Microsoft Surface Win RT

[Busta Rib]

As is typical of MS over the past 15 years, they are a day late and a dollar (or three) short. They follow instead of lead, mimic where they should be innovating, and focus on all the wrong things, particularly user experience. With three generations of iPad out in the wild, you would think they had a pretty good/clear bogey that they needed to hit and yet, they still missed with the Surface RT. Hello, Microsoft...it's 2012. Get with the times.

I live in Seattle and as a resident, I WANT to see Microsoft succeed so badly. I have many friends and acquaintances that work at MS. Their success and prosperity means success and prosperity for everyone. They are a halo employer in Washington by sheer numbers and nature of their business. Yet they continually fail and disappoint. Balmer needs to go and should have been ousted over a decade ago. The only reason he has been able to keep his job is due to growing revenue from Office and Windows, but that well will dry up and he will not have billions of revenue and profit to hide behind. It's been good for the bottom line now and the next quarterly report, but not for positioning them to be successful in the future.

I recruit in the technology world and frequently speak with candidates that either work at MS or did in the past. Many have commented that it has become a bloated org, not an exciting/innovative place to work, and has become a long-term parking spot for people that are simply looking for a paycheck and great benefits, not to create new and better technology. At least half of the employee base is disappointed with Balmer and the executive leadership and would like to see some change at the top.

More than likely, if you have a 401k or retirement account, you are likely a shareholder of MS. Every fund has a position in MS in some manner. We are likely all invested to some degree and it is appalling that Balmer has been able to preside over such a lackluster organization for so long with a flat stock price, products that bomb, lack of industry leadership, and no clear direction moving forward.

[island911]

Apple is a hardware company with software.

Microsoft is a Software company with a small amount of hardware. --they let others handle the majority of that.

However, with Microsoft's Phone7 they drove hardware specifications tightly. ...things like a dedicated camera button.
And, with those higher specifications Microsoft carved out a good chunk of the phone business.

Point is, Microsoft is making inroads into the phone and hardware spaces. Enter this Surface RT device. It's hardware is MUCH better than an ipad, while competing on price. the Surface RT has a kickstand. It has a keyboard cover. It even has an SD slot and HDMI out w/o the need of some barnacle adapter.

You have to give credit to their small hardware team for that device. ...unless you haven't seen one, and Steve Jobs is your god.

[Busta Rib]

Originally Posted by island911

Apple is a hardware company with software.

Microsoft is a Software company with a small amount of hardware. --they let others handle the majority of that.

However, with Microsoft's Phone7 they drove hardware specifications tightly. ...things like a dedicated camera button.
And, with those higher specifications Microsoft carved out a good chunk of the phone business.

Point is, Microsoft is making inroads into the phone and hardware spaces. Enter this Surface RT device. It's hardware is MUCH better than an ipad, while competing on price. the Surface RT has a kickstand. It has a keyboard cover. It even has an SD slot and HDMI out w/o the need of some barnacle adapter.

You have to give credit to their small hardware team for that device. ...unless you haven't seen one, and Steve Jobs is your god.

I commend MS for some of the innovations re: kickstand, ports, and cover, but if the functionality/UI is klunky, it is still a failure. It's like a luxury car that doesn't run properly. Still going to be a bad user experience. And I am no worshipper of Apple.

There is a convergence of tech companies where Apple, Google, Amazon, and Microsoft are starting to overlap and tread into each other's sacred/traditional space. Consumers and shareholders don't care what a company's traditional role in the marketplace used to be. They want to know and expect relevancy now.

[BlueSkyJaunte]

Originally Posted by island911

It's hardware is MUCH better than an ipad, while competing on price. the Surface RT has a kickstand. It has a keyboard cover. It even has an SD slot and HDMI out w/o the need of some barnacle adapter.

OK, my generation n-1 Acer Android tablet (A500) has:

1) Real USB port
2) uSD card slot
3) HDMI out
4) A "kickstand" cover
5) Android, with a software library 6x the size of MSFTs and an interface that doesn't inspire random acts of violence
6) A pricetag 1/2 the Surface's

How is Microsoft innovating, again? With an unusable add-on keyboard cover? Puh-leeze.

