are getting nowhere. They hope a Microsoft device will do better. Every single one has multiple devices they are showing off already. So there's no reason for Microsoft to "prod device makers to bring out Windows 8 tablets". None. What they need is for OEMs to create devices that are compelling. Win8 devices that are nothing more than existing ultrabooks (or worse yet, notebooks) or Android tablets with Win8 thrown on them simply aren't going to work, and Microsoft knows that. I'm willing to bet that on launch day there are 3 dozen Win8 devices available. I'm also willing to bet that the only one that's truly new and unique is the Surface. Given past history with these OEMs, I bet it's not much different than that 12 months down the road.

I feel like it's going to be really confusing in the holiday season if OEMs do attempt to produce devices to specifically compete with the Surface tablet. MS better push the device with some really great marketing or it will just blend in with a bunch of "me too" attempts.