“Microsoft’s long-promised tablet is finally (almost) here,” Julianne Pepitone reports for CNNMoney. “The company scheduled a last-minute, mysterious event to be held at 3:30 p.m. Pacific Time on Monday in Los Angeles. Microsoft didn’t give attendees much notice — invitations went out Thursday.”
“The rumor mill has been churning ever since, and the conventional wisdom is that Microsoft will be unveiling its first Windows 8 tablet,” Pepitone reports. “Here’s the twist: Microsoft is manufacturing the tablet itself, according to reports in The Wrap and other outlets.”
Pepitone reports, “That would be a drastic shift from Microsoft’s historic strategy of relying on hardware partners like Dell and HP to make its actual devices. If the company does unveil its own Microsoft-branded tablet, there are two ways it can go.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: We have but one question: Doorstops, paperweights, and/or boat anchors?
CNET has live coverage of the event via Livestream here.
While we await the answer with non-bated breath, check out the comments below the CNNMoney article.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “silverhawk1” for the heads up.]
Related articles:
Microsoft touts ‘major’ June 18 event said to showcase Windows RT tablets – June 15, 2012
ZDNet’s Kingsley-Hughes: Microsoft’s Windows 8 is an awful, horrible, painful design disaster – June 8, 2012
Analyst meets with big computer maker, finds ‘general lack of enthusiasm’ for Windows 8 – June 8, 2012
Dvorak: Windows 8 an unmitigated disaster; unusable and annoying; it makes your teeth itch – June 3, 2012
The Guardian: Microsoft’s Windows 8 is confusing as hell; an appalling user experience – March 5, 2012
More good news for Apple: Microsoft previews Windows 8 (with video) – June 1, 2011
Invitations went out Thursday and as of noon PDT Monday only 20 people had signed up.
Free concert tickets to Justin Bieber aren’t bringing in very many takers.
Courier..part duxe
Zunebook.
More like ZunePad…
If its an X-Tablet with integrated control pads, I’m all over it. They may be out to beat Nintendo, Sony and Kindle in one fell swoop. I think Apple needs to release a magnetic control add on like 3ds circle pad but of course better implementation. Show Nintendo how it’s done right. Still don’t like virtual controls….. But love all things Apple!
What are you, 14?
Microsoft has had a couple of years, five versions of iOS, and three versions of the iPad to copy. It would be really pitiful if Microsoft is unable to field a decent tablet after having the benefit of Apple’s example.
excellent points
OMG, what if “conventional wisdom” is wrong and the “special event” is to announce SB’s retirement – oh noooooo.
The day Monkey Boy retires will be a sad day indeed!
Or I should say the day Monkey Boy is FORCED to retire. He’d never leave on his own, he obviously sees nothing wrong with his performance. He likes it a lot.
And so do I.
Since the iPad’s debut, there has been ZERO competition. Half-baked tablets with half-baked OS’s competed like a 98 pound weakling jumping in the ring with Joe Frazier… Someone’s gotta deliver something, sometime – Apple NEEDS some competition…
No they don’t, they are there own competition.
The event is already delayed by a half hour at the last minute. Not an auspicious start . . . .
Anybody want a good laugh?
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/technology/2012/06/microsoft-event-tablet-liveblog/
The event was scheduled to start almost 30 minutes ago and like everything else they do, Microsoft is once again late to the game and you should read the comments from the link I attached. It’s a hoot!
Now the attendees are dreaming up that it is Courier!
The following are some comments made by people invited to an event that is 40+ minutes lat.
Comment From Paulco
Family Guy is on, I’m out of here
Comment From casey
Okay. There is a big difference between viable suspense and taking liberties with my time. I will read about this later and promise to be less excited about whatever they announce and will delay thinking about buying it a month for every 5 minutes after their announcement time.
Comment From Paul
Pink screen of death
Comment From gtbarnabas
Microsoft: “Even our announcements don’t ship on time.”
Read comments, from CNN Money. Absolutely RIPPING on MS. Sometimes it’s sad to see even the antagonist get beat upon.
Where’s the support American campaign? 🙂
Show me that microscam…sorry, i mean microsack will show some innovative stuff today and I promise you I’ll stick eagle feathers to a tortoise and teach it how to fly by next weekend. Thanks
Following over on Engadget’s live stream. Hilarious that this whole thing is so rushed, and now it is starting late. Microsoft really is in a complete state of disarray. Great leadership by Ballmer! I hope he stays forever (well, as long as it takes)!
Supposed to start at 3:30 PDT, but at 4:12 it still has not started.
As said by others… Microsoft is late at *everything*!
Wow, the whole presentation of the stage is just so tacky – obnoxious colors, looping rectangles on the screen. They have absolutely no class or style…
Hooray!!! MonkeyBoy is on the stage! 😀
Ballmer: “We believe that any intersection between human and machine can be made better when every aspect of the experience, hardware and software, are considered together.”
LMAO! NOW you realize this?! Too damn funny to hear him say this now.
Things you will never see at an Apple presentation:
WTF is that supposed to be? And what does it have to do with their tablet?
thats just the size of the power supply you have to carry.
😀
WTF?
They just introduced the MS Apple iPad to sell at their MS Apple stores…
They “redid” the iPad… Meh?!…
No, this is “Surface”. It’s different. 😉
Wasn’t that a ‘table’ from MS?
Yeah, apparently they don’t talk about the big ass table anymore.
Oh and it has a cover… with “magnets”! Wonder where they got that idea? Their is a “WOW” factor regarding MS but it leans more to the side of disbelief rather than the side of amazement!
Competition is good. The more the merrier. It drives component prices down and spurs innovation. The more the fight for our business, the better for us.
