[LeTap]

Macalope: "according to a new study from IDG Connect (IDG Connect is part of IDG, which owns PCWorld.com)"

In the interests of impartiality, you should have written:

"according to a new study from IDG Connect (IDG Connect is part of IDG, which owns PCWorld.com and macworld"

[bwalls]

"49 plus 42 is 91! "

Well, yes it is, but I don't think that's good math for those figures. I'd expect at least half of the IT Pro users with an Android tablet also have an iPad. A lot of them probably develop or at least evaluate apps, and need to check on both platforms.

[gus2000]

"I love the Surface. And that's true even though I know very little about it." - Slate

And that, ladies and gentlemen, would be the very definition of "fanboy". We should call it "faith-based journalism".

Gus
Created on my iPad

[PeterDeep]

Even Gruber is fawning over the Surface keyboard. I don't understand why people are so taken with the keyboard, but especially Gruber. The big announcement was "We have a tablet and it has a REAL keyboard!!!!!!" Well, as everyone knows, there are a gazillion external keyboards for the iPad. So what's new here? Nothing. As a tablet, there's nothing much to distinguish the Surface from any other tablet. MS showed off no remarkable qualities or potential, and by the time the Surface is (ever) released, there will be a slew of other Metro tablets available. How will it stand out from the crowd? Probably not all that well. It doesn't even have a cellular modem. Oh, yeah, you could use a dongle. Elegant!

Likewise for the Pro version. By the time it is released, how many other Windows 8 ultrabooks will there be? Dozens. How will the Surface stack up? It has a small screen, a cramped keyboard, and one - count 'em - one USB port. Normally, in the laptop world that would be a death sentence in and of itself. And the ONE port is not USB 3, it's USB 2. Why does it seem that am I the only one to think that the Pro is severely lacking as an ultra book alternative?

And then there's the video out port, because, you know, nothing says mobile like having to leave your tablet next to the television set, attached with a cable, to watch a video. Very slick! You'd think you'd want the tablet on the sofa, next to you but no, you would be wrong. People demand ports! ports! ports! for their tablets, and you have to wonder if these same people really understand what a mobile device is supposed to do. I know what it's not supposed to do, and that's to be tethered to a television with a cable!

[PeterDeep]

Best Macalope statement yet, "...Thanksgiving-at-John-Edwards’s-house kind of interesting." Priceless.

[PeterDeep]

KPOM, on 23 June 2012 - 06:57 AM, said:

Ballmer didn't actually announce the Courier. It was leaked about 3-4 months before it was officially killed (apparently because Bill Gates wasn't impressed by its lack of an e-mail client and office software). Ballmer did announce the HP Slate a few days before Steve Jobs introduced the iPad. That sold literally about 5,000 before HP killed it.

Leaked? ROFL. Sending details to "outside agencies" along with dozens of official photographic images does not qualify as a "leak." It may have not been a full-on announcement but an announcement was the intention nonetheless. Vaporware. I don't know why that continues to surprise anyone.

[Player_16]

BetunoGarcia, on 23 June 2012 - 06:42 AM, said:

Its funny how nobody mentions the "surface" that got stuck while trying to use its internet explorer during the presentation. That never happened to Steve.

The Verge mentioned it in their live blog.

[lcox]

Here's a fun one on the Surface
http://www.reghardwa...blet/page2.html

[DougAdams]

C'mon now. The Surface is apparently great at creating starbursts and unicorns.

[qka3uzp]

<i>[Microsoft has] already used up surface, tablet and slate. They're running out of flat things.</i>

There's still the Microsoft Roadkill.

[disorderlycjhp]

This whole "trust us that it'll be great even if we can't tell you or show you anything" business reminds me of the early days of Windows NT hype. I had to deal with too many of my Sun colleagues who were sure NT would be the death of Unix. And I'd ask them how many processes NT could handle and how much memory and any other limit questions I could think of. Because they didn't know, and they did know for SunOS (later to become Solaris), and they assumed that Microsoft had all the strengths of the competition and no weaknesses. I came to call it "my vaporware is better than your shipping product". Nice to see that Microsoft hasn't lost their touch.

