Allow me to share another of my real world experiences of just how effective the supposedly "limited", "crippled", or "useless" Windows RT is. Part of my job involves sitting in meetings with other "stakeholders" negotiating proposed legislation. At one of these meetings yesterday, I paid particular attention to the technology the 30 or so people were using. About half of the group had either laptops (mostly PC's but a few Macs) or iPads (either propped up in a keyboard attachment or in the "magic" cover). I alone had the Surface RT.
I sat next to a colleague with an iPad that was propped up on its cover. I had the RT set up fully with its Touch keyboard. I had called up the documents we were all reviewing in Reader or Word and flipped between them as needed. I had also opened Mail and had it snapped to the side of the screen so I could see messages from my clients concerning this issue as they came in. My colleague had the documents opened on her iPad and flipped through them as well, though I certainly noticed the Word documents looked better on the Surface than on the iPad. She also had to keep grabbing her phone (iPhone, natch) to check her emails as we worked through the meeting.
I clearly had the more efficient operation. She glanced over several times at how well this was all working for me. This colleague has asked me about the Surface before so she didn't ask more questions this time, but I do this all the time and I have to believe the buzz is beginning to build for my favorite computing device. While I haven't spotted another Surface in my work world yet, as I was signing in to a meeting recently and set it down on the table, the meeting host spotted it and asked me which keyboard I had on my Surface and told me she had used the Type cover on hers and loved the device. Earlier this year when I opened my Surface in a meeting, people would ask what it was. Now when I open it, the most common comment is "Is that the Windows tablet?" Progress. Slow, but progress.
I sat next to a colleague with an iPad that was propped up on its cover. I had the RT set up fully with its Touch keyboard. I had called up the documents we were all reviewing in Reader or Word and flipped between them as needed. I had also opened Mail and had it snapped to the side of the screen so I could see messages from my clients concerning this issue as they came in. My colleague had the documents opened on her iPad and flipped through them as well, though I certainly noticed the Word documents looked better on the Surface than on the iPad. She also had to keep grabbing her phone (iPhone, natch) to check her emails as we worked through the meeting.
I clearly had the more efficient operation. She glanced over several times at how well this was all working for me. This colleague has asked me about the Surface before so she didn't ask more questions this time, but I do this all the time and I have to believe the buzz is beginning to build for my favorite computing device. While I haven't spotted another Surface in my work world yet, as I was signing in to a meeting recently and set it down on the table, the meeting host spotted it and asked me which keyboard I had on my Surface and told me she had used the Type cover on hers and loved the device. Earlier this year when I opened my Surface in a meeting, people would ask what it was. Now when I open it, the most common comment is "Is that the Windows tablet?" Progress. Slow, but progress.