“With Windows 8, Steven Sinofsky said that Microsoft and its PC-making partners have found a way to deliver modern computing at a price far less than that fruit-named competitor,” Ina Fried reports for AllThingsD.
“He notes that there are full-featured Windows 8 laptops that sell for $279,” Fried reports. “‘It’s $279,’ he said, ‘Here we are, talking about seven-inch recreational tablets for $329.’ As for the Windows RT variant, which uses more power-conscious ARM-based processors, but can’t run older programs, Sinofsky said it will hold a lot of appeal. ‘It really is a PC for everyone,’ he said.”
“He said, while an iPad might be good for a short trip, a device like Microsoft’s Surface can suffice even on a long business trip,” Fried reports. “Apple CEO Tim Cook took his own shots at Microsoft on Thursday, suggesting that Surface makes too many compromises in trying to serve as both PC and tablet. ‘You could design a car that flies and floats,’ Cook said on Apple’s earnings conference call, ‘but I don’t think it would do either of those things very well.'”
MacDailyNews Take: Steven SinofskyDear Great Gazoo: iPad mini’s 7.9-inch display — not “7-inch,” you liar — gives users 35% more screen real estate than 7-inch tablets and up to 67% more usable viewing area for Web browsing.
And, we’ll see what sells and what doesn’t.
BTW: Nice reviews, cueball.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Joe Architect” for the heads up.]
(I intended to say “more than one BALD clown”. I got to thinking…aren’t all circus clowns bald, anyway? And does anyone over the age of 2 still think of clowns as humorous, instead of what they have become, in our twisted contemporary culture—sinister symbols of the deranged and obsessive stalkers, intruders, and psychopaths among us? Or have I been watching too many Batman movies?)
Read ‘The Quiet Girl’ – a great clown story.
Let’s, this is from a company that pays people to stand in their lines. And have enough guts to just say “Apple” if you are talking about them.
Yeah – A long trip off a short pier…. I’d like to see how you use a Surface® on an airplane – no way you can prop that thing with the keyboard on a tray table and certainly not on your lap.
Remember, this is the same dude who just had a massive fail demo’ing his Surface tablet on stage when that darned thing just froze into a paper weight.. Watching him unsuccessfully tap and swipe then tiptoe to grab his back up Surface on the table was painfully hilarious!
Steven Sinofsky forgot to mention that those “full-featured Windows 8 laptops that sell for $279” are pieces of total garbage that nobody wants. They’re only $279 for a reason.
He also forgot to mention that nobody wants to use fully featured Windows on a tablet, so that’s not exactly selling point for the Surface. Does Sinofsky think that people will magically want it after about TWELVE SOLID YEARS of abjectly rejecting the whole concept of it?
The only thing Surface has going for it is Metro and… Wait, the failure of Windows Phone proved that nobody wants Metro either.
Have you seen some of those laptops that you can remove the keyboard from? I guess the laws of physics don’t apply – you put the heavy parts behind the screen and have a light keyboard on the desk – I guess you can’t tilt the screen too far back or it will fall over.
… dear departed leader who said that 7″ is “too small”? And 7.9″ may be bigger, but hardly enough to deny that remark.
I believe Jobs may have been correct. I also believe a 7″ tablet could be “too small” yet still offer good value to some users.
Just because MSFT is admitting error does not mean the sheep will revolt. That is not their nature.
Well yeah, it doesn’t even have a proper keyboard, so it not like ya know, a good email machine. Sure, it will sell a few, but mostly just a rounding error. Apple may have the lead in colors, but Ballmer thinks they can overcome that.
/snarkasm
Oh yeah I remember it. How can you forget something that brings forth that much hilarity, delusion and derision? Can’t wait to see Microsoft’s face-saving take on further failure.
it really seems that whole iPhone funeral was just swept under the rug.. So ballsy to put on such a big show, fail, and just be like “move along… nothing to see”
“Never” understand: so right. Because that “rinse and repeat” algorithm on the shampoo bottle lacks a stop—it’s an infinite loop. No wonder Ballmer and Sinofski are bald.
It’s a well known fact that consumers will not spend money on recreation.
Surface is made for serious business. For work. No smiling. Furrowed brow and concentration only. Surface is the anti-recreactional device. It’s a selling point. I mean, it has outlook, why buy anything else?
