1000 times more people that want to do some cheap photo effects or basic design. Microsoft is right you can't run Photoshop on the iPad Pro but for the casual user you probably going to save a lot more money buying apps from the Apps Store than full fledged software packages.
Exactly right!
The iPad Pro is "good enough" for most people. For anybody else with their professional edge use cases, there is the Mac.
These dumbasses need to look at Benley commercials which were shot on iPhone and edited on iPad only. I don't see the point of full OS in an iPad which totally defeats user experience. One thing I still love to have in iPad Pro: Support TouchPad on keyboard. I would buy it in a heartbeat.
Any Microsoft employee who brings up Steve Jobs' point about styluses in a negative light within the context of iPads vs Surface Pro is either a total pinhead or has no understanding of Microsoft's many many failed attempts to bring a desktop operating system and apps to tablet form factor devices. Microsoft's flawed assumption from the earliest days of "tablet editions" of Windows, Windows CE, and Windows Mobile was that doing "touch" was only a matter of turning the user's finger into a replacement for the Windows requisite mouse. The fact that the average human has fingers that are more akin to little sausages rather than a tiny mouse pointer meant that this assumption was totally wrong, and especially for Windows applications that have teeny tiny hit zones on the vast majority of standard Windows GUI controls.
Since Microsoft never quite figured out how to sharpen human fingers down to mouse pointer size in a nondestructive way to substitute for the required mouse, a reasonable substitute had to be devised- hence the stylus. In this case the stylus was, and still is with Windows a Surface, predominantly a Mouse Replacement. This underscores the fact that Windows was never designed to be touch based. I've owned and used every failed generation of Windows tablet wannabe device and every single one of them has been fundamentally crippled on tablets by its reliance on the need for a pixel accurate mouse for primary user interaction. The Microsoft Surface inherited all of these limitations because it's still based on an operating system that depends on a multifunction mouse and controls with tiny hit zones. It's not just an issue with tiny hit zones either, many Windows applications require right mouse clicks to uncover context menus, mouse drag & drop, double clicks, etc. There's decades of mouse dependency baked into Windows and its app ecosystem. It really needs a first class mouse for full functionality and a stylus is typically a poor compromise as a mouse. Add in high cost, a marginal floppy keyboard, small screen, limited storage, limited battery life, fan, and no built-in expandability and the Microsoft Surface becomes the perfect example of everything you don't want in a Windows PC. Surface does a perfect job of combining the worst possible implementation of every single feature that Windows users have come to rely on over the lifetime of the Windows PC. It's frighteningly amazing that anyone who really values a PC can get snookered into purchasing a PC that misses on so many levels. Sure you can add a large monitor, mouse, keyboard, and docking station, but why not buy a PC that delivers what you need from the start?
The fact that a stylus device can also be used for drawing purposes has nothing at all to do with REQUIRING a stylus as a mouse substitute for the base user interaction model. The drawing function is a totally different set of use cases. Even DOS supported drawing styluses and drawing pads all the while the base user interaction model was command line based.
The iPad was designed from the ground up for touch and gesture based interaction. Touch as in sausage sized fingers. Touch as in no mouse or stylus required for navigation and interaction. The Apple Pencil is not a mouse substitute, it's a highly functional drawing and markup tool that serves a distinctively different purpose that extends the feature set of the device and applications on the device that use the Pencil in novel ways. It's an adder, not a crutch.
You don't need the stylus for non touch / desktop applications. The SP4 keyboard includes a trackpad for those applications, while you can use touch for universal apps.
Which defeats the purpose of having a tablet. A tablet is supposed to be extremely portable, and usable with one hand while holding it in the other.
If the Surface Pro is not "extremely portable", then an iPad Pro doesn't qualify as a tablet, since it's even larger than the SP4.
Any attempt at a hybrid device, one that can be used as either a tablet
or a PC, is going to require compromising functionality in one or both
operating modes.
All devices have compromises. Let's take as an example the iPad Pro. A few years SJ mentioned an Apple research where they found that using touch in a vertical screen is "ergonomically terrible".
And that's exactly what the iPad Pro + keyboard is, an "ergonomically terrible" device. Plus it has no file system, no expansion ports, no multiple users profiles and side by side applications is limited. You don't find these compromises in the SP4, even though it has it list of limitations (battery life + universal apps comes to my mind).
IMO, both, the SP4 and the iPad Pro are great devices and both have compromises. But looking at the whole picture, the iPad Pro is a larger iPad with stylus support, while the SP4 does much more.
Personally, I prefer a trackpad to a touch screen as an input device,
just not when I'm using my iPad, since most of the software has been
properly designed for touch.
And that's exactly what the SP4 offers. If you have desktop applications, use the trackpad included with the keyboard. Want to use touch applications, like Netflix, MS Office Mobile or DropBox? No problem at all.
Any Microsoft employee who brings up Steve Jobs' point about styluses in a negative light within the context of iPads vs Surface Pro is either a total pinhead or has no understanding of Microsoft's many many failed attempts to bring a desktop operating system and apps to tablet form factor devices. Microsoft's flawed assumption from the earliest days of "tablet editions" of Windows, Windows CE, and Windows Mobile was that doing "touch" was only a matter of turning the user's finger into a replacement for the Windows requisite mouse. The fact that the average human has fingers that are more akin to little sausages rather than a tiny mouse pointer meant that this assumption was totally wrong, and especially for Windows applications that have teeny tiny hit zones on the vast majority of standard Windows GUI controls.
