why the three month wait?

jdevenberg

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I really want a surface pro. Very, very badly. But, if Windows 8 comes out in October as expected, and the surface pro doesn't launch until 3 months later, we are talking a January launch. That is 6 months from now and 7 months after it was shown off. Why is Microsoft forcing such a long wait? If I decide i want an x86 tablet and not an ARM tablet, i likely will not wait for the surface pro. I need a new computer now and holding off till October for a tablet is hard enough. There is no way i can wait till January. It seems to me that the x86 surface should be the easier of the two as it is what windows has been doing for decades. So what about you, are you willing to wait three months extra or are you going to get the first good x86 tablet released?

Odds are I will settle for a surface rt and upgrade our family desktop to Windows 8 Pro (it has release preview now) for the very few legacy programs we use.
 
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sinime

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IDK, there are already tablets out there running Win 7 with i5 CPU's. I'd imagine they could be upgraded to Win 8, so yeah, why the delays???
 

fwaits

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IDK, there are already tablets out there running Win 7 with i5 CPU's. I'd imagine they could be upgraded to Win 8, so yeah, why the delays???

Tablets out there aren't made by Microsoft that could potentially undercut their OEMs price/feature set and cause a rift in the model.
 

jdevenberg

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I think ms should tick off the OEM's. Maybe then they will make better products. If the surface pro was a launch device, and turned out to be the ottest selling x86 tablet, it would show HP, dell, Lenovo and the rest that they seriously need to step up their game.
 

kylej1050

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I think ms should tick off the OEM's. Maybe then they will make better products. If the surface pro was a launch device, and turned out to be the ottest selling x86 tablet, it would show HP, dell, Lenovo and the rest that they seriously need to step up their game.

Ahh, but it already showed them that it could be the hottest selling x86 or even ARM tablet outside of Apple's offerings without pissing them off.

They do need to step up their game and showing this off 3-6 months in advance gives the hardware manufacturers a bit of time to refine their current plans.

For all we know HP, Dell, and Lenovo have sent in their prototypes for W8 portables and Microsoft said "You know what, we weren't going to show this off until it was closer to being released, but we really need to light some fires here". Hence the early preview.

Also explains the lack of details regarding pricing and such. I like the Surface and I'm pretty sure that I'll end up with it but if another company comes out with a convertible laptop that is like an ultrabook with a pen, touch screen, and swivel hinge that lets you fold the screen back over the keyboard I'll probably get that instead.
 

jdevenberg

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cause it might not be ready?

that notion seems absurd though. X86 tablets already exist, so that end of things should be relatively easy. They already have their case design done. So I am not understanding how they are finishing the RT, an entirely new product idea, 3 months faster than a new product in a category that has been around for a decade.
 

dlusted

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Personally, I've been waiting to get a tablet for a good while now.....
After seeing the "crap" that Android and Apple have; and seeing what MS offer in this Surface Pro.... Waiting a few months longer is no big deal for me...

I do wish though they started publishing actual details of the Pro (i.e. CPU, RAM etc etc) as with this being X86 and I'm wanting this to use it in Desktop mode; these values will help determine what I will be able to run.

Will there be X86 Tablets that are better? Most probably....
The Surface will be like my HD7, and probably X86 tablets AFTER Surface release will probably be more like the Lumias in regards to the "Generations"
 

index1366

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Tablets with x86 already exist, but this one has maybe be optimized and so on, blah blah blah, haha. Won't buy anything others, because IMO this one will be totally designed for Windows 8 and the RT edition too, not as the existing tablets. If you know what I mean.. :)
 

ljkelley

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I'm getting both, the Surface RT and then the Pro. The RT I'll give to my husband when I get the Pro.

One reason for the delay would be not to upset OEMs as RT is a new product on new chipset without any idea of success or eventually market size. x86 is tried and true, albeit not in tablets and is in my opinion a harder pill for OEMs to swallow.

Another reason is a little truth to the Digitimes rumor that the case is so unique that its having difficulties or will take time to ramp up production. So come out with the cheaper product first (which uses less metal) and what they believe to be the long term bigger seller. Geeks obviously drool over the pro, but for most consumers willing to walk away from legacy apps (as they would have to if went from Windows 7 to say an Android or iPad tablet) then Surface RT will be the logical choice.
 

