[MysticLlama]

Here is another interesting business case about the Surface. (or any WinRT tab)

We run PCs at our store locations, we have lots of business software that requires them, as do most places. They are mostly Win7 boxes (and a couple Win8s)

Over the past 6 months or so, as I've been rotating some out, I've been adding monitors with built-in speakers, mics, and webcams, simply because I knew the video conferencing thing would come up as we got more spread out.

Well, it came up, the boss wants video conferencing starting next week. He has an iPad. He said, keep it simple, buy a couple managers iPads, we'll Facetime because it's easy.

Had a little discussion about the PCs being ready for it, the iPads being able to run Skype, his Windows phone also being able to run Skype, etc.

So, on Monday, we're buying a couple of Surfaces, since they run Skype integrated in the background, just like an iPad or iPhone runs Facetime, thus keeping it simple. It also will run on the iPads we have around, the PCs we have around, etc. The multi-user thing is also a huge bonus since these will be assigned to locations vs. people.

The device itself didn't do it, but mine has worked great, and Skype being available cross-platform and Facetime not made the difference.

If Facetime was available as a Windows app, we probably would have bought it and a few iPads.

Oh, Skype being available on smart TVs is a nice bonus, non-OS dependent at all, we'll be picking up a couple of those.