“This time, Microsoft means business. At the original Surface tablet launch in 2012, it told us it meant business,” Hilton Tarrant writes for memeburn. “Again, at the far more muted Surface 2 launch in September last year. Perhaps it didn’t really, really mean business those first two times. This time, it’s different. Promise.”
“The euphoria around new chief executive Satya Nadella’s first 100 days in charge has tapered off, mostly completely. In fact, it died down after the company’s Build event in early April,” Tarrant writes. “It’s fair to say that the Surface Pro 3 (why does it need the ‘Pro’ moniker in there?!) is not a Nadella product. It’s the latest in a long list of products and services that are still churning off the unstoppable Steve Ballmer-led conveyor belt. Nadella is stuck with Surface (and the Nokia devices business) whether he likes it or not.”
“The new Surface is useable on your lap (despite the previous generations being sold, but not actually capable of that). ‘Lapability’ is the word Microsoft’s Surface chief Panos Panay used. The ‘Pro’ stylus input stays,” Tarrant writes. “Again, this is the worst of both worlds. Touch plus keyboard (‘Type Cover’) with no clear delineation between the two. What do I use the keyboard for? What do I use the trackpad for? When do I just touch the screen? When do I use the stylus? Steve Jobs’s famous quote about the stylus is more apt than ever.”
MacDailyNews Note:
Tarrant writes, “Pricing is telling. The base model, at $800 plus a keyboard, at US$130, costs more than a base model MacBook Air (as many have pointed out). Spinning this as cheaper than a Mac is disingenuous given the fact that the Type Cover is sold separately. Shouldn’t that be bundled into the box? What use is a laptop without a keyboard?”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Crash and burn.
Related article:
Microsoft shows 12-inch ‘Surface Pro 3′ tablet, starts at $800 – May 20, 2014
Doomed to total failure. Only the lost and clueless Microsoft fans will take the bait. The actual intelligentsia or even the moderately intelligent will buy a Mac Book Air. Loving my new fully equipped Mac Book Pro!
Seems to me for like configurations the 13″ MBA is priced about the same as similar config Surface 3 with keyboard. But then you have to buy Office and pay for upgrades ovedr time and face the possibility of BSOD. Plus I question the durability relative to the MBA. Yuu would need a hard case to protect the display, where as a slip case is fine for the MBA.
If I really needed windows, it would be MBA with parallels.
Office: The situation is the same as in Macs. The touch-friendly Office is coming, which presumably be similar to the Office for iPad
BSOD: This is a really old statement. Saying Windows BSOD is like saying iPhone doesn’t multitask
Durability: It was dropped from ~1.5m height during the announcement by Panos Panay, and of course, it didn’t break (unlike the iPad)
The Microshaft CEO Transition:
Tweedledee and Tweedledumber.
the sweet taste of fallen blood. Buh Bye, Microsoft, the Google/Apple war is the new relevant. Death comes quick in tech, just ask Atari.
Not quick enough in this case…
The Isle of Microsoft will float for a long time no doubt, shrinking as the world continues to pass it by.
Microsoft is similar to us auto makers. Cheap, unreliable, designed for the indiscriminate buyer who refuses pay the money for the better product. Their low budget design constraint chokes out initiative in their designers almost like a communist regime.
So many unthinking clichés in just three lines!
Where did you get that data? And what year are you talking about? The reliability of US cars these days is the equal of any maker. In virtually all segments they are in, they are either at the top or in the top 10.
From your name, maybe you’re talking about Vegas of 40 years ago. They rotted out before they were old enough to break down.
Wait now, just wait. This is Microsoft’s THIRD Surface model, and we all know that Microsoft’s first two versions of anything crash and burn, but the third ends up clinging to life. Although this time . . . .
Wow – I can’t believe they abandoned the solid closing sound of the kickstand that sounded like a luxury car door. Doomed I tell you!
How is it usable on one’s lap? Is there a photo of someone using it comfortably on their lap? I am typing this with my Macbook on my lap right now with my legs crossed, but don’t see where the kickstand would rest to keep it upright. I also lean back and use my iPad 3 for reading, but the 1.5 pounds is bordering on too heavy (just don’t quite need the newer one). I really just don’t understand how the new SP3 can be used on one’s lap.
