The official Surface Pro 2/Surface thread

[ultimatebob]

RT with full touch Office is incredibly appealing.

Really? I can't imagine writing anything longer than a page on something with a cramped keyboard and 10 inch screen.

And that's the real problem with the Surface RT. Microsoft tries to act like it's a real full sized computer instead of a tablet in it's commercials, but it's not.

 

[Broheim]

I wish they would release a baytrail tablet instead of the new RT and lowered the price, I get that they're trying to push windows RT, but a "real windows" surface at a low price will fly of the shelves.

 

[MrX8503]

Why doesn't MS put windows phone on their tablet instead of WindowsRT?

Windows RT looks like Windows 8, but has less apps than Windows phone. How much are they paying these execs?

 

[Red Storm]

Why doesn't MS put windows phone on their tablet instead of WindowsRT?

Windows RT looks like Windows 8, but has less apps than Windows phone. How much are they paying these execs?

They really need to unify things, I honestly thought that's what they were doing at first, but apparently not. I remember downloading a calculator app on my newly upgraded Windows 8 laptop (non-touch). After opening the app I realized the developer didn't implement keyboard control, it was touch only. An app on my non-touch laptop that was touch only. :|

 

[poofyhairguy]

I wish they would release a baytrail tablet instead of the new RT and lowered the price, I get that they're trying to push windows RT, but a "real windows" surface at a low price will fly of the shelves.

Don't worry. The RT team will be shitcanned for failure in a year or two, right about when Intel gets competitive in mobile.

 

[Ns1]

They really need to unify things, I honestly thought that's what they were doing at first, but apparently not. I remember downloading a calculator app on my newly upgraded Windows 8 laptop (non-touch). After opening the app I realized the developer didn't implement keyboard control, it was touch only. An app on my non-touch laptop that was touch only. :|

Wow that's ridiculous

 

[RandomFool]

They really need to unify things, I honestly thought that's what they were doing at first, but apparently not. I remember downloading a calculator app on my newly upgraded Windows 8 laptop (non-touch). After opening the app I realized the developer didn't implement keyboard control, it was touch only. An app on my non-touch laptop that was touch only. :|

There's rumors about RT and WP merging but knowing Microsoft it'll be done about six months before they move on in favor of Win9.

Was that calc app made by MS? Or just some crappy dev?

 

[Red Storm]

There's rumors about RT and WP merging but knowing Microsoft it'll be done about six months before they move on in favor of Win9.

Was that calc app made by MS? Or just some crappy dev?

Third party dev. MS only has the desktop calc app last I checked, which goes great when trying to use it with Metro apps [/sarcasm].

I don't know why they didn't merge them to begin with. What better way to attract developers to your phone platform then to be able to tell them "Your apps will show up not only on phones, but every Windows 8 device going forward." That's a big market.

 

[sontin]

Why doesn't MS put windows phone on their tablet instead of WindowsRT?

Windows RT looks like Windows 8, but has less apps than Windows phone. How much are they paying these execs?

Why should Microsoft use Baytrail? Makes no sense. There are enough Baytrail tablets in the pipeline.

 

[MrX8503]

Baytrail allows them to use x86 apps. Its clear that Intel isn't ready with Baytrail.

 

[olds]

Type Cover 2

Thank you, Lord.

 

[OneOfTheseDays]

MSFT really just needs to get the ball rolling for Windows 8.1 and beyond. Their OEMs should and likely will fill in the gaps in the product line.

You will soon be able to get a plethora of Bay Trail tablets under $500 that will fill the void left by Surface 2.

 

[ams23]

Why doesn't MS put windows phone on their tablet instead of WindowsRT?

Windows RT looks like Windows 8, but has less apps than Windows phone. How much are they paying these execs?

I agree that Microsoft should merge the Windows Phone OS and Windows RT Tablet OS, and name the new OS "Windows Consumer" or something like that (as opposed to "Windows Professional" for the fully backward-compatible OS).

According to Microsoft in their Surface 2 launch presentation, there are now more than 100,000 apps available for Surface RT (and hence Surface 2). At the end of last year there was only 10,000 apps available. That is a huge increase in a relatively small amount of time. How many apps are available for Windows Phone?

