Microsoft slashes Surface RT prices by $150 as it flounders against Apple's iPad

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  • Reply 21 of 127
    constable odoconstable odo Posts: 1,041member
    I don't see why Microsoft needed to go after the tablet market because they already own the desktop market. That's just being greedy. They need to leave some market for Apple now that Apple's iPhone business is in shambles thanks to Samsung and Android. Microsoft should just concentrate on the enterprise because of the extreme loyalty of Windows users.
  • Reply 22 of 127
    sockrolidsockrolid Posts: 2,789member


    Originally Posted by AppleInsider View Post



    Having failed to gain traction in the tablet market, Microsoft has cut the price of its Surface RT tablet so low that the 10.6-inch device now costs nearly the same amount as Apple's entry-level iPad mini.


     


    Amateur hour isn't over, but the clock is ticking.  Loud and fast.

  • Reply 23 of 127
    pendergastpendergast Posts: 1,358member
    Oh, hate to be the grammar police, but one of my pet peeves is the incorrect substitution of "flounders" for "founders." It's very common and has almost taken over. Something like "butt" naked taking over for "buck" naked.

    I think it works in this case, as the Surface hasn't totally failed... yet.
    The search-and-replace school of editing assumes every use of the verb flounder is a mistaken attempt to say founder. Flounder might have originated through such confusion, but its meaning is sufficiently different to justify keeping the word around. To founder is to sink; to flounder is to struggle clumsily, like a fish out of water. So if you're sure a company is going under, it's foundering; if there's an outside chance it could right itself, it's floundering., (Bill Walsh, Lapsing Into a Comma, Contemporary Books, 2000)
  • Reply 24 of 127
    I'm not smart enough to use windows 8 - I've tried a few times and even though two windows can be opened at once - The trick is to Try and find the two windows you would want to have open in under 5 minutes. Personally, I find windows 8 to be terribly inefficient - If Microsoft was to go back to the old screen, they would have more luck.

    Here's the big thing and MS totally misses - Apple's UI is designed for people with no computer skills - that's why it's the best thing on the market - because anybody can walk up to one and begin using the iPad or iPhone. MS was designed for very sophisticated users and there is no fun in learning MS ways.

    "I'm a power user lacking sophistication"
  • Reply 25 of 127
    gqbgqb Posts: 1,934member
    I had my daughter use her iPad with a keyboard case for 10th grade, and while it was great for most purposes (including many that a laptop couldn't do), there were still cases where the inability to do 2 things side-by-side were a hinderence, and she fell back to the Mac for things like video editing or composition where she needed source and destination easily accessible.
    I got her a new Air for 11th grade, and that should suffice for 12th and some college as well.

    That said, I think the problem with RTs is simple... 16:9, and reliance on the keyboard.
    Its completely unusable in portrait mode, and as Steve seemed to be stressing in his unveils (where he only did portrait), that's the way I, and most I've seen, use the iPad.
    Making the RT primarily landscape and heavily linked to its keyboard makes it (IMO) an underpowered laptop, not a tablet.

    My .02.
  • Reply 26 of 127

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by patrickwalker View Post



    Anyone managed to put something like NetBSD on one of these things?


     


    For someone to answer, "Yes," you would be better to ask that question at…, somewhere else.


     


    Even the trolls aren't dumb enough to have bought one.


     


     


    P.S. I may have spoken to soon.  

  • Reply 27 of 127

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by chadmatic View Post



    It amazes me that Microsoft truly thought they could go head to head with Apple's iPad...


    Agreed! Let's see:


     


    1) MS tries to go head to head with Apple's iPod/iTunes Store with the Zune. Epic fail.


     


    2) MS tries to go head to head with Apple's iPhone/App Store with the Kin phone. Epic fail.


     


    3) MS tries to go head to head with Apple's iPad. Epic fail.


     


    I think this is a trend....


     


    P.S. Hey, MS, Dude, I will do Balmer's job for $50,000/yr.

  • Reply 28 of 127
    gqbgqb Posts: 1,934member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by c4rlob View Post



    You mean people across the nation don't really want a tablet that inspires them to have breakdance and dubstep meetings in their conference rooms??! Shocking.