Hmm… so no real demo yet. Let me guess, it isn’t ready. Surprise.
I bet Apple’s stock will shoot up tomorrow based on MS continued ‘reciprocity’…
No fear here and for Microsoft, no shame here either.
They’re really proud of that plastic flap, err, I mean kickstand.
It looks like something your neighborhood mohel could easily snip off. 🙂
Its got electrolytes . . .
The cover is actually a keyboard and trackpad. That is pretty interesting.
The keyboard I get, but the trackpad? Does that mean that there is a cursor lurking waiting to come out on their tablet?
I meant pointer, but I think you got that. 😉
Okay, I get it now. They are basically going the same route as they have on the “full” OS – Metro for some stuff, and regular ol’ Windows interface for other stuff. Fail. The iPad is safe (not that we didn’t know that already).
Yes, but all Microsoft has to offer is less fragmentation than Android and they’ve got a solid profitable second place.
Looks interesting, but proof of the pudding is in the eating.
“Months and months of prototyping.”
You can tell they built it in a couple of months. After all, thats how long it took them to reverse engineer an iPad.
Damn, he’s back on the kickstand AGAIN!?
Every day Microsoft looks more and more like a bizarre cult run by middle aged slapheads.
“We knew that if we did not get the kickstand perfect, it would not work.” Yeah, it’s all about the kickstand.
Keyboard in the cover is interesting though.
And what about the fact that the first tablet (er, Surface) crashed. It’s just not a M$ event without a BSOD or equivalent.
And if you are the Microsoft purveyor of vaporware, why wouldn’t you name the cover “VaporMg”? <3
LOL 😀
Actually, I heard that they tried to run Netflix and it crashed so they swapped out for another machine. BSOD??
Probably a kickstand malfunction. LOL
Nothing but Microsoft attempt to copy every aspect of Apple’s business. It should be interesting how HP & Dell feel about this new MicroShaft strategy
Yep, it’s PlayedForSure all over again.
And of course, there has to be different tiers (this *is* MS after all). The “Pro” whatever that is – they didn’t go into what features are exclusive to which, will be priced like Ultrabook PCs. Umm… Ok. Good luck with that.
And the “regular” one will be priced like “ARM tablets” (read: iPad).
Why would I buy this instead of an iPad again?
And no shipping date… Surprise, surprise.
I’m watching the demonstration on CNET (I like the tone of the commentary, some of those guys aren’t buying – HA!) and the device (Surface) looks very interesting… a laptop in a tablet form factor.
It appears they are trying to be everything to everyone with it. Doubt that strategy is going to work… because it never has before.
However, I am sure Surface will serve a lot of people really well. The tech pundit reports and bloggers should make for interesting reads over the next few days. I wonder who will be the first to report on the new “iPad Killer”?
CNET commentary is getting more hysterically funny as it continues.
” Scott Ard, Yahoo!: No details on screen rez or battery life, or price, obviously. Or availability.”
HAHAHAHAHA
When will they learn? You dont make an announcement until the product is ready to ship.
Content? Availability? Price points? Integration with M$ products (XBox, etc.)?
I love Apple events because they show it doing stuff, not just what it looks like. This event was all about the cover/keyboard. Apple mentions a cover option, then wows us with actual work! A couple of nice features, and a kickstand. Congrats! Enjoy the VaporMg. Let’s see when it will actually Surface…
The one and only real innovation is the integrated stand but I fear that’s just not enough…
Without seeing or touching it how can so many of you know so much about it? I would like tom hear what someone who has at least held it in their hands has to say. You all sound lust like the naysayers re the iPhone then again the iPad. Let us wait a day or two, folks.
Didn’t we just hear from someone who held a working model in their hands and he had something to say? Oh. Do you mean to hear from someone who is not on the M$ payroll? Um, that might take more than 1 or 2 earth days.
Things I can tell about the Surface without having to see or touch it(although I did just see it):
1. It’s running Metro, so it’s going to be dead on arrival.
2. Even if it weren’t running Metro it would still be DOA just because it’s a Windows tablet, which have had an uninterrupted history of selling like they’re infected with the ebola virus.
3. It’s going to be the world’s crappiest laptop, which you will be unable to actually use on your lap(have fun trying to balance the kickstand and the floppy-hinged keyboard on anything but a solid, level surface. Lol, “surface”).
4. It will crash frequently due to Microsoft’s signiature incompetent programming, and may also be prone to hardware failure thanks to them cheaping out on the components(see Xbox360).
5. Microsoft has now become so uncreative that they actually recycled the name Surface – which sucks mightily by the way – from their failed Big-Ass-Table project. They also apparently have no sense of irony.
So has anybody come up with a catchy name for this trainwreck? I motion for Zunelet.
Zablet
It’s the iFlap!
It’s over. The big innovation: Microsoft integrated “control-alt-delete” into a tablet…
Did Max Headroom design these things?!
Wow, innovation hmmn. They ‘circumcised’ an ultra-book into a tablet. That still doesn’t count as a right of passage into real tablethood/ iPadhood since they’re again trying to ‘superglue’ apple’s slightly changed foreskin(smart cover) on the patient. More pain but why go through all this. What can the tablet do??? PSVita was even better coz one can manipulate it with both hands while the p*n*s touches the rear touchpad.
“This video is currently unavailable on mobile. We are working hard at making videos mobile compatible.”
Laughable.
Honestly, I hope this takes away a chunk of the Android tablet marketshare. It will just make Apple that much more of a no-brainer for anyone who wants a unified platform and interface between desktop/laptop, tablet and smartphone.
Ballmer could at the very least given us a new Monkey dance so that this gathering and announcement would have been worth SOMETHING and not a total waste of time.