“Microsoft, like Apple nemesis Samsung, has a long history of copying market leaders. Windows wasn’t born from originality, folks. It was mostly stolen from Apple’s Mac OS. Likewise, Samsung didn’t innovate the modern era smartphone or tablet with their Galaxy line of knockoffs. Those were copied from Apple’s iPhone and iPad,” Kate MacKenzie writes for PixoBebo. “That said, Microsoft deserves a little credit for at least attempting to be original, whenever and wherever that occurs.”
“The new Surface Pro 3 remains a hybrid notebook-cum-tablet. It’s larger and lighter than a MacBook Air. But it runs Windows 8.1 enhanced for tablets, and does not come with a keyboard (optional), or much storage. The price starts at $100 less than a new 11-inch MacBook Air, but by the time you add a keyboard, a comparable Intel i5 CPU and storage, it’s more expensive than Apple’s low end MacBook Air, and now larger and heavier,” MacKenzie writes. “With the keyboard removed, Surface Pro becomes a big-assed tablet that is bigger and heavier than Apple’s iPad Air.”
“Microsoft copied Apple’s strategy of avoiding the low end of the market with a product that costs nearly double a typical Windows notebook, but also serves as the industry’s largest tablet. I fear Microsoft has gone all schizoid on us by thinking differently and copying Apple at the same time,” MacKenzie writes. “I suspect the new notebook-cum-tablet device is there to protect Microsoft’s roots in the enterprise. Interestingly, when it comes to mobile devices– smartphones and tablets– Apple is the industry leader in the enterprise; not Microsoft. The Surface Pro 3 won’t change that.”
Read more in the full article – recommended – here.
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PC Magazine reviews Apple’s $899 MacBook Air: The ultimate in portability; a great travel companion – May 19, 2014
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BGR reviews Apple’s iPad Air: Every new iPad is the best iPad yet, but the iPad Air is something more – December 3, 2013
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The Independent reviews Apple’s 64-bit iPad Air: Super-light and most powerful – October 29, 2013
Bring back uncle Fester.
The worst and most biased article I have read so far. Most facts are wrong with Apple having copied most of it’s products as well (mouse, OS X) as you wrongly stated. Microsoft unveiled a tactile computer year before Apple, just Jobs was able to market it. Notebook-cum-tablet??? Apple market share will drastically reduce in the next couple of years due to the the strategy you talked about aiming for the top tier customers which Microsoft isn’t doing btw.
WTF?
Biased? How, exactly? it is absolutely spot on analysis. Everybody in tech copies everybody else; Apple is more subtle about it (Mac copied what? iPod copied what? iPhone copied what? iPad copied what?).
Tactile computer? All computers are tactile. Touch or click and something happens. Even a keyboard is tactile.
Microsoft is avoiding the low end of the tablet market, so that’s copying Apple. Microsoft is avoid the low end of the notebook market with the Surface Pro 3, so that’s copying Apple, too.
Get a grip, dude.
Ipod concept copied from patent filed before (do your research), what I meant by tactile is having touch input other than mouse. Don’t get me wrong I am an iphone user but mac are overpriced.
It is biased for so many reasons: During the conference yesterday, Microsoft compared it to the macbook air for a reason (and it is lighter than it btw, weighed both on stage – with type cover)… Do not compare the surface pro 3 with an iPad because the iPad does not suppose a core i7 processor that can run anything from Steam to Visual Studio. I am not saying that companies do not copy each other, just that Apple is the one that copied other’s works the most (except the iPhone) everything from OS X (stolen from a company in Israel to the iPod was stolen
OSX was stollen from an Israeli company? First time I hear that.
Could you tell us what the name of the company is?
OSX roots are BSD and the the MACH kernel. If Apple misappropriated some Israeli technology and incorporated it in OSX you cannot say OSX as a whole (as your comment implies) was stollen from a company in Israel.
Please clarify.
Yes everyone learns from everyone else, but saying Apple copies the most is bizarre. Who has been more original over decades than Apple?
The most incorrectly quoted example of that kind of thinking is the view that the Mac GUI “copied” Palo Alto Research Center’s work, but the reality is Apple licensed the PARC technology and the original Mac GUI went far beyond what that technology. And today, both Mac and PC operating systems still resemble the original Mac OS.
Now after seven years, all successful smartphones closely resemble the original iPhone, not the phones that were shipping when the iPhone was announced.
Anyway, all this talk of who copies who gets old since there are many kinds of copying. Copying obvious, industry-wide and unpatentable ideas is only sensible.
Alex, Alex, Alex…what are we going to do with you? Send you back to school?
Back to school? That twit is still in the fifth grade; for the third time.
