“Microsoft reportedly planned to adopt unibody magnesium-aluminum chassis for its Surface tablet PCs originally, but affected by chassis makers’ limited capacity, the company has instead turned to adopt a magnesium chassis and use MegVapor technology for surface treatment to allow the device to feature a similar exterior to traditional metal chassis; however, due to the method having a rather low yield rate, is has greatly affected Microsoft in trying to mass produce its new tablet PCs, according to sources from the upstream supply chain,” Aaron Lee and Joseph Tsai report for DigiTimes. “…The drawback of the design is that the device will be heavier.”
Lee and Tsai report, “The sources pointed out that before Microsoft launched Surface, the company has inquired at several metal chassis makers about their available capacity and revealed to these makers that its orders for Surface tablet PCs will go as high as five million units before the end of 2012; however, the chassis makers were forced to give up because of lack of capacity.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: So, if true, rather unsurprisingly, Microsoft’s vaunted faux-Liquidmetal chassis seems to have already gone poof! VaporMg was very aptly-named. A first for a Microsoft product; much better than “Start” to shutdown.
Watch how the the media reports this situation. The good journalists will correctly identify “VaporMg” for what it really is: a surface treatment. Pig lipstick. The shiteous outlets will continue to regurgitate Microsoft’s original press release and onstage “VaporMg” pronouncements – just as Microsoft intended all along.
What else will evaporate from the Surface before Microsoft’s store shelving dust-protectors actually ship, if they ever do?
Related articles:
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HP said to dump Microsoft over Surface; to cozy up to Google Android for tablet efforts – July 2, 2012
Bad news for Microsoft’s iPad killer? – July 2, 2012
Dear Microsoft, Steve Balmer and Bill Gates: What is up with your obsession with keyboards? – June 28, 2012
Jason Schwarz: Top 10 reasons why Microsoft’s Surface is DOA – June 22, 2012
Why I love Microsoft’s vaporware Surface tablet – June 22, 2012
Microsoft’s Surface tablet said to be Wi-Fi only at launch; no 4G, no 3G, no 2G, not even 1G – June 22, 2012
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Why wouldn’t Microsoft let anyone touch its Surface tablets’ keyboard cover? – June 20, 2012
The cost of Microsoft’s Surface tablets – June 20, 2012
Apple’s revolutionary iPad vs. Microsoft’s anti-tablet ‘Surface’ – June 20, 2012
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ZDNet Sr. Tech Editor Perlow: Microsoft’s Surface has catastrophe written all over it – June 19, 2012
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ZDNet’s Kingsley-Hughes: Microsoft’s Windows 8 is an awful, horrible, painful design disaster – June 8, 2012
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I would point out that DigiTimes is as accurate with MS rumors as Apple
This story may be a rumour, but it’s no more of a rumour than the ‘product’ that Microsoft announced three weeks ago.
I am writing this comment on a Surface Pro with a VaporMg chassis. Lol.
So?
So, it’s not a unibody construction at all, much less a molded metal chassis.
VaporMg looks like nothing more than a finish. Plating. Garbage.
Typical Microsoft bullshit. Promise the world and then deliver pretty much nothing of note.
“Promise the world and then deliver pretty much nothing of note.”
Obama.
Hey, Obama delivered the weakest recovery in modern history!
That’s certainly notable. Some more notes:
• By this point, the average job growth in the past 10 recoveries was 6.9%. Under Obama, jobs have grown by just 1.9%
• After 11 quarters, the economy is still only 6.8% bigger than it was when the recession ended. In contrast, GDP was 16% bigger, on average, by this point in the previous 10 recoveries.
• By the third year of the past five recoveries, real median household incomes climbed an average 2.8%, according to the Census Bureau, which only has household income data back to 1967. But in the current recovery, real household incomes dropped 5.4%.
• By this point in previous recoveries, deficits were running an average 2.2% of GDP. This year, they’re expected to be 7.6%, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
• On average, federal debt climbed 9.5% in the first three years of those recoveries, after adjusting for inflation. Under Obama, debt has climbed $4 trillion since the recovery started, a 28% increase in real terms.
http://news.investors.com/article/613025/201205300911/obama-recovery-much-worse-than-average.htm
Ha. Only a brain-washed zombie Republican could get a hard-on because a recovery isn’t as big as it could be.
Naturally, the fact that any recovery was possible considering the pedal to the metal depression that Bush and Republican policies were sending the US economy is irrelevant.
What a dick.
Obama followed the worst President in modern history and had to contend with an obstinate, obstructionist group of Republicans who are so hypocritical that they are against their own ideas if they are spoken by Obama.
Someone as obviously superior as you must *know* what Obama inherited – two wars, massive defense spending, massive tax cuts, massive and growing deficits, financial collapse, massive job losses, interest rates near zero percent (thus eliminating one possible avenue for economic stimulation)…the list goes on. And the Republicans are unwilling to help fix the problems over which they presided. The GOP would rather limit Obama to one term than work in a bipartisan way to address the challenges faced by our country.