I also have to acknowledge the brilliance of having two incompatible models and announcing them both at the same time. Now when we hear about some of those limits like battery life, how many people will hear the number for the consumer model and associate it with the enterprise model? Most people get this stuff wrong, and I bet Microsoft will position things just confusingly enough to make Surface RT sound more like Pro and Pro more like RT when it's to their benefit.

Yes, I'm cynical. You got a problem with that?

[Johnson]

What bloggers like Nick Bilton never seem to understand is why it is that people who like Apple also tend to dislike Microsoft and some peripheral manufacturers intensely. In my experience, the reason for the intense dislike is that Microsoft and some peripheral makers have made competitive decisions that make life measurably worse for Apple users. In Microsoft's case, it is producing crippled and buggy versions of Office for the Mac and file transfer/translation programs that interface with Windows file systems and servers. In the case of Canon, Epson, Fuji, HP, etc., it is producing buggy and obsolete drivers for the Mac operating systems. The excuse in these cases (as it has been for Linux users) has always been that Apple's market share is too small to justify improvements. But the corporate behaviors have not changed, even though Apple's market share has increased.

[disorderlycjhp]

bwalls, on 23 June 2012 - 08:05 AM, said:

"49 plus 42 is 91! "

Well, yes it is, but I don't think that's good math for those figures. I'd expect at least half of the IT Pro users with an Android tablet also have an iPad. A lot of them probably develop or at least evaluate apps, and need to check on both platforms.

I wonder if Kindle Fire gets counted in this Android numbers. I can well believe that a lot of Fire owners would also own an iPad. Fire numbers would also inflate the heck out of the Android numbers.

[Harvey]

KPOM, on 23 June 2012 - 06:57 AM, said:

LenWilliamsrar3, on 23 June 2012 - 06:40 AM, said:

I'm glad to see Microsoft trying yet again to make a tablet that people will buy, and maybe in a few months some of those people will actually get a chance to actually buy it. This is a fundamental difference between Apple and Mcrosoft: Apple rarely announces a product that it doesn't actually have for sale, or that will be on sale in a few weeks.

That's not entirely true. Apple announced the iPhone in January 2007, and released it in July 2007. They announced the iPad in January 2010, and released it in April 2010. With a new product type (i.e. not simply a replacement for something you already sell), it is OK to announce it a few months before it becomes available, since there is nothing to cannibalize. By pre-announcing the iPhone, Apple gave advance notice to people whose cell phone contracts were running out that it might be a good idea to wait a few months. Similarly, Microsoft may be aiming at people who are considering their first tablets that they might consider waiting a few months longer before running out and getting an iPad now. At least that's the idea.

LenWilliamsrar3, on 23 June 2012 - 06:40 AM, said:

As with the ill-fated Courier tablet that Steve Ballmer announced and never shipped, the new Surface just aint here yet, and no one has been allowed to use or test any prototypes. I'm truly curious to see what the Surface is all about, but get off the pot already. Release the darn thing and let it stand on its own merits or lack thereof.

Ballmer didn't actually announce the Courier. It was leaked about 3-4 months before it was officially killed (apparently because Bill Gates wasn't impressed by its lack of an e-mail client and office software). Ballmer did announce the HP Slate a few days before Steve Jobs introduced the iPad. That sold literally about 5,000 before HP killed it.

Yes, Apple introduced the first iPhone and iPad a few months (but not near as long a lead time as Microsoft's lead time for the Surface tablets) in advance of the sales.

In Apple's case, it was because they were introducing new operating systems, iOS for iPhone and iOS for iPad, that required a bit of lead time so that developers could start writing apps for each device before the first versions went on sale.

But in Microsoft's case, this extra-long lead time was not required because the Surface uses Windows 8 with Metro. Developers have been working (supposedly ) on preparing software for Windows 8/Metro for months now. Windows 8 with Metro is supposed to be the same whether you are running it on tablets (except ARM tablets which only have the Metro side of Windows 8), desktops, and notebook PCs.

Microsoft could have introduced the Surface the same day it went on sale, and the same amount of Windows 8 + Metro software would (supposedly ) be available on launch. It was totally unnecessary for Microsoft to introduce the Surface 6-9 months in advance. Not providing important information like prices, battery life, etc., and not allowing reporters to actually use or test the products, just makes Microsoft look foolish and undermines whatever credibility they think they have.