[RWebb]

hard to believe anyone would ever put Microsoft & innovating in the same sentence - they never have

Microsoft comes in late to market and then kills off the competitors: DOS, Windows, MS Word, etc.


now, let me get back to my Zune

[stealthn]

Originally Posted by Busta Rib

As is typical of MS over the past 15 years, they are a day late and a dollar (or three) short. They follow instead of lead, mimic where they should be innovating, and focus on all the wrong things, particularly user experience. With three generations of iPad out in the wild, you would think they had a pretty good/clear bogey that they needed to hit and yet, they still missed with the Surface RT. Hello, Microsoft...it's 2012. Get with the times.

I live in Seattle and as a resident, I WANT to see Microsoft succeed so badly. I have many friends and acquaintances that work at MS. Their success and prosperity means success and prosperity for everyone. They are a halo employer in Washington by sheer numbers and nature of their business. Yet they continually fail and disappoint. Balmer needs to go and should have been ousted over a decade ago. The only reason he has been able to keep his job is due to growing revenue from Office and Windows, but that well will dry up and he will not have billions of revenue and profit to hide behind. It's been good for the bottom line now and the next quarterly report, but not for positioning them to be successful in the future.

I recruit in the technology world and frequently speak with candidates that either work at MS or did in the past. Many have commented that it has become a bloated org, not an exciting/innovative place to work, and has become a long-term parking spot for people that are simply looking for a paycheck and great benefits, not to create new and better technology. At least half of the employee base is disappointed with Balmer and the executive leadership and would like to see some change at the top.

More than likely, if you have a 401k or retirement account, you are likely a shareholder of MS. Every fund has a position in MS in some manner. We are likely all invested to some degree and it is appalling that Balmer has been able to preside over such a lackluster organization for so long with a flat stock price, products that bomb, lack of industry leadership, and no clear direction moving forward.

Epic post man!

[MysticLlama]

I've had mine since launch day and have a couple of specific comments.

1.) It's much cooler than I thought at first once I figured out some tricks. A big issue with MS stuff has always been that the really nifty stuff you either have to dig for, stumble on, or research to find it. On the contrary, the Apple stuff often actually does less, but it's way more obvious and people get way more out of it. With an Apple you're a medium level user immediately, with a MS product you're a low level user unless you try.

2.) The Surface is tough. Mine got launched off of the top of a box that was about 7.5' in the air, glanced off the person grabbing the box (so it did slow down a touch), and hit a super hard commercial tile floor. It has a scratch on each top corner, that's about it. YMMV if you use it as a Frisbee over concrete of course.

[red-beard]

Originally Posted by Busta Rib

As is typical of MS over the past 15 years, they are a day late and a dollar (or three) short. They follow instead of lead, mimic where they should be innovating, and focus on all the wrong things, particularly user experience. With three generations of iPad out in the wild, you would think they had a pretty good/clear bogey that they needed to hit and yet, they still missed with the Surface RT. Hello, Microsoft...it's 2012. Get with the times.

Microsoft has always been behind, but has eventually taken over.

Operating System? Check

Office Suite? Check

Browser? Check

Is the Surface competing with the iPad? I don't see them competing. The Surface is a small PC, not a tablet. The ipad is basically a giant iPod touch. My HP Slate 500 can still do so much more than an iPad. In fact, my Android tablet can do far more than an iPad.

My sister recently purchased an iPad to use when she didn't want to take a laptop on short business trips. She asked me how to put her work files on the iPad. The answer is you can, sort of, but the program has to be able to store them and you have to use iTunes to move the files. Seriously?

I looked at what RT can do, and I'm waiting for a Surface Windows 8 Pro. I want Quickbooks to be able to run along with some other programs. If all I needed was e-mail and Microsoft Office, I think it could be a good deal.

The iPad and Android tablet are not serious computers. The Surface with Windows RT is closer, but still not a full PC.

[MysticLlama]

Originally Posted by red-beard

The iPad and Android tablet are not serious computers. The Surface with Windows RT is closer, but still not a full PC.

