Anil Dash:
If anyone questioned whether Microsoft could get back in the fight once the cuffs finally came off, Surface should put those doubts to rest. The gorgeous PC/tablet hybrid is the only example in recent memory of a company clearly and emphatically going toe to toe with Apple on the industrial design front. The iPad will have to improve. Android tablets will have to improve. Surface isn’t another me-too device—it moves the entire category forward.
Incredibly kind words for a product that nobody has even used yet. “Moves an entire category forward”? Bullshit.
On paper, Surface is a novel design… Is it working in a day to day use? Still to be proven.
I look at it more of a device that wants to be a Tablet, but too scared to make the plunge. I think that they will be too expensive to compete initially.
The new Microsoft is angry and chamfered at 22º.
Does anyone else find it strange that when Apple puts out a new product (iPod, iPhone, iPad), everyone says they’re going to fail and that it will never succeed, and yet when Microsoft (or anyone else, really) introduces a new product, everyone seems exceedingly keen to praise them, even though they have no idea about anything about the product?
I think the Surface is the most interesting non-iPad tablet product to be shown off. At least they’re not phoning it in like Samsung. But the main features it has, an integrated keyboard, a stand, and in theory, full Microsoft Office support, aren’t relevant for my tablet use cases. They are “light” email, reading work documents, note taking, movies, games, brainstorming and drawing, and kids apps. None of these are done with the iPad sitting up like a laptop. They’re done in bed, on the can, on the sofa, and sitting flat in meetings. So, honestly, from a marketing point of view, I think they’re still trying to put a square peg in a round hole. The whole reason I think iPads are selling well is because they don’t have a keyboard, which would get in the way of people interacting with the touch screen.
I just don’t get why they’re pushing this like it’s a Netbook replacement.
I’d have slightly more tolerance for New Media Douchebags like Dash & Scoble if they demonstrated the ability to look at any (non-Apple) product or service with even the tiniest bit of skepticism. Their fawning enthusiasm makes them sound like they’re five years old…or they’re shills – either one.
Anytime I hear the word “hybrid” I immediately think: mediocre for all use cases.
To really make an impact, it’s going to have to be a terrific tablet experience, an outstanding notebook (that allows seamless movement between UIs), and wrapped up into a price point that makes it attractive vs. owning separate (optimized for teh task) devices.
It’s because you don’t get page views reporting the status quo.
It’s not a tablet. It’s a prototype. Wake me when it finally reaches actual retail presence, okay?
We know the price points or battery life yet?
Oh, so it’s the GOVERNMENT’S fault Microsoft sucks at hardware. Gotcha. I’ll stop making fun of them for the Zune after the election.
It’s like people waffling on about W8. You can’t buy it. You can’t (really) use it. In general, I pass over anything written about W8 due to it’s not out yet and glance at this ‘tablet’ for the same reason. To me, anything can change.
Surface is great and innovative design until you realize that Windows 8 are so poorely designed for tablets that you need keyboard and touchpad to have full control. Metro, or rather Modern UI, looks great and all but when you look a bit behind geometric tiles on start screen it’s not so great for fingers after all.
The (supposedly) greatest feature of Surface is the ability to run your everyday desktop software on tablet form factor device. And once agin – this is all AMAZING until you realize that to run that software on tablet you have to have tablet that looks and works like common laptop.
While I’m full time Windows user at the moment I don’t see any radical changes we’ve been promised with Windows 8. All I see is more and more compromises being made. We have great touch UI but you can have full desktop UI. We have great tablet but you don’t have to use it as a tablet because we made keyboard and touchpad integral part of it. We have great Metro apps but you can run all legacy apps too…
Microsoft hasn’t changed at all. It seemed that way when they introduced Metro for the first time but as time passes it’s more and more obvious that their strategy hasn’t changed – they are still afraid to make radical changes and just leave old stuff behind.
It’s because Apple have by that stage proven the concept
Anil Dash is a very bright man who just wrote an article that should have been subtitled, “I Have Gone MicroSoft in the Head.” MS fans are coming out of the woodwork to support his silly assertions that laud a product he hasn’t used in real life and to buy into excuses for MS’s recent past framed as explanations. Support this absurdity if you wish, I’m going fishing for yellow fin tuna in my aquarium. Ironic how my absurd actions have the same result as those of Anil Dash.
i would still take issue w/ the statement that the main feature the Surface has is an “integrated keyboard” — its physical keyboard is not physically integrated, it’s an add-on and no different than the plethora of keyboards available for an ipad, including those from Apple on Day 1.