On a side note, one neat feature of the new touch cover is that Microsoft is using more than 1000 sensors to monitor and predict keystrokes. There is also a new system of interchangeable "blades" where the touch cover technology can be used for other things such as remixing music.

Apparently Microsoft is working on several generations of Surface tablets all at the same time. It will be nice to see them really push the envelope with respect to hardware. Surface 2 will be very competitive in hardware performance compared to other high end Android tablets (which was not really the case with Surface RT).

 

[ams23]

Why should Microsoft use Baytrail? Makes no sense. There are enough Baytrail tablets in the pipeline.

This is true. Note that the GPU performance of Surface 2 should be a bit better than any Bay Trail fanless tablet, and the CPU and Javascript performance should be reasonably close too. But more importantly, Microsoft recognizes the importance of working with ARM processors rather than just being fixated on x86 processors. After all, if Intel is trying to push into both Windows and Android, then why in the world would Microsoft not want to push into both x86 and ARM? And the vast majority of consumers who use tablets for consumption are not interested in running legacy x86 Windows apps on their tablet. I believe that Anand missed these subtle points when he suggested that Bay Trail should have been used in Surface 2.

 

[Mopetar]

Being able to run legacy x86 apps sure would be nice though. I'm surprised that someone hasn't created a hybrid x86-ARM chip yet. Something like Windows RT could run the OS on the low power ARM cores and only turn on the x86 core if it needs to run some legacy code.

That would make a pretty damned good tablet.

 

[386DX]

This is true. Note that the GPU performance of Surface 2 should be a bit better than any Bay Trail fanless tablet, and the CPU and Javascript performance should be reasonably close too. But more importantly, Microsoft recognizes the importance of working with ARM processors rather than just being fixated on x86 processors. After all, if Intel is trying to push into both Windows and Android, then why in the world would Microsoft not want to push into both x86 and ARM? And the vast majority of consumers who use tablets for consumption are not interested in running legacy x86 Windows apps on their tablet. I believe that Anand missed these subtle points when he suggested that Bay Trail should have been used in Surface 2.

The 900M write down and then fact that every OEM partner has said they aren't making anymore RT based products should of been the less then subtle clue nobody wants RT and Bay Trail should of been used. Don't forget that RT will never be accepted in the business/enterprise environment because it doesn't support domain joining, another reason for Bay Trail.

You make a good point that the vast majority of tablets users are not interested in running legacy x86 Windows app, however being able to run legacy apps is better then not having the app you want. That's the problem with RT, the hardware is top notch, but people won't buy it because the apps they want aren't available. Developers won't make the app because nobody is buying RT tablets. It's a chicken and egg situation. Don't forget that normal x86 Windows has an app marketplace just like RT does.

Intel can make way into Android devices because the majority of Android apps are CPU agnostic since the run java so there isn't a separate marketplace like there is with Windows RT/x86/phone. Android has a single marketplace for arm or x86, phone or tablet. Windows platform has three separate one for phone , RT, and x86. If you buy an app on Android you can use it on your phone or tablet. On Windows if you buy an app on your phone you'll have to buy it again on your RT tablet because it's a separate marketplace. You see how this is a losing strategy for the customer and the developer?

With phones, tablets, and phablets converging Microsoft needs to do the same with RT and Windows phone before it's to late. Developers don't want to have to program for three different platform and consumers would rather have there phone or tablet access to 150,000 (estimate based on RT and Phone marketplace merging) apps instead of 100,000 apps on each platform.

 

[olds]

I want to take notes with a stylus.
Run embedded videos in PowerPoint presentations.
Check email, read news and books.
Play touch games like Angry Birds.

 

[looper]

Surface Pro 2, 8GB, 256GB SSD. With power cover. With docking station. This is my next.

Don't need it, but want it.... MEANS, I get it.... Oh geez.....I'm such a consumer/sheep...

 

[JustMe21]

I had read that Windows 8 was a shift from the .Net Framework to an HTML 5 Framework. This suggested to me that eventually all apps within the Microsoft Store will eventually be compatible on all their devices. While the RTs are now undesirable due to lack of software, if Microsoft can actually make it easier for app developers to have their program run across all platforms via the HTML 5 Framework, than this will definitely be very interesting.