Surface is dead?!?

[bills pies]

According to ZDnet surface is dead.
Surface Pro 3: Microsoft's grand tablet vision lies in tatters | ZDNet

What?

 

[Pete]

I think the first comment for that post says it all.

 

[N_LaRUE]

I wouldn't provide click bait to Znet personally. They never have anything good to say about Windows and are nothing but a bunch of iFans.

Just ignore them.

 

[mozman68]

I feel stupider for reading that...

 

[Reflexx]

I normally give ZDNet a chance because of Mary J Foley.

​But wow. That article was nothing but hot air. There was literally nothing to hold on to in it. It may as well have just been a thread on a discussion forum.

 

[unstoppablekem]

Lol, providing his opinion with few points to state his opinion. Seriously? :-/

 

[mparker]

“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.” - Upton Sinclair

From the author's bio at the bottom of that article:

His latest book -- "Death of the PC" -- is available on Amazon now.

 

[RajeevT]

I don't understand, people are paid to write such BS articles? :shocked:

I don't think ZDNet and this stupid author deserve more page views due to us so I am reproducing the entire piece of trash below:

Surface Pro 3: Microsoft's grand tablet vision lies in tatters
By Matt Baxter-Reynolds

Usually, on the third go, Microsoft gets it right. First iteration is normally a bit ropey, second one has promise, and the third one has the competition crying in their beer.

The idea of Surface was to provide an inspirational hardware platform that consumers would love, and that OEMs would follow. This novel hardware, together with kit produced by OEM partners, was supposed to usher in a new era that showcased this wonderful new Windows.

That wonderful new Windows itself was a reimagining. Its purpose was to staunch the spread of post-PC computing. Microsoft's hope would be that customers would wake up, stop buying iPad in their millions with their lack of keyboards and Office, and instead buy Windows tablets in their millions.

As we now know, that didn't happen. Consumers didn't like Windows 8. Enterprises didn't like Windows 8. OEMs didn't like it. Not that that last point mattered much -- consumers and enterprises kept on demanding cheap hardware and the market kept on keeping prices low.

Tacit

The execution of this vision -- especially when we look at Surface -- was always more tentative than it should have been. The devices were always PCs dressed up to look like iPads. Microsoft never believed in the post-PC idea, preferring instead to think about "PC Plus". PC Plus itself being a PC that could do everything a PC could do, but also everything that an iPad could do.

(At this point we need to explicitly set to one side Surface RT and Windows RT -- it adds unnecessary complication just like it added unnecessary complication to the market. Just forget it exists, which I suspect will be easy for you to do.)

What we saw with Surface Pro v1 was something that looked like a tablet, but had criticism levelled at it because it needed a keyboard, and the only thing it did really well was the traditional Windows desktop. With Surface Pro 2 we crept a little further down the continuum with a kind of tacit acceptance this thing was actually a laptop.

Now with Surface Pro 3, the thing is being actively pitched as a MacBook Air competitor. Any pretence of this being a "PC Plus" well and truly shown the door.

Pens

Microsoft faced two problems when it came to executing the Surface vision. On the one hand, it was imperative to keep marketing Office like crazy, both because the revenue stream had to be preserved, and always because it was perceived as being a key differentiator in the market. On the other hand, Microsoft has struggled throughout the whole Windows 8 era with being unable to get away from the gravity of old ways of thinking about things.

Enterprises barely remember them, and consumers will never remember them, but this wasn't the first time Microsoft had tried to get the world to buy into the idea of tablet computing.

The Compaq TC1000 that my ZDNet colleague James Kendrick reminisced about last year was a good piece of kit. I had one, tried my hardest to use it, and ultimately gave it up. What it was a full on PC shoved into a tiny box, and equipped with a pen, and a version of Windows with some cruft grafted on that made it behave differently to a traditional laptop.

The cruft was never enough to make it a tablet first. All it did was fiddle round the edges, demanding compromises within the core design of the system in order to turn it on.

That description also describes Surface. It's a full PC, shoved into a tiny box, equipped with a pen, and given a version of Windows with cruft grafted onto the top. And again, the cruft is not enough to make it a tablet first, and it's demanding compromises within the core design of the system. In this case, it's a laptop you can't use on your lap very easily, together with an enormous price tag.

Gravity

To me, the Surface vision has been rather like a space rocket trying to deliver enough forward thrust to climb out of earth's gravity well, only to find it can't quite make it and smashes back down to earth with an immense thump.

In this instance, the gravity is the desire of Microsoft's engineers and managers to make Gates' original vision tablet computing work.

Today, the Surface PC remains a PC. It remains a device designed to drive commercial efficiency, as opposed to post-PC devices that are designed to drive digital social engagement. That PC runs Windows, it runs all your apps, it needs a fat and energy hungry Intel processor, it runs Office, and because it's hard to use a keyboard when you're physically moving about, it needs a pen.

What Microsoft was trying to do with Windows 8 and Surface was to reimagine Windows. The objective was to produce a new operating system that would go toe-to-toe with the iPad and the Android pretenders.

What we have now is a version of Windows 8 where ever-so gently we're teasing away from the bold new vision, bringing back the Start menu, toning down the operation of Windows Store apps -- not that Windows Store apps are getting any level of traction at all.