That $279 laptop won’t have a touch-enabled screen (one of Win 8’s main feature points) and will run with less life than President Obama in the first debate.
In the end, the consumer will pay what they can for a product. No one is hold a gun to anyone’s head to buy an iPad mini. If you think $329.00 is to expensive for a tablet computer……..here’s the thing then don’t buy it. Screaming about what product is better or cheaper doesn’t make that product any better. People will buy what they can afford. Time after time Apple has stated that it’s not the business of flooding the market with cheap products just so everyone can have one. The consumer is will make that choice for themselves.
Frankly, all 7″ tablets are a waste of money. it’s the ‘tween size that does nothing well — too big for a mobile phone, too small for reading a full page of legible text.
10″ screens are infinitely more useful for must purposes, as Steve Jobs correctly deduced years ago.
As for the Surface RT: another Zune that will die a quick death due to severe applack.
Yeah, $279. He didn’t mentioned the other costs. $459 for office, $599 for project, $50 for anti virus and ongoing subscription to keep that up to date, and when that fails and you get infected, take it to worst buy and pay $300 a pop to get it cleaned. Rinse and repeat. So now you have a piece of crap, and a fortune in software, that is still prone to virus and malware attacks, when you just could have avoided all that by buying a Mac in the first place. The horror.
This guy makes how much a year and doesn’t know the basics? Hardware by itself is never enough no matter how powerful your device is if it doesn’t have the Apps to back it up then it’s meaningless. Not to mention Windows 8 has yet to prove itself as a user-friendly operating system that people like.
Dear Great Gazoo: iPad mini’s 7.9-inch display — not “7-inch,” you liar — gives users 35% more screen real estate than 7-inch tablets and up to 67% more usable viewing area for Web browsing.
Wishful thinking? Delusional thinking? Not thinking at all?
Just, there’s more than one clown at Microsoft.
Microsoft – just a few clowns short of a circus?
Nice turn of phrase.
(I intended to say “more than one BALD clown”. I got to thinking…aren’t all circus clowns bald, anyway? And does anyone over the age of 2 still think of clowns as humorous, instead of what they have become, in our twisted contemporary culture—sinister symbols of the deranged and obsessive stalkers, intruders, and psychopaths among us? Or have I been watching too many Batman movies?)
Read ‘The Quiet Girl’ – a great clown story.
Let’s, this is from a company that pays people to stand in their lines. And have enough guts to just say “Apple” if you are talking about them.
That’s what I’m talking about. As if by saying “fruit company”, there’s some wiggle room for back-peddling.
Yeah – A long trip off a short pier…. I’d like to see how you use a Surface® on an airplane – no way you can prop that thing with the keyboard on a tray table and certainly not on your lap.
Remember, this is the same dude who just had a massive fail demo’ing his Surface tablet on stage when that darned thing just froze into a paper weight.. Watching him unsuccessfully tap and swipe then tiptoe to grab his back up Surface on the table was painfully hilarious!
Microsoft execs excel at tripping all over themselves and their crashing products while in a nosedive of public mindshare.
I was going to mention that. And the short jog to the podium was PRICELESS. he looked so nervous.
Steven Sinofsky forgot to mention that those “full-featured Windows 8 laptops that sell for $279” are pieces of total garbage that nobody wants. They’re only $279 for a reason.
He also forgot to mention that nobody wants to use fully featured Windows on a tablet, so that’s not exactly selling point for the Surface. Does Sinofsky think that people will magically want it after about TWELVE SOLID YEARS of abjectly rejecting the whole concept of it?
The only thing Surface has going for it is Metro and… Wait, the failure of Windows Phone proved that nobody wants Metro either.
Okay, the Surface has got nothing.
Have you seen some of those laptops that you can remove the keyboard from? I guess the laws of physics don’t apply – you put the heavy parts behind the screen and have a light keyboard on the desk – I guess you can’t tilt the screen too far back or it will fall over.
… dear departed leader who said that 7″ is “too small”? And 7.9″ may be bigger, but hardly enough to deny that remark.
I believe Jobs may have been correct. I also believe a 7″ tablet could be “too small” yet still offer good value to some users.
Just because MSFT is admitting error does not mean the sheep will revolt. That is not their nature.
Does this mean recreational sex is not as good as “real” sex?
Oh, the irony, considering the Surface’s only use will be recreational. See below.