True, though with the ability to use the touchpoint or a Bluetooth mouse + full screen RDP, you can get 95% there. I haven't seen how exactly yet, but have read that TSRemoteApp might work, which would just push the window of things like QuickBooks to you.

The Surface falls all apart without Wifi, but I think that's normal for almost anything now.

[island911]

Originally Posted by BlueSkyJaunte

OK, my generation n-1 Acer Android tablet (A500) has:

1) Real USB port
2) uSD card slot
3) HDMI out
4) A "kickstand" cover
5) Android, with a software library 6x the size of MSFTs and an interface that doesn't inspire random acts of violence
6) A pricetag 1/2 the Surface's

How is Microsoft innovating, again? With an unusable add-on keyboard cover? Puh-leeze.

My wife has the windows version (Acer W500). The price point new was about the same as the Surface RT. The Surface RT however is trim and has a nice set of features and a MUCH better build quality. No where did I say that Microsoft is innovating with this device. I said that they are making inroads.

From my perspective the game is bang for the buck.. .. The "innovative" features and form factor have been out for some time. I have a circa 2005 Windows tablet that still travels with me. It weighs 1.5 lbs, has a very bright screen, kickstand, stereo mic's and speakers, a couple USB's, and SD slot, SSD. ...of course it was ~$3000 with that SSD in 2005, or $1500 w/a spinner.

IOW, it's all about package price.

If there is an innovation with the Surface RT it's those keyboard covers. Apple had their cool ipad cover. The surface makes the cover what it should have been from the start.

[red-beard]

Originally Posted by MysticLlama

True, though with the ability to use the touchpoint or a Bluetooth mouse + full screen RDP, you can get 95% there. I haven't seen how exactly yet, but have read that TSRemoteApp might work, which would just push the window of things like QuickBooks to you.

The Surface falls all apart without Wifi, but I think that's normal for almost anything now.

I can also do the Web based Quickbooks on the RT unit, but then I have to setup a web account with them and pay for the service. I'd prefer not to do that.

I use a bluetooth mouse and bluetooth keyboard on my HP Slate 500. Works great. But I can also use it as a pure tablet when necessary. It had a 64GB internal SSD drive, I added a 64GB SDXC card for extra storage. If it falls down anywhere, I cannot expand the RAM!. It does have a USB slot, and the docking station had 2 more USB slots and a HDMI slot.

My biggest complaint with the Slate is that it is a little underpowered and low on RAM. I would prefer Win 7x64 and 16GB of RAM and a bit faster processor when needed. Win 7 is very good at ramping the processors up and down in speed when needed.

[BlueSkyJaunte]

Originally Posted by island911

If there is an innovation with the Surface RT it's those keyboard covers. Apple had their cool ipad cover. The surface makes the cover what it should have been from the start.

You mean...like this?

[jyl]

I am reading that Win RT + Office RT consumes 12GB of disk. Which seems like a lot, in a tablet with 32GB of flash.

[Halm]

Originally Posted by jyl

I am reading that Win RT + Office RT consumes 12GB of disk. Which seems like a lot, in a tablet with 32GB of flash.

I took a look for you and Windows takes up a touch under 7GB and the entire Program Files (including Office) takes up 800 Mb. And you do know that there is a micro SD slot for additional storage?

An interesting article in WSJ says that the 32 GB Surface without keyboard is sold out on the US and all other countries where it is sold.

I am starting day 3 with my Surface and here is my take on it.

1.) MS is trying to encorporate their Phone interface (used to be called Metro, but I think they have now changed that) to all OS flavors. It works well with touch screen but not so much with a conventional monitor. It is a real PITA administering Server 2012 via a Remote Desktop client.

2.) I don't rememeber Win 95, but 98, XP, Vista and Win 7 all had a desktop START button on the lower left. With Win 7, you could "pin" applications to the Start menu (or the Task bar) for quick access.

3.) The Win 8 Start screen is simply the Win 7 Start menu pre-configured as "Tiles" with a collection of apps MS thinks you may want. If you don't need them, just unpin them. Then go to All Apps and pin what you do want to either the Start menu or Task bar. Once I got that concept, everything started to make sense.

