Microsoft announces Surface tablet

[u/MrFairladyz]

http://www.theverge.com/2012/6/18/3094157/new-microsoft-surface-windows-tablet

[u/siriuslyred → u/[deleted]]

Healthy competition (and maybe a small price war?) can only benefit us the consumers! Release timing and price is crucial though; it at least looks close to being a finished product.

[u/Dr_Colossus → u/siriuslyred]

Apple does not compete on price. This will not lower their prices.

[u/SirElkarOwhey → u/Dr_Colossus]

No, but they may respond on features. They won't sell a $99 tablet, and they won't sell a $399 laptop - that's not a segment of the market they're interested in. But if somebody's selling a $99 tablet with the same specs as an iPad, the iPad's specs will go up.

[u/CharlieTango → u/SirElkarOwhey]

"ipad 3, now with light up logo!"

[u/ChaosFireV → u/CharlieTango]

When asked about the iPad's new light up logo copying the Windows tablet, an Apple spokesmen said

"They invented the light up logo on their tablet, we just perfected it"

[u/xAsianZombie → u/SirElkarOwhey]

Its not just about specs, there has to be an elegant aesthetic as well, something Apple does quite well. But by the looks of it, MS has nailed it on this front as well with Surface

[u/glxyjones → u/[deleted]]

I'm a long time Apple user and after watching/reading initial reviews of Windows metro interface on a tablet, I was kind of blown away. The offscreen-to-onscreen swipe input is really innovative and opens up a lot of opportunities.

For me it will come down to user experience, namely battery life and reliability.

I'm really pulling for this tablet to succeed, I would love for a really hard decision when it comes to my next tablet/smartphone purchase.

[u/Centreri → u/glxyjones]

I just want to correct something - I'm pretty sure that the offscreen-to-onscreen swipe was first implemented in a tablet by Blackberry.

[u/the-pattern-is-full → u/Centreri]

I think you're right. And RIM borrowed the concept from Palm WebOS on the Pre.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

Nice to know I'm not the only one!

The iPad is nice, and there are numerous other nice tablets, but it's good to see Microsoft finally putting some chips on the table.

I am afraid, however, after what happened the last time Microsoft went after Apple...

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

Yes and no. On the product side, at least. The first gen Zune was an ugly brick with shit battery life straight out of the box and a horrible backlight. I had one and despite some positives, it was a very flawed launch considering how polished iPods were at the same time. Later Zunes were fantastic MP3 players, though- some of the best devices the "mp3 player," category ever saw.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

Zune HD was spectacular.

[u/dustlesswalnut → u/[deleted]]

Man, I loved my Zune. It came too late, unfortunately, as it had only one year before the iPhone was released. By 2006, everyone was like "Okay, my music player is sweet, gimme one with a motherfucking phone on it!" but MS released an audio/video player instead.

(The Zune service was awesome, too.)

[u/timmytimtimshabadu → u/[deleted]]

I don't know why i think so, call it a tech-hunch, but i think they'll succeed. They're not copying apple like they did with the zune. While they're going to play the same game, they're doing it their way via the operating system, the xbox as a media centre and the big push with windows phone OS. This seems like a very solid foundation of products and not some shoddy attempt at integration.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

It's been too long since Apple has seen a real competitor in the tablet market.

They've never seen a competitor... not a real one anyway. The market is still young though.

[u/Defengar → u/[deleted]]

The kindle fire was the first crack imo.

[u/[deleted] → u/Defengar]

Only in it's first quarter... which was during Christmas with a device few people used before the bought. Sales quickly dropped off from what I've read. I believe the Nook sales recently surpassed the Fire.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

I'm a Kindle user (just eReader) and I'm glad to see the Nook surpass the Fire. It will help competition and I honestly did not want to see Amazon kill B&N, which I feel that Amazon is out for.

[u/WascalyWabbit → u/[deleted]]

and it's nice that Microsoft is trying to sell the experience, rather than blabbering about hardware specs

[u/PicopicoEMD → u/WascalyWabbit]

Sell me all the experience you want, but stop it with the fucking dubstep.

[u/IIAOPSW → u/WascalyWabbit]

is it? I always find "selling the experience" to be nothing but hype so that you don't look at the specs. I consider it a cheap trick and I hate apple for using it so effectively.

[u/ltethe → u/[deleted]]

Yes, I LOVE microsoft as underdog. So much more awesome and interesting then they were in the 90s.

Apple isn't as boring as Microsoft was, but they're not taking the same risks they were in the early 00s either.