    But don't forget the critical necessity of being able to 'Click'.

  • Reply 29 of 127

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by grblade View Post



    And I still don't want it.


    Funny! :)

  • Reply 30 of 127
    gqbgqb Posts: 1,934member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Robin Huber View Post



    Oh, hate to be the grammar police, but one of my pet peeves is the incorrect substitution of "flounders" for "founders." It's very common and has almost taken over. Something like "butt" naked taking over for "buck" naked.


    Actually, they really are somewhat interchagable, at least in the way most mean them.


    Floundering implies flopping around helplessly, as a fish flounders when the tide goes out.


    Foundering means sinking, as when a ship founders.


     


    MS does indeed seem to be both foundering and floundering.


     


    I find the constant misuse of 'hoisted on his own petard', and 'deja vu all over again' to be far more annoying.


    (Its 'Hoist on his own petard', and just plain old 'deja vu', btw.)


     


    And don't get me started on 'Apple are...'

  • Reply 31 of 127
    there is a better one coming
  • Reply 32 of 127

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Pooch View Post





    well, let's be fair. the abiity to have two windows open at a time *is* a useful feature. i'd love it. i'm an apple fan and stockholder, have a houseload of apple products, and will never buy a surface (or any microsoft product) but i could very much use the feature of having two windows open at once. to wit, safari for searching for stuff and iSSH for being connected to a machine, and not having to switch back and forth. that would be useful to me.

     


    Yep good point, me too. I'm so anti-MS but I would like that option too. It's been awhile since I've use a windows box...but I used to like how it would automatically fill the window with two side by side screens. Surprised Apple doesn't incorporate this. Oh well. 


     


    BTW, the only other thing I liked was how Outlook had all three apps combined. Email, Calendar and To Do list all in one. I hardly ever use iCal because I have to open it up just to view it. Oh well #2.

  • Reply 33 of 127
    flaneurflaneur Posts: 4,526member
    I find the tablet market right now to be both very interesting and very infuriating at the same time. You have Microsoft floundering with the Surface. The Kindle Fire, supposedly the next highest selling tablet to the iPad, is not even in Apple's rearview mirror anymore, and Samsung's Galaxy line of tablets (phones too, but that's just even more maddening to think about), contrary to what Samsung would have you believe, aren't even selling as well as the Fire.

    Yet the headlines on most news sites are "Apple is doomed, the competition is catching up, Microsoft is poised to take over, Android is winning!" All this really is is the iPod story all over again. Apple does it best, its competitors copy and flood the channel with clones, and eventually people realize the clones are mostly crap. The very loud, annoying, vocal minority of geeks on the internet rip Apple to shreds while Joe Schmoe just buys the high quality, reliable, easy to use Apple product.

    I'm an Apple guy, but the media that covers Apple makes me want to quit the internet. But I won't, because now I want to go find all the articles from last summer saying that the Surface was an iPad killer. I'm coming after you first, CNET.

    Good. Godspeed.

    I like this kind of talk.
  • Reply 34 of 127

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Bilbo63 View Post


    Then again, some people thought Apple didn't stand a chance in the already crowded cell phone space. I don't fault Microsoft at all for trying. They have to respond. You can't sit idly by while someone steals your lunch. Microsoft continually responds too late.



    I take your point. but I don't think it is just a case of coming too late. :)


     


    Apple has come "late" to a few markets. But unlike MS, Apple puts in the hard work (HW and SW) to bring a "game changer" to market.


     


    MS continues to just bring crap products to market. Windows OS is a crap product and so is Office for that matter.

  • Reply 35 of 127
    sockrolidsockrolid Posts: 2,789member


    Originally Posted by Constable Odo View Post



    I don't see why Microsoft needed to go after the tablet market because they already own the desktop market. That's just being greedy. ...


     


    Because the tablet (and greater mobile market) is the fastest-growing segment of the computing market.


    And that means profit.  But it's not that easy.  Microsoft needed to design great products and deliver them


    in a timely manner. They did neither.


     


    And why did Microsoft drag their feet and get so far behind in the mobile space?  Because they lose either way.


    If Windows Phone devices and Surface had been smash hits, equalling iPhone and iPad sales, then Microsoft loses.