The article above was comparing it to the 11.6″ MacBook Air, not the 13.3″ one that Microsoft used for the comparison on the scale. With the type cover keyboard, the Surface Pro 3 weighs 2.5 pounds (lots of hands-on reviews state this). The 11.6″ MacBook Air weighs 2.2 pounds and the 13.3″ one weighs 2.9 pounds. So, the Surface Pro 3 with type cover does weigh less than the larger MacBook Air, but not the smaller one with the more closely comparable screen.
The article above was comparing it to the 11.6″ MacBook Air, not the 13.3″ one that Microsoft used for the comparison on the scale. With the type cover keyboard, the Surface Pro 3 weighs 2.5 pounds (lots of hands-on reviews state this). The 11.6″ MacBook Air weighs 2.2 pounds and the 13.3″ one weighs 2.9 pounds. So, the Surface Pro 3 with type cover does weigh less than the larger MacBook Air, but not the smaller one with the more closely comparable screen which the article was referring to.
Oh, you mean copied from Courier, that infamous piece of plastic decoy?
I thought all the winblows fanboys went down with the ship. I guess there was one survivor, is that you Giligan?
Surface Pro 3 is the best Surface Pro yet, design, hardware, specs, and it is still a fundamentally flawed product, and I would be shocked if it gained any traction. It is still a top-heavy kludgy laptop with a bad keyboard (sold separately), and an oversized tablet with no app support.
Actually, that’s completely wrong. The Surface Pro 3 is a touchscreen Wintel laptop that looks cheap until you add in the keyboard. Also, there are substantially more Windows applications than there are iOS and Mac applications put together. Apple COULD tell customers that the Mac is the only platform that offers full Mac and Windows compatibility, with by far better hardware options than the Surface. Unfortunately, Apple’s PR has been stuck in neutral since Cook plopped into the corner office.
Alex, I don’t know where your information comes from, but Microsoft copied the Mac OS relentlessly. They never came close to equaling it. The tablet PCs that Microsoft had years before Apple were Laptops that used a stylus, and nobody wanted them. It wasn’t Jobs advertising that put the iPad in the lead, it was a superior product, that was totally different than the tablet PC.
I guess it just come down to preferences in the end. The article say larger and heavier than Macbook Air – this is incorrect (the first one being a good point as it has a larger screen 12inch vs 11inch and better resolution than Retina). The article compares it then to the iPad Air which is stupid as they don’t even play in the same league (being a full win8.1 computer vs the iPad that you casually watch films on)
I guess it comes down to preference in the end.
All I am saying is the the article states that the Surface pro with keyboard is heavier and larger than macbook air – this is wrong (and larger is not bad supporting a larger 12in screen with better resolution than retina). The article then compares it to the iPad air which is misleading as they don’t play in the same league (full 8.1 windows computer vs iPad you use to watch films)
“cum-tablet”? Is that the same as the orgasmic overblow or the fapping flipbook?
I guess it comes down to preference in the end.
All I am saying is the the article states that the Surface pro with keyboard is heavier and larger than macbook air – this is wrong (and larger is not bad supporting a larger 12in screen with better resolution than retina). The article then compares it to the iPad air which is misleading as they don’t play in the same league (full 8.1 windows computer vs iPad you use to watch films)
I think you should copy-paste your comment a few more times. It’s just as effective as making sense once.
I guess it comes down to preference in the end.
All I am saying is the the article states that the Surface pro with keyboard is heavier and larger than macbook air – this is wrong (and larger is not bad supporting a larger 12in screen with better resolution than retina). The article then compares it to the iPad air which is misleading as they don’t play in the same league (full 8.1 windows computer vs iPad you use to watch films)
So Alex is now James. Is this paid FUD? Who’s your employer? I can write garbage like this all day for a living too you know. The pay’s probably not that good though.
Amusing, isn’t it. Attack of the schizoid anonymous coward troll. We knew this fake/paid troll posting was going on around here years ago. What a GREAT example to prove the point.
Congratulations Alex/James. I hope your boss fires you for having BLOWN your cover. Dick.
…What do you mean, you don’t get paid for trolling? You mean you do this because you like it? Because you’re a psychopath?
Seek help immediately please.
If you add the keyboard to the Surface Pro 3 it becomes both larger and heavier than the entry level MacBook Air, and by the time you add the faster CPU and more memory, Surface Pro 3 is also more expensive than the entry level MacBook Air to which it was being compared. Microsoft calls it both a tablet and a notebook. As a notebook, it’s expensive. As a tablet, it’s expensive and very, very big.
Hmmm. Just like the article states.
If SP3 comes in Brown we can call it a MegaZune!
Because we all want a $2000 big heavy tablet to tote around with no apps…
Surface Pro 3
i7 and 512 GB SSD
$1999 (no Keyboard)
13″ MacBook Air
i7 and 512 GB SSD
$1649 (with keyboard)
11″ similarly configured is $1549