I'm not buying this. I've read so many blogs that say the the Surface RT is a "demo" to OEM's of what a tablet should be. Pretty expensive demo if that's the case. I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm saying it's unheard of to create and market a product, and it's only intent is for it to be an example. Doesn't make sense.
It's not a demo. It's a standard setter.
The Surface is still meant to be profitable. It is meant to create buzz. It's meant to earn some good money for Microsoft's stores.
But it's NOT meant to be some huge product deployment.
Surface is a showcase for Windows RT and Windows 8. MS wants OEMs to SUCCESSFULLY compete with Surface.
Why does this make sense? Because with Windows 7, OEMS were churning out crappy low quality hardware. What did
typical users do when they got their hands on cheap hardware? I can tell you what they DIDN'T say.
They didn't say, "Wow. This netbook doesn't have the required processing power to properly run this OS effectively."
They didn't say, "Gee whiz. Look at this. The resources are being hogged up by all of this preinstalled extra software."
They didn't say, "It must be running bad because of all the free nifty cool software the manufacturer gave me!"
Nope.
Instead they said things like, "Windows sucks." or "Windows is slow."
Surface exists to hold OEMs accountable. Consumers can say, "How come it runs decently on Surface, but it sucks on this machine? This manufacturer must have made a crappy computer. It's not because of Windows."
This is what I agree with as well. Why advertise the thing so much and not make it readily available to everyone? If I'm a "normal" user, I'd see the commercial, and then wonder where I could at least look/touch one.
Windows 8 and Windows RT.
A consumer can walk into Best Buy and pick up an Asus tablet and think, "This is kind of like Surface."
Let's be honest. Consumers get excited about products, not operating systems.
Sure, there are cool Windows 8 commercials out there. But "Windows 8" isn't a cool item to buy for most people. All the Windows 8 ads do is make the transition look less scary and more inviting.
But real tangible products get people excited. Even if people don't actually pick up that particular product.
Think about what the Droid phone did for ALL Android handsets.