If you need any explanation for the numbers that you quoted, just review 2001-2008. It is more than disingenuous to attempt to disparage Obama by referencing “modern history” with respect to a nearly unprecedented economic situation. Go back to the Great Depression and check out those numbers.
blahblahblahblahblah
Assholes.
You sure know how to be what you speak. What have you done to improve the economy lately? Walk your talk, or be quiet.
Just get over yourself already. If you’re so unhappy, please just move. I promise not to miss you.
Damn, I fed the troll. And we all know how big the patties are that elephant rolls leave behind…
1
It also looks like a sad attempt to cut costs… which means this tablet will NEVER be as cheap as the iPad, and I doubt it will take off…
Quite a gamble. This may very well be the end of Microsoft.
How’s that comment holding out for you 10 years later with the biggest surface line up ever?
That was quick.
Pride before fall, pie in the face, promises they can’t keep, vaporware prematurely announced, vaporware announced but never delivered, promises & partnerships revoked, poorly thought out soft/hard ware – all Microsoft business attributes. With ZERO rating of cool. Thank God for Apple!
god, you’re the stupidest person in the world.
I predict the next “feature” to be eliminated will be the kickstand. Why? I’m glad you asked! The average consumer will know there is a kickstand attached to the Surface but they won’t be able to distinguish the stand from the Surface and will end up kicking the Surface, causing undo warranty claims. This will all be discovered during early field testing of the unit.
@ Jim: This will all be discovered during early field testing of the unit.
You mean the first 5000 customers will be doing the real-world field testing?
I honestly doubt this thing will even ship. I see another Courier.
Did nobody @ Microsoft raise the concern that calling any part of this “Vapor” was probably not a good idea? MS wants to be like Apple so much, yet they still fail to understand the weight and importance of saying “Available: Today.” Annoucing something with no specific ship date or price is pointless and ultimately counter-productive. And inviting Press to a presentation where you go on and on about a keyboard, but then don’t let the Press actually type on any of them is just plain stupid. MS needs to milk Windows for all it can, and then move on the next big thing — unfortunately for MS, the next big this is iOS.
Micr$oft’s announcement was an attempt to freeze the market until it gets surface there. I am guessing that Micro$oft has been shocked at the speed at which enterprises are adding iPad’s and iPhones. I have to say, it has been a much faster uptake that I was expecting.
I believe it is entirely an enterprise play, allowing IT doufuses to say to executives, we have to slow down this iPad thing, because there is this Micro$oft product that is going to do so much more…………
That’s actually a credible possibility. Sad.
You are the funniest comedian there ever was. Apple is as dead now as it ever was. Losing market share 10% at a time. The next big thing is android, and Microsoft has a huge amount of eggs in that basket already.
I don’t understand how “VaporMg” could be anything else but a method of surface application of a metal coating using ion beam irradiation.
The metal being magnesium.
” . . .revealed to these makers that its orders for Surface tablet PCs will go as high as five million units before the end of 2012; however, the chassis makers were forced to give up because of lack of capacity.”
Lack of capacity isn’t going to be the real problem for Microsloth. It will be lack of demand.
Maybe I can put in my bid for the manufacturing of the chassis. It might take me some time to make a dozen but by that should take care of it.
“It might take me some time to make a dozen but that should take care of it.”
+1
I can honestly see Ballmer killing off the kickstand next.
Not when the kickstand suggests a bicycle metaphor, getting Ballmer enthusiastic about a whole new advertising campaign that includes a “green” theme touting energy conservation, Tour de France commercials suggesting speed, and high stakes poker played with Bicycle playing cards that are later used with clothes pins on kids’ bikes to make them go “vroom”!
There’s a tile for that.
I hope this information is a wake up call to any Microsoft fans that thought the Surface circus show was in any way a PRODUCT INTRODUCTION.
Weeks after the introduction the main construction method for the chassis is changed? Feh – what MS showed were some early prototypes, not products.
Ask Mercedes Benz about the safety of using magnesium in a product.
I am the Internet Sales Manager at a major Mercedes-Benz dealership. I am curious to what you are referring. Care to enlighten me?
Not even a month since announcement, and the revisions and compromises have already begun.
– Exactly as many of us here anticipated.
Hey, where is that that handful of posters who defended the Surface here on MDN, claiming that we were Apple Fanbois because we predicted at the outset that Microsoft would pullback on announced design and materials and features and functionality?
Where are you posters, who’d told us that we’d be more mature if we’d just wait for physical delivery before judging the Surface?
Hello?
Hello?
Hellooooo …?
Microsoft never said that the chassis was made with vapor deposit Mg. The finish is is made that way.
There are a lot of ignorant people out there that don’t understand what was said. In addition, when they talked about liquid Mg, they were simply talking about an injection molded chassis using Mg. This is not something new. Cameras are made this way.
It’s third parties who are going on about this.
you guys got it all right didn’t you 🙂
@lol a mac website, what did u expect haha.
Fanbois got it wrong again – $300 for a superior product (Surface RT) that crapples all over an iPad!
Typical Apple fanboi shit – face it, you beloved Apple products are losing more and more everyday.
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