Surface Pro: Too much money for too little tablet?
Summary: The Surface Pro, Microsoft's Windows 8 tablet/laptop for the enterprise, may offer too little goodness for too much money.
The Surface Pro, Microsoft's Windows 8 hybrid tablet/laptop for business, sounds good. But, at a starting price of $899 for the 64GB model, without a keyboard, is anyone going to want it?
The good news is that the Surface Pro runs full Windows 8, rather than the crippled Windows RT. While I have no use for Windows 8 on a desktop, I've also thought that its "Metro" interface might work well on a tablet.
In addition, with an Intel Core i5 processor the Surface Pro has the horsepower needs to run Windows 8 properly. The Surface RT, with its NVIDIA Tegra 3 ARM processor, is underpowered. So why do I think that the Surface Pro will be too little, too late?
In two words: the Apple iPad.
Love it or hate it, the iPad started the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) movement in IT. Steve Jobs may not have had office workers in mind when he dreamed up the iPad, but the iPad has become the poster-child for tablets in business.
Besides grabbing people's imagination, for once the iPad is cheaper than its competition. A 64GB iPad with Retina Display with Wi-Fi and cellular is $829. That's $70 less than the entry level Surface Pro.
Some people argue that the Surface Pro is not over-priced because its competition is really more lightweight laptops like the MacBook Air. My response is that while it may not be fair to compare the Surface Pro with the iPad, that's exactly what people will do.
Besides if you do compare the Surface Pro with the MacBook Air does it really do that well? I don't think so. Microsoft itself admits that the Surface Pro will have only half the battery life of the Surface RT. That would put it, at best. at about 4 and a half hours, which is awful for a tablet, and a bit below my MacBook Air, which consistently gets five hours plus.
It's also, I must add, below my Samsung Celeron-powered Chromebook, which comes in with six hours, and my ARM-powered Chromebook, which keeps running for up to six-and-a-half hours. The ARM model, which runs great with the lightweight Chrome OS, also only costs $249.
If Microsoft had waited to introduce the Surface Pro after Intel's more energy efficient Clover Trail chipset the Surface Pro might have been more competitive. Clover Trail has been slow to arrive though and the Surface Pro won't be available for purchase until January even so.
What it all adds up to is that the Surface Pro is tardy to market; simply isn't competitive as a tablet; and, with the Touch Cover or Type Cover add-ons ($120 or $130), it's not that interesting as a notebook. I see IT departments buying iPads, Android tablets, MacBooks or Ultrabooks for all the niches that the Surface Pro might fill. Neither fish nor fowl, I don't see the Surface Pro finding a business audience.
Related Stories:
- Microsoft announces pricing and detailed specs for Surface Pro
- Has Microsoft got the Surface Pro pricing right? Yes, but no
- Microsoft Surface Pro to have half the Surface RT's battery life
- Ballmer: Microsoft should have entered tablet market earlier
- Windows Surface RT: Microsoft's greatest hardware fiasco ever?
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Talkback
Surface Pro: Too much money for too little tablet?
Go……
I prefer a beer
--
Maybe
I like it :-)
Factual and experiential evidence...
mmm Factual? I could list quite a few FICTION WRITERS... Experiental evidence .. ex·pe·ri·en·tial ( k-spîr - n sh l). adj. Relating to or derived from experience ...
google bio: Bio
Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols, aka sjvn, has been writing about technology and the business of technology since CP/M-80 was the cutting edge, PC operating system; 300bps was a fast Internet connection; WordStar was the state of the art word processor; and we liked it!
ok... I get it he is a WRITER ...
so lets see what gregv2k means
ev·i·dence/ˈevədəns/
Noun:
The available body of facts or information indicating whether a belief or proposition is true or valid.
So he reckons his writing (and obviously researching other like minded writers) is evidence that his writing is factual and derived from his experience.....
No way is that in any shape or form factual or based upon his real world experiences...
and finally an observation of one of SJVN's comments :
I see IT departments buying iPads, Android tablets, MacBooks or Ultrabooks for all the niches that the Surface Pro might fill. Neither fish nor fowl, I don't see the Surface Pro finding a business audience.