Now in the marketing for Surface Pro 3 we see statements like "The tablet that can replace your laptop".

But all Surface Pro 3 customers are left with is an (admittedly nice) laptop, which runs Windows, with a pen. It's Windows XP Tablet PC Edition all over again now.

 

[kenweng]

wow, look I appreciate people criticizing MS because it just makes them work harder....but that article was garbage.

 

[David P2]

See also: Compaq Concerto - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Originally ran Windows 3.1 with Windows for Pen Computing 1.0, but still effectively a laptop that could be used as a tablet. And the original Thinkpad was a tablet too.

 

[Jordan Laureano1]

Surface is hot. it's beginning to show signs that lots of people are using it. It only shows that more and more people is appreciating surface . Surface is imagining things beyond.

 

[Pete]

There's also this story that I saw surface on my Bing news last night

Microsoft's Surface Pro 3 will flop: here's why | News | TechRadar

Seems like the same guy writing under a slightly different pseudonym. The link-baiting article heading leads to an article with no real meaning or points.

 

[MCube74]

There are a lot of articles against the Surface pro 3.

Here is another one which I kind of agree.

Microsoft's Surface Pro 3 Could Age Quickly Due To Its Year-Old Processor - Forbes

The Surface Pro 3 should have released with the Broadwell CPU. It would have made a bigger impact on the sales.

What will Microsoft release after Broadwell releases? Surface Pro 4???

 

[Jas00555]

There are a lot of articles against the Surface pro 3.

Here is another one which I kind of agree.

Microsoft's Surface Pro 3 Could Age Quickly Due To Its Year-Old Processor - Forbes

The Surface Pro 3 should have released with the Broadwell CPU. It would have made a bigger impact on the sales.

What will Microsoft release after Broadwell releases? Surface Pro 4???

So it should've had a chip that won't even exist for several months???? Ok....

 

[Reflexx]

So it should've had a chip that won't even exist for several months???? Ok....

...and I heard that it should have had a mini fusion reactor too.

 

[Zulfigar]

...and I heard that it should have had a mini fusion reactor too.

That isn't true?!???! My life is a lie!!!!!

 

[David P2]

That isn't true?!???! My life is a lie!!!!!

Needs a cup holder too.

 

[Korlon]

The author of that article isn't completely wrong because he is viewing the Surface through the iPad paradigm. Where the iPad is a social connectivity/app machine the Surface is about productivity. Guess what, you can't be both and you cannot smear that line in the sand. Social connectivity is solely in the realm of app developers whom have found a huge market with iOS and are largely ignoring developing for the surface because of it's market size. Know what? Who cares? The surface shouldn't be about apps, it must be about the legacy of PC software already available for it. That's why I always hated the idea of the RT/Surface models. These two models skewed the one major benefit surface had over all other tablets, the enormous catalogue of productivity, development and gaming software the PC has developed over the past few decades.

I am a huge supporter of the Surface line of tablet/ultrabook but I am hugely disappointed that MS continues this farcical attempt to make a tablet replace all laptops. It can't be done unless MS creates differentiated models based on function. To complete their vision they need a model for gaming, a model for enterprise, a consumer/casual user model and all aggressively priced for their tailored market. This one model for all, lack of focus, is hampering their ability to innovate, case in point SP3's only real upgrade to the SP2 is the screen size and the introduction of the i7 processors. Who cares if it's lighter and thinner? I mean, it's nice and all, but the Surfaces are meant to be used on the lap or desk, not up in the air in your hands. Light and thin don't do anything but make the Surface seem like a iPad competitor and yet MS overtly targets laptops. Confused message, too broad of focus and in the end MS will fail because they are trying to do everything in one machine. Can't be done.

I like the bigger screen, but it's not enough to motivate me as an SP2 user to upgrade. I hope it's enough to bring in new consumers into this ecosystem, and I hope it's enough for MS to finally get rid of that RT. Pro models are the standard, there is nothing to compete with it. Take the ball and run with it MS.

 

[sd173]

There are a lot of articles against the Surface pro 3.

Here is another one which I kind of agree.

Microsoft's Surface Pro 3 Could Age Quickly Due To Its Year-Old Processor - Forbes

The Surface Pro 3 should have released with the Broadwell CPU. It would have made a bigger impact on the sales.

What will Microsoft release after Broadwell releases? Surface Pro 4???

Even though the Pro 3 is probably the most awesome device I have ever seen, it, in very few ways, seems like an unfinished product that leads to the Pro 4. This is my reasoning behind saying that:

1. The pen doesn't stay attached to the Surface too good, and that is something so simple to notice that the Surface Team could've easily found that out and fixed it with some testing.

2. The prices are Apple-level high, which makes me think that this seems like funding for something even better to come.

3. The event was supposed to be for the Surface mini but was changed to be for the Pro 3 only a short time before the event happened. This could mean the Pro 3 might have been intended for the broadwell processors but a different version with haswell processor was presented and given to journalists during the event.

 

[WillysJeepMan]

So it should've had a chip that won't even exist for several months???? Ok....

Or they could've waited. It's not like they announced the Pro 2 7 months ago... oh wait... they did. I get the sense that they wanted to put out a "pro" tablet before Apple. It makes little sense to produce a cutting edge pro tablet with a processor that is in the final months of it's production cycle.