4.) Multimedia has never been a Windows strong point. I don't see that changing anytime soon. I'll keep my music on my Galaxy Nexus.

5.) However, I do see this as a productivity box where I can actually do work. I am not a touch typist and I can actually go faster on the Touch Cover than I can on a traditional PC keyboard. My wife / partner really likes the Type Cover, so chose the one that works best for you. Don't forget that there is a USB port and you could plug in a traditional keyboard, in needed.

6.) There is one app missing now that keeps it from being a laptop replacement for me: Cisco AnyConnect. That is a SSL client and I don't see why it won't be released in the near future. In the interim, I'll make do with PPTP. Another app I miss is Slingplayer, but since there is a Phone 7 app, I suspect that will also be released soon. FYI, my Cisco engineer has told me that the Cisco VPN client we are all used to and is baked into the iPad is End Of Life and will be replaced by the AnyConnect product.

Is this a perfect device? No way. But IMO, it is a darn good start by MS in what the fanboys have proclaimed as the "post PC age."

[red-beard]

Originally Posted by Halm

I took a look for you and Windows takes up a touch under 7GB and the entire Program Files (including Office) takes up 800 Mb. And you do know that there is a micro SD slot for additional storage?

An interesting article in WSJ says that the 32 GB Surface without keyboard is sold out on the US and all other countries where it is sold.

I am starting day 3 with my Surface and here is my take on it.

1.) MS is trying to encorporate their Phone interface (used to be called Metro, but I think they have now changed that) to all OS flavors. It works well with touch screen but not so much with a conventional monitor. It is a real PITA administering Server 2012 via a Remote Desktop client.

2.) I don't rememeber Win 95, but 98, XP, Vista and Win 7 all had a desktop START button on the lower left. With Win 7, you could "pin" applications to the Start menu (or the Task bar) for quick access.

3.) The Win 8 Start screen is simply the Win 7 Start menu pre-configured as "Tiles" with a collection of apps MS thinks you may want. If you don't need them, just unpin them. Then go to All Apps and pin what you do want to either the Start menu or Task bar. Once I got that concept, everything started to make sense.

4.) Multimedia has never been a Windows strong point. I don't see that changing anytime soon. I'll keep my music on my Galaxy Nexus.

5.) However, I do see this as a productivity box where I can actually do work. I am not a touch typist and I can actually go faster on the Touch Cover than I can on a traditional PC keyboard. My wife / partner really likes the Type Cover, so chose the one that works best for you. Don't forget that there is a USB port and you could plug in a traditional keyboard, in needed.

6.) There is one app missing now that keeps it from being a laptop replacement for me: Cisco AnyConnect. That is a SSL client and I don't see why it won't be released in the near future. In the interim, I'll make do with PPTP. Another app I miss is Slingplayer, but since there is a Phone 7 app, I suspect that will also be released soon. FYI, my Cisco engineer has told me that the Cisco VPN client we are all used to and is baked into the iPad is End Of Life and will be replaced by the AnyConnect product.

Is this a perfect device? No way. But IMO, it is a darn good start by MS in what the fanboys have proclaimed as the "post PC age."

This is beginning to sound like the thing my sister wanted. Light, can do e-mail and office aong with surfing.

[stealthn]

It will be interesting to see what price point the Pro version comes out at. I think the Surfaces high price will be hard for consumers to chose between a PC and Surface. But at least it will have Outlook

[island911]

Originally Posted by BlueSkyJaunte

You mean...like this?

No. I mean like the magnetic ipad cover was innovative. ...not a huge innovation. But a minimal cover with good manners was a good thing. Pushing that idea forward with embedded connectors, fold-switch, a keyboard and track-pad all in a similar sized cover .. .it's a nice bit of work.

IMO, M'soft was also smart to offer two different versions. The "TypeCover" is especially nice. ...even the Touchpad physically clicks. And in a tech world of glass/aluminum clad devices the felt underside covering was also a nice touch (literally.)