I have dealt with many huge corporates who have massive investment in Microsoft... they will not discard that investment ... no, the MS strategy of providing their customers a strong sound roadmap will ensure Win8 and all their cloudbased apps being released will be the way forward... think again SJVN
signed someone slightly older than SJVN and who has WORKED with technology even older than CP/M and is still actually writing code and developing apps and building hardware and networks.
Ha! Fantasitic.
Why else does he write about Microsoft?
Was I close? ;)
"Now, I haven't read the article, but let me guess"
Nah, With that I reveal the farce that is SJVN.
You know you are - acccept the label you worked so hard for, and be proud you accomplished SOMETHING in you life you set out to do.
Now, about those iPad mini numbers...
LOL! :)
Troll?
Well! Honestly...
SJVN hates Windows guts, and Windows 8's guts in particular. There is no question he has said flat outright in a number of occasions that Windows 8 is a nightmare that any sane person should avoid.
Now his article title says "Surface Pro: Too much money for too little tablet?"
If you think about this at all...its bizarre. Truly weird.
Lets say for example SJVN was a restaurant critic. Lets say he discovers a restaurant chain called “Jims Place”, that in his opinion serves absolutely horrible unpalatable food that is so bad just eating it you risk food poisoning. Further, lets also say that he says he has given this restaurant numerous tries to confirm his wretched opinion of the food, and he continues to say, there is no doubt about the fact that the food is absolutely ghastly.
When it comes to eating at a restaurant, if the food is anything near that bad there is nothing that can make it worthwhile to eat there. Giving the food away for free wouldn’t do the trick. Putting in new seats tables and lighting with entirely new decor wouldn’t do the trick. Even top notch service wouldn’t help if they are serving up garbage. Hes already explained the food is just terrible and must be avoided.
Now he writes a new review on “Jims Place” because they are serving up the exact same menu from a new kind of mobile food truck. The title of his new review is:
“Jims Place Food Wagon: Too much money for too little food?"
WHAT?
That cant be right??? Who cares about the price…who cares even if they gave you triple the food!! Its crap from the beginning I thought?
Who cares if they give you the Surface for free!? Who cares if they make it an even better tablet?!?!
According to SJVN here are the problems with Windows 8:
“You'll find this model, and dozens of others, at Best Buy and other retailers, for great prices on Black Friday. They all have only one problem: They're all still running Windows 8 and it's just as bad as I remembered.”
“Windows 8 does include another interface, Windows 8 Desktop. It works like the old Windows WIMP interface... except it's uglier and harder to use. Windows 7's Aero smooth curves? Gone. The Start button? History. Integration with Metro and its applications? Abysmal.”
“The Desktop interface is a major step back in functionality and adds insult to injury by requiring to learn new ways of doing the same old things you already knew how to do on Windows 7.”
“This is Microsoft taking crapware to a whole new level.”
“The real trouble starts when you begin using the charms. Besides not even coming close to replacing the functionality of the Start button, their design is… not so charming.”
“But, wait there's more! For me one of single most annoying utter failure for a built-in Windows 8 app, though, goes to Windows 8 Mail. While it has many problems…”
“The Windows 8 mail client actually left me wishing I could use Outlook, and I've always hated Outlook.”
And that’s from just one negative article by SJVN. He has plenty more. He’s made it dead plain he thinks Windows 8 is complete crap.
So whats he even talking about "Surface Pro: Too much money for too little tablet?"
Shouldn’t it be “Surface Pro: More Windows 8 rubbish on new hardware”?
Seriously, I didn’t bother even reading the article. Its now clear hes just reaching to find a different angle to attack Windows 8 by saying Surface Pro is too much money. What does it matter how much it cost if its just plain crap anyway. Its stupid. Either he thinks Windows 8 is crap and a non starter or he dosnt. Too much money for too little tablet dosnt even enter into it.
If the OS is crap; all else is moot.
Unless your just a hater and are continuously looking for new and improved ways to diss what you hate.
Review
You disagree with Steven’s article.
Dont you get the point?????
I wouldnt know if I disareee with his article or not because he destroyed his credability on Windows 8 weeks ago.
His hate of Windows 8 is absolutly blinding. He just simply hates it with a passion that makes no sense.
He lost his ability to hold sway over sane peoples considerations ages ago.