This time we mean busines.. Trust us..
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BpOvzGiheOM
That is one of my favorite Apple ads. It is brilliant. It captures so much in such a few words. I love the way his suits and hairstyles change as they go back in time ending up with those wild flip-up sunglasses.
Awesome, can’t wait to buy one 🙂
It’s really painful to watch. Surface Pro 3 Ultimate Edition 8.2 with Update (x64) so horribly misses the entire market, it’s downright pitiful.
painful? hell, man this is more fun than color tv.
Looks at the bright side, it’s only just a keyboard, Microsoft would have made you buy some Zunes to get stereo sound.
No wait, I was just joking I was just.
“Introducing the new Surface Pro Plus 3.1/3 with Zunasound (options are extra but compulsory for proper operation).
Zunasound™: provides quality brown noise, distinctly biased toward lower frequencies and a favourite of smart, aspiring DJs scratching and scrubbing their way to media stardom
Oh hannahjs a Zunasound™ by any other name would smell just as…well you know.
If it “Squirts” I will buy it!
There one killer feature in the next Microsoft Surface -> Floppy Drive! It’s will rewrite the entire computer industry!!
People who love windows deserve this..suckers, fools and morons.
This is fun to watch. 🙂
Has anyone EVER seen one of these things in use, in the wild? The only places I’ve ever seen them used are on the film sets of TV series like NCIS LA; I’ve never, ever seen one used by a person in a real-world situation.
Unlike iPads, which I see everywhere.
I for one am looking forward to a 12 inch pro ipad.
And no… Stylus is not a bad thing.. For pro work it is a must.
Precise pointing and pressures sensitivity !
Add on top an ios with serious file management capability ….
So i can organize and move my files as i wish.. Not as apple wishes !
With this we would get closer to post pc takeover !
When Microsoft says it is “means business”, it is like Obama saying he is “really mad” about the VA killing veterans to keep costs down. Or “he is really angry” about the IRS targeting his political opponents. In the Microsoft case the stupid statements are comic hubris, people paid way to much to admit to the truth. In Obama’s case, it is a despicable liar who knows he can say whatever he wants to the media that elected him and acts as his Praetorian Guard knowing the dimwits in his party don’t care if veterans die or if he shreds the Constitution.
Oh, blah, blah, blah. Can you just comment on computer news with comments about computers? There are huge numbers of political sites to go to.
You really need to get out more.
Making the surface 3 this size is an odd design decision. I’ll bet this was supposed to be part of a family of surface products, but the other two failed now this has to stand on its own.
I have seen exactly 1 Surface in the wild. But I am keeping my fingers crossed that one day, while in a production meeting, the whole office erupts with attractive young people, dancing on the conference room table, choreographed perfectly with slappety clappety Surface tablets.
you’re one ahead of me.
I almost….almost forgot about that commercial on the airplane… Thanks!
I regrettably have to have a Windows PC to get onto my office Windows VMWare network when travelling (there’s an iPad app but without a mouse it’s nigh-on unusable, and I couldn’t justify the cost of a macbook air for occasional use). So I bought a Lenovo Touchpad 8. It’s -for a Windows slate – the best made, best designed, most iPad-like option I could get at just about the same thickness as an iPad mini (though marginally taller), and paired with a small travel keyboard and mouse it does what I need it to. It is, in short, exactly what Microsoft should have made if they had any sense – a truly portable but still usable Windows PC. Instead they made a bigger laptop where all the useful bits you have to buy as extras fall off and the balance is off. ‘Lapable’? Yeah, as long as you like the (not great) keyboard hammed up against your groin and your legs right out to accommodate the kickstand. Good for notes? Yeah, until your wrist falls off from holding such a massive slab.
They still don’t get it. At all.
Microsoft is comparing the Surface to the MacBook Pro 13″ on their store.
I guess they finally figured out it didn’t compare to the MacBook Air.