The only thing this guy is good for is licking Ballmer’s sweat encrusted armpits.
I thought it was another part of Ballmer’s anatomy as in his name.
Eewwww!
I just vomited inside my mouth…!! Gee, thanks for making me loose my appetite for the next 3 days!
That is hilarious. Sweat encrusted……..flakes of dried, nervousness-induced perspiration fermented in an armpit.
“Dear Great Gazoo:” Ahahahahahaha! OH WOW.
Well yeah, it doesn’t even have a proper keyboard, so it not like ya know, a good email machine. Sure, it will sell a few, but mostly just a rounding error. Apple may have the lead in colors, but Ballmer thinks they can overcome that.
/snarkasm
How did that iPhone funeral work out for Microsoft? Anyone even remember that?
Its the same thing with Surface, rinse and repeat. They will never understand how to make a good product with thinking like this.
Oh yeah I remember it. How can you forget something that brings forth that much hilarity, delusion and derision? Can’t wait to see Microsoft’s face-saving take on further failure.
it really seems that whole iPhone funeral was just swept under the rug.. So ballsy to put on such a big show, fail, and just be like “move along… nothing to see”
“Never” understand: so right. Because that “rinse and repeat” algorithm on the shampoo bottle lacks a stop—it’s an infinite loop. No wonder Ballmer and Sinofski are bald.
Thanks for reminding me of that! I’d forgotten about it, that was funny at the time, and far, far, funnier now!
“Ignore the man behind the Surface”
NO. It’s essentially the SAME iPad as iPad 2, with a screen that shows the exact same content, running the exact same software with equal performance.
At less the HALF the weight.
And a $70 discount.
And I doubt that such uses as medical imaging qualify as recreational.
It’s a well known fact that consumers will not spend money on recreation.
Surface is made for serious business. For work. No smiling. Furrowed brow and concentration only. Surface is the anti-recreactional device. It’s a selling point. I mean, it has outlook, why buy anything else?
No, the regular version of Surface (RT) doesn’t even have Outlook! http://www.msoutlook.info/question/722
When will these guys learn simply to keep their mouths shut. They always end up looking stupid.
Hows that Ron White joke go?
“I had the right to remain silent, but I did not have the ability.”
That’s Ballmer!
That $279 laptop won’t have a touch-enabled screen (one of Win 8’s main feature points) and will run with less life than President Obama in the first debate.
MS is desperate and playing from behind like Obama now.
Still trying to convince us that we can’t do work with our iPads while we’re getting work done with our iPads, eh?
Will he ever learn?!
In the end, the consumer will pay what they can for a product. No one is hold a gun to anyone’s head to buy an iPad mini. If you think $329.00 is to expensive for a tablet computer……..here’s the thing then don’t buy it. Screaming about what product is better or cheaper doesn’t make that product any better. People will buy what they can afford. Time after time Apple has stated that it’s not the business of flooding the market with cheap products just so everyone can have one. The consumer is will make that choice for themselves.
Frankly, all 7″ tablets are a waste of money. it’s the ‘tween size that does nothing well — too big for a mobile phone, too small for reading a full page of legible text.
10″ screens are infinitely more useful for must purposes, as Steve Jobs correctly deduced years ago.
As for the Surface RT: another Zune that will die a quick death due to severe applack.
When the thought process is done through the head between the thighs instead of the head above the shoulders, weird things usually happen.
Cueball!..LOL…that one got me..hilarious
Hey wait a tick MDN, I thought the dufus CEO of Adobe was the Great Gazoo.
Never mind, I guess between the two there is enough stupid to share the title.
How do you not laugh when a Microsoft Exec makes such a foolish statement. I guess the execs at MS don’t look at the sales figures.
Yeah, $279. He didn’t mentioned the other costs. $459 for office, $599 for project, $50 for anti virus and ongoing subscription to keep that up to date, and when that fails and you get infected, take it to worst buy and pay $300 a pop to get it cleaned. Rinse and repeat. So now you have a piece of crap, and a fortune in software, that is still prone to virus and malware attacks, when you just could have avoided all that by buying a Mac in the first place. The horror.
This guy makes how much a year and doesn’t know the basics? Hardware by itself is never enough no matter how powerful your device is if it doesn’t have the Apps to back it up then it’s meaningless. Not to mention Windows 8 has yet to prove itself as a user-friendly operating system that people like.