He makes zero effort to provide any reasoned balance to his articles, his claims about Windows 8 have repeatedly flown in the opposite direction of reality. You can say you dislike something and it dosnt serve your needs and explain why, once you make claims and predictions that have zero bearing on facts and reality...well, you show its more important to you to convince others to hate the same way you do than to ever admit to even an already established fact that tends to disagree with your personal dislkie.
So, he may well be right. Who knows? WHo cares because there is no earthly way to tell by reading one of SJVN's articles on anything Windows 8 because when it comes to Windows 8 he has absolutly no credability and has long ago proved without a doubt that what ever he says about anything Windows 8 is just as likely to fly in the face of reality as to actually say anything at all accurate.
Dont you get the point?????
I wouldnt know if I disareee with his article or not because he destroyed his credability on Windows 8 weeks ago.
His hate of Windows 8 is absolutly blinding. He just simply hates it with a passion that makes no sense.
He lost his ability to hold sway over sane peoples considerations ages ago.
He makes zero effort to provide any reasoned balance to his articles, his claims about Windows 8 have repeatedly flown in the opposite direction of reality. You can say you dislike something and it dosnt serve your needs and explain why, once you make claims and predictions that have zero bearing on facts and reality...well, you show its more important to you to convince others to hate the same way you do than to ever admit to even an already established fact that tends to disagree with your personal dislkie.
So, he may well be right. Who knows? WHo cares because there is no earthly way to tell by reading one of SJVN's articles on anything Windows 8 because when it comes to Windows 8 he has absolutly no credability and has long ago proved without a doubt that what ever he says about anything Windows 8 is just as likely to fly in the face of reality as to actually say anything at all accurate.
"Microsoft Proves (Again) That It Doesn’t Understand Marketing"
-Warner Crocker
http://www.gottabemobile.com/2012/11/30/microsoft-proves-again-that-it-doesnt-understand-marketing-with-surface-rt-and-surface-pro/
Warner Crocker proves that he doesn't understand marketing...
No - we are part of the market. If customers (in other words, the market) demand these things, and vote for them with their collective wallet, then Microsoft got it right by adding these things. It doesn't matter that a bunch of pundits think that the technology is passe. The market demands it.
"If customers vote for them with their collective wallet"
How about (IBM) holiday mobile tablet shopping?
iPad - 88.5%
Surface - 0.0%
Black Friday/Cyber Monday, 2012
Then so be it..
I was more interested in pointing out the irony in your quote. Calling out customers for being "part of the problem" because they see value in something that some blogger somewhere thinks the world has "moved beyond" is exactly the lack of "understanding (of) marketing" that Crocker accuses Microsoft of.
Apparently, that kind of irony is lost on you, Greg.
From the look of your statistics, this might very well be what will happen. Given Apple's recent tendency to squander their early-mover advantage, I'm sure those statistics are going to be quite different next year. In either case, I'm not all that invested in any ecosystem, so I say let the best company win.
An opinion too far out.
I understand there are people who would gladly teach themselves to bend over backwards to learn how to manage in a world without Windows. I understand there are people who would be quite happy to just see Windows and the who x86 regeim die.
But Im sorry...it may happen one day, but its not that day and neither is tomorrow or any day next year or the year after that. You can jump up and down and scream and whine and cry all you want how we are in the post PC world and that Wintel and x86 is dead but thats just not real. Its just not real.
We live in a world that still operates almost entierly in Windows computers and x86 computing. Its not a dream, its reality if you travel at all through any number or big businesses or residential homes. Just because "High Tec Joe the iPad fanatic" has found a way to live without WIndows years ago dosnt mean the world has. It hasnt. It just simply hasnt and to say it has is words from either a sorely misinformed dreamer or an out right liar who knows the truth an is hopeing to somehow bring about change by insisting on a lie being the new truth.
I work in an office and travel through innumerable other offices in a city of millions, and while there are some tablets floating around...they are still burried under a vast sea of Windows based desktops and laptops that still out number all the tablets put together buy a vast margine. The soory bottom line is there is just no way possible that the current crop of tablet brand anything other than a Windows pro model would have even a chance to support the work that needs to be done.
So....
Articles that claim otherwise have a problem from the word go.
The problem is, reality that anyone with eyeballs can see for themselves is they are wrong.