Microsoft Surface 2 Event Live Blog

Surface RT not interested. However, the Surface Pro 2, with a power keyboard, just claimed the industry lead, very very impressive

11587225 said:

Surface RT not interested. However, the Surface Pro 2, with a power keyboard, just claimed the industry lead, very very impressive

Industry lead, maybe, depending on what type of limited scope you use to analyse the sub-section of the industry interested in full Windows 8 tablets. Asus, a known hardware brand that tends to release quality products, is releasing a full Windows 8 tablet for $350 and it comes with a keyboard dock. There are gads of other more powerful Windows 8 pro tablets from various developers in the next few months at various levels of hardware quality and price points.

Even if the Surface Pro 2 is some sort of an "industry lead" for the overall hardware package in terms of power and whatnot, if there are effective Windows 8 tablets coming out for just over a third of its price and multiple tiers of hardware quality up the scale approaching it, I'm really not sure the Surface Pro package is going to crack the full Windows 8 tablet market open at $900, even if it is a very complete little unit.

When I was looking into buying a full Windows 8 tablet, I looked *very* seriously at the Surface Pro. I opted instead for the Acer Iconia W700 which cost me $150 less and came with a keyboard and a dock that is basically what the Surface dock is now. How many more Iconia W700 equivalents are going to be out within the next 3 months? How compelling is even the Surface Pro package going to be when there are other packages out there that offer similar hardware for less money and probably come with a keyboard?

I'm curious, precisely what sense are you saying that the Surface Pro 2 is going to be an industry leader? I could maybe see an argument being made for it being the best overall Windows 8 tablet package if price were no object, but I'm not sure that's a title that is going to win them more than a tiny dedicated audience.

I would be interested to know what CPU the Pro is using as it is likely the most powerful tablet out there.

Having said that, you are still looking at $1k with a type cover for the pro which is putting it in competition with a lot of nice Ultrabooks. Because of that, it probably doesn't make much sense unless someone needs a "tablet" with a lot of power. My guess is that market is pretty slim.

The dock is interesting.

Also, I'm still not convinced the form factor makes a whole lot of sense. I personally would rather have a dock type keyboard that turns the unit into something resembling a notebook that can still be used effectively on uneven surfaces.

The Surface 2 RT is overpriced just as before. At $450 with no keyboard, it faces a lot of stiff competition. Also, I still can't believe Microsoft is charging $100 for the touch and type covers. That's probably 70% profit on each one. The power cover will likely be even more. It looks nice though so maybe the "premium" factor might help out.



Overall, If this were $350 with a $50 touch/type cover I think this might be a hit.

11586687 said:

MS needs to stop dumping (wasting) money unto Surface. And re-invest and reinvent Windows and bring it back to glory.

I think the writing is on the wall that MS can't stay out of hardware at this point if they expect their software to remain as prevalent as it is. The world is going more and more mobile and the line between mobile and desktop is blurring pretty rapidly. You can now get mobile devices which you can use wonderfully easily on the go and then when you get home, plug it into a TV and it seamlessly provides a desktop/entertainment center experience. Hardware is getting smaller and faster and more capable all the time and it stands to reason that we aren't that far off of phones/phablets/tablets all being both affordable and being more and more able to fill the "desktop" role than ever before while doing what they do best - mobile consumption. Every time a consumer realizes that their phone or tablet can perform many of the functions their PC can, they are then less likely to buy a PC - and with that PC, Windows.

In light of that, and in light of the fact that the world of mobile devices is currently dominated by a competing OS, what does it make sense for MS to do? Watch mobile devices slowly rise and muscle them out of the desktop marketplace because desktops will themselves become less prevalent? Well, it would take a while, but erosion of their primary market has already begun. As it stands, they seem to have decided to create their own hardware line as seeder devices, allowing them to be models for OEM hardware and a sort of product-driven development of their desktop/mobile OS. They make and grow their software with their hardware, while creating a market for their mobile/desktop OS.

Looking at these prices, which don't strike me as overwhelmingly competitive, I have to wonder if they aren't intentionally leaving their prices on the high side so as not to muscle OEMs out of the market. I do NOT appreciate this as a consumer and it means I will likely lean towards competing products but, frankly, if MS had the clearly best priced/best hardware product on the market, a lot of OEM people would see this fledgling mobile Windows market and say "Ok, let's just make an Android device instead - we won't make money competing against the Surface brand."

Err, how about they have sold more than the Iconia W700, because you are obviously alluding to sales as the only metric that matters - but performance is obviously there too, I could rate this against any convertible and it would still be at the top apart from price, but I suppose Atom powered garbage with a garbage screen from Acer will always be cheaper

11587550 said:

Err, how about they have sold more than the Iconia W700, because you are obviously alluding to sales as the only metric that matters - but performance is obviously there too, I could rate this against any convertible and it would still be at the top apart from price, but I suppose Atom powered garbage with a garbage screen from Acer will always be cheaper

I'm alluding to sales in a future marketplace Back. When the Surface was released, there was virtually no market for Windows tablets. MS invested a lot of money into marketing and in the past year has even spent money marketing competing Windows tablets (see: Windows Tablet VS iOS ads). A year ago, when the Surface was released, people didn't even know what a WIndows tablet was, why to buy one, etc, and all of the sudden the market was flooded with ads for Surface. Not Windows tablets, Surface tablets. The only reason I even knew about the Iconia W700 was because I went looking.

Now, it's a different market. Even if people aren't overwhelmingly enthusiastic about them, people know what Windows tablets are. There will be people looking to buy them. Now, when they go into Best Buy to pick up a Surface and they are then presented by a half dozen tablet models which cost less and are similarly functional, why is the Surface going to necessarily be the one they buy?

I'm becoming more convinced that MS is actively pursuing the role of Surface being a seeder product - not intending to capture a small market, but rather expand one and make it ready for other people to release Windows hardware into it. This pricing just doesn't scream "buy me!" for any of these tablets. On top of that, MS has actively advertised tablets directly competing with the Surface in the past year... If their goal was for Surface domination, does that make sense? No. It DOES make sense if they want to use Surface to expand the market for other companies rather than dominate it themselves. It would also make this not-overwhelmingly competitive pricing make sense.

Also, yes, that's what I was wonder Back - if you meant it was the top hardware package, even if not necessarily the top price package.

Lastly, the T100 is by Asus, not Acer, and the Iconia W700 has an Intel i5 processor with a 1080p screen - not an Atom processor and a "garbage" screen. I daresay it didn't have worse hardware than the Surface Pro, and one might even argue it had better. I doubt that Acer will be the only company to offer products like this this time around.