    Because their software revenue from legacy desktop licenses would be cannibalized.  Windows Phone and 


    Windows RT apps sell for less than their desktop versions, and Microsoft's overall revenue drops as a result.


     


    If Windows Phone devices and Surface had failed to generate significant revenue (the current scenario) then 


    Microsoft loses.  They spent umpteen millions developing the hardware, the OS, and whatever built-in apps they


    could mash up.  All for nothing.  


     


    Microsoft loses either way: through lost revenue if the mobile devices had sold well, and through lost development


    (and manufacturing and advertising) expenditures on failed products.  Not to mention yet another humiliating, 


    public, glaringly obvious failed attempt at branching out from their core competency: Windows + Office in enterprise.


    Either way, success or failure, Surface is a write-off.


     


     


     



    Originally Posted by Constable Odo View Post



    ... They need to leave some market for Apple now that Apple's iPhone business is in shambles thanks to Samsung and Android. ...


     


    Drinking too much of that Samsung Kool-Aid bro?


    Whatever happened to "Yay Open!  Open always wins!"?


     


     


     


     



    Originally Posted by Constable Odo View Post



    ... Microsoft should just concentrate on the enterprise because of the extreme loyalty of Windows users.


     


    Let me rephrase that for you.


     


    "Microsoft will fall back on milking enterprise because of the extreme lock-in that corporate IT is suffering."


    .

  • Reply 36 of 127
    dilliodillio Posts: 106member
    The deal with tables vs. laptops: if I do want a keyboard for my tablet (which I don't because I will then also need a mouse or trackpad), but if I wanted one for productivity, then I would sure as heck want a GOOD keyboard, not a compromise. I think Microsoft misjudged this one when they thought up Surface RT and Surface Pro. Not even mentioning Windows 8, won't even go there.
  • Reply 37 of 127

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by GQB View Post


    Actually, they really are somewhat interchagable, at least in the way most mean them.


    Floundering implies flopping around helplessly, as a fish flounders when the tide goes out.


    Foundering means sinking, as when a ship founders.


     


    MS does indeed seem to be both foundering and floundering.


     


    I find the constant misuse of 'hoisted on his own petard', and 'deja vu all over again' to be far more annoying.


    (Its 'Hoist on his own petard', and just plain old 'deja vu', btw.)


     


    And don't get me started on 'Apple are...'



    :) Isn't "deja vu all over again" a famous malapropism attributed to Yankee's manager, Yogi Berra? I agree, it's overused. 


     


    Remember, "it's never too late to for a leopard to change horses in mid-stream," and "it's as heavy as a concrete elephant!" (both used for emphasis!) :)

  • Reply 38 of 127
    curtis hannahcurtis hannah Posts: 1,833member
    This sound more of a new model coming like apple does, except they dropped a extra $50 off.

    This brings up the point when will current IPad mini see $200 (I'd apple drops extra $30) probably 2 months?
  • Reply 39 of 127
    paulmjohnsonpaulmjohnson Posts: 1,380member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by GQB View Post


    Actually, they really are somewhat interchagable, at least in the way most mean them.


    Floundering implies flopping around helplessly, as a fish flounders when the tide goes out.


    Foundering means sinking, as when a ship founders.


     


    MS does indeed seem to be both foundering and floundering.


     


    I find the constant misuse of 'hoisted on his own petard', and 'deja vu all over again' to be far more annoying.


    (Its 'Hoist on his own petard', and just plain old 'deja vu', btw.)


     


    And don't get me started on 'Apple are...'



    "I could care less" when you mean "I couldn't care less" gets me irritated.


     


    If you could care less, that means you at least care a bit.

  • Reply 40 of 127
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member
    Oh, hate to be the grammar police, but one of my pet peeves is the incorrect substitution of "flounders" for "founders." It's very common and has almost taken over. Something like "butt" naked taking over for "buck" naked.

    Uh... what? Founders is wrong.
    I don't see why Microsoft needed to go after the tablet market because they already own the desktop market. That's just being greedy. They need to leave some market for Apple now that Apple's iPhone business is in shambles thanks to Samsung and Android. Microsoft should just concentrate on the enterprise because of the extreme loyalty of Windows users.

    Shut up and go away.
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