Sparkyscrum

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There was some talk of the reason being for the delay was due to Mircosoft waiting to skip Ivy Bridge and go straight to Hanwell to get the battery life to compete with the iPad better.

For me I'm waiting for the Pro version as I want a full OS as I've currently got a 3G iPad and a wifi W500 running Windows 8 and I can say apart from the connectivity, it's the Acer device I prefer. Looking like sticking in a mouse when dealing with spreedsheets or a keyboard whn I want to type. The iPad just doesn't suit my needs. It's too restrictive and personally have had a few issues with the hardware being faulty that have coloured my view.
 

theefman

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You'll be able to get the 510 which is better overall than the 500. Higher res screen, better battery life and keyboard, thinner and lighter.
 

jdevenberg

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You'll be able to get the 510 which is better overall than the 500. Higher res screen, better battery life and keyboard, thinner and lighter.

Yes, but it's likely to be priced at the same or higher than the RT as it is a full blown x86 tablet with ultra book like specs. The W500 was my backup plan if the rt is too expensive.
 

theefman

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Yes, but it's likely to be priced at the same or higher than the RT as it is a full blown x86 tablet with ultra book like specs. The W500 was my backup plan if the rt is too expensive.

I guess that makes sense. As for the W500, i've had the release preview on it since it was released and have no complaints about the device itself running the OS, you can tell its not a powerhouse but for all intents its just as fast and fluid as any demo of Windows 8 i've seen. Everything works as it should apart from bugs due to it being an unfinished OS so I think as a stop gap it will do just fine as a cheap W8 main system.
 

Sparkyscrum

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How do you like the w500? I've been thinking of picking one up if the Surface RT is too expensive.

You'll be able to get the 510 which is better overall than the 500. Higher res screen, better battery life and keyboard, thinner and lighter.

I quite like the W500 running Windows 8. Its lightening quick especially in metro mode. I've also got an iPad 3G and I can say that I prefer using Windows 8 over an iPad any day. I can't wait to the launch of the Surface Pro.

My partner brought me a keyboard case that (just) fits my W500 in so it feels very similar to have the Surface will be but just not as well implemented.

However I would rather have the Surface Pro over the W510 (which is the RT) or the W700 (Pro version) because of the stand and keyboard covers. However a lot depends on the specs of the Surface vs other W8 tablets as I want a proper replacement tablet for my laptop which is only be kept as the major device at home with the wifi and to run Adobe Illustrator 6 on (something I doubt any tablet will run well for now).
 

WPenvy

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Ahh, but it already showed them that it could be the hottest selling x86 or even ARM tablet outside of Apple's offerings without pissing them off.

They do need to step up their game and showing this off 3-6 months in advance gives the hardware manufacturers a bit of time to refine their current plans.

For all we know HP, Dell, and Lenovo have sent in their prototypes for W8 portables and Microsoft said "You know what, we weren't going to show this off until it was closer to being released, but we really need to light some fires here". Hence the early preview.

Also explains the lack of details regarding pricing and such. I like the Surface and I'm pretty sure that I'll end up with it but if another company comes out with a convertible laptop that is like an ultrabook with a pen, touch screen, and swivel hinge that lets you fold the screen back over the keyboard I'll probably get that instead.

This is true, remember how rushed the event seemed?
 

Jake_M

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I've been thinking lately, and I actually just posted this status on Twitter:

The reason Apple has so much success is because they deliver their product within days of announcing. No promises, just substance.

It's true though, Apple doesn't bull**** or play around, they don't generally announce things way ahead of time(iOS 6, but iOS 5 is out and is not buggy). Like the new Retina Display Macbook, they pretty much just had it ready to go. Microsoft experienced this success with the Xbox 360 S, where they set it on sale essentially the day of announcing it. It was a complete mystery and it hit hard, like Apple always does.

I think they should've waited. I definitely want a Surface Pro for college. It will replace my laptop and then I'll get a high end desktop for Photoshop/Gaming/Video Editing.
 

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