microsoft has to deal w/ a reputation it has earned. micrsosoft is a bit sloppy, imo. they release products in a state that apple, for example, would never release them. for example, why do my surface tablets sometimes not open the on s creen keyboard so i log-in after waking them from sleeping? i have restart the machine in order to log in. that's super sloppy. how on earth can you release a product without fixing that first? i think we can all agree that the surface rt is not as fast as it should have been. microsoft had to have known that. why release the product if it wasn't ready? the surface 2 should have been the first surface. instead, microsoft forced out the product in what must be one of the dumbest marketing strategies ever (release only through microsoft, then only microsoft stores or online through microsoft, then online through some tech retailors, and then in phyiscal tech stores?!) that gauranteed failure. now they fighting against that grand and embarrassing failure. they're farther behind now than two years ago.
are many of the tech reviews unduly harsh? i think so, but i also think microsoft deserves it to a large extent. they've created an incredible product but are killing it by making dumb decisions--rushing it to market, making it difficult to buy, overcharging, et cetera.
as i've said before, i'm rather pissed about the whole thing. not because i don't like microsoft..i actually really like microsoft. i use two windows phones, an rt and a pro, and a windows 8 desktop. i'm committed. i'm pissed because microsoft is taking a great product in windows 8 and surface and they killing w/ dumb decisions. and that just seems to be characteristic of what microsoft is--a good bit of slop seems to go with whatever they do. if you doubt that look at their incredible history. it's an impressive history, but there a lot of consistent slop built in. look at explorer. why on earth did microsoft just let explorer sit and rot? why sit back and just allow a market you once dominated slip away? that's a sloppy approach and what "improvements" microsoft made to explorer were themselves sloppy. hardly anyone prefers explorer as a browser. i could go on, but you see my point.
microsoft can't complain about unfair treatment given the way they're treated themselves. i say that hoping the surface and windows 8 become hugely successful, because i think they're great products.