Since Microsoft never quite figured out how to sharpen human fingers down to mouse pointer size in a nondestructive way to substitute for the required mouse, a reasonable substitute had to be devised- hence the stylus. In this case the stylus was, and still is with Windows a Surface, predominantly a Mouse Replacement. This underscores the fact that Windows was never designed to be touch based. I've owned and used every failed generation of Windows tablet wannabe device and every single one of them has been fundamentally crippled on tablets by its reliance on the need for a pixel accurate mouse for primary user interaction. The Microsoft Surface inherited all of these limitations because it's still based on an operating system that depends on a multifunction mouse and controls with tiny hit zones. It's not just an issue with tiny hit zones either, many Windows applications require right mouse clicks to uncover context menus, mouse drag & drop, double clicks, etc. There's decades of mouse dependency baked into Windows and its app ecosystem. It really needs a first class mouse for full functionality and a stylus is typically a poor compromise as a mouse. Add in high cost, a marginal floppy keyboard, small screen, limited storage, limited battery life, fan, and no built-in expandability and the Microsoft Surface becomes the perfect example of everything you don't want in a Windows PC. Surface does a perfect job of combining the worst possible implementation of every single feature that Windows users have come to rely on over the lifetime of the Windows PC. It's frighteningly amazing that anyone who really values a PC can get snookered into purchasing a PC that misses on so many levels. Sure you can add a large monitor, mouse, keyboard, and docking station, but why not buy a PC that delivers what you need from the start?
The fact that a stylus device can also be used for drawing purposes has nothing at all to do with REQUIRING a stylus as a mouse substitute for the base user interaction model. The drawing function is a totally different set of use cases. Even DOS supported drawing styluses and drawing pads all the while the base user interaction model was command line based.
The iPad was designed from the ground up for touch and gesture based interaction. Touch as in sausage sized fingers. Touch as in no mouse or stylus required for navigation and interaction. The Apple Pencil is not a mouse substitute, it's a highly functional drawing and markup tool that serves a distinctively different purpose that extends the feature set of the device and applications on the device that use the Pencil in novel ways. It's an adder, not a crutch.
I have never seen MS mentioning that the SP4 Pen is a replacement for the mouse, instead it's a input device for drawing and note taking. On the opposite, the SP4 support external pointing devices, so you can use desktop applications with a mouse or trackpad. Plus you have the option of using touch with universal apps.
You know, I'm glad it's a companion device. The apps I use on my iPad for my job are only available on the iPad and I would never want them to be available on my MacBook Pro as it would be to cumbersome.
Windows 10 runs desktop and universal apps, so you can choose the best option based in your use. For example, you can use the desktop version of Office 2016 with keyboard + mouse and switch to Office Mobile while working with touch.
Intellectual bankruptcy is what Microsoft does best, so of course they take the Jobs quote out of context.
Exactly. To clarify: The apple device is not a stylus as in "my OS sucks so badly that I require a sharp pointed tool to interact with it" (which is actually what the quote of SJ referred to, in addition, to a phone) but rather extends the use in particular in he field of creativty, mostly drawing.
Then clarify what SJ meant when he said "let's not invent another" in regard to the stylus, and do not give me some nonsense about the Pencil not being a stylus. By definition a stylus is used for tracing, and drawing.
Damn, why can't they understand what Steve Jobs was talking about regarding stylus?!?! He was correct saying that we shouldn't use stylus as the primary input but rather use touch gestures when executing commands or tasks. Prior to iPhone, many phones require stylus for input. To this day, we use touch gestures as the primary input. Pencil is NOT a substitute for gestures. It's designed for drawing, writing, and painting. It's not meant to be used as a primary source of input for commands and will never be.
When did he specifically say "as the primary input"?
Damn, why can't they understand what Steve Jobs was talking about regarding stylus?!?! He was correct saying that we shouldn't use stylus as the primary input but rather use touch gestures when executing commands or tasks. Prior to iPhone, many phones require stylus for input. To this day, we use touch gestures as the primary input. Pencil is NOT a substitute for gestures. It's designed for drawing, writing, and painting. It's not meant to be used as a primary source of input for commands and will never be.
When did he specifically say "as the primary input"?
To anyone who saw the reveal of the iPhone, the context was unmistakeable; multitouch was the future of the phone. Not a stylus nor a keyboard, just a touchscreen. Anyone who thinks that Steve had no use for a stylus should note that he was well versed in calligraphy. I think, I expect that, Steve would approve of the Pencil.
You don't need the stylus for non touch / desktop applications. The SP4 keyboard includes a trackpad for those applications, while you can use touch for universal apps.
Which defeats the purpose of having a tablet. A tablet is supposed to be extremely portable, and usable with one hand while holding it in the other. Any attempt at a hybrid device, one that can be used as either a tablet or a PC, is going to require compromising functionality in one or both operating modes.
Personally, I prefer a trackpad to a touch screen as an input device, just not when I'm using my iPad, since most of the software has been properly designed for touch.
I too am curious about people who attach keyboard cases to their iPads, and then carry the iPad+keyboard and their regular laptop around with them wherever they go.
Many of my friends have purchased surface machines. And they all have gone back to the conventional laptop form.
And those friends who purchased the Surface probably also have iPhones or Android phones. I think that people who buy the Surface are looking for a full Windows desktop interface that can run all their Windows applications and connect all peripheral devices when used in laptop form, but they also expect it to look and act exactly like an iPad or Android when they take off the keyboard. While there are Windows Mobile devices which are pure tablets, they are nowhere near as popular as iPads or Android tablets. Another issue is the availability of Windows Mobile versions of iPad and Android apps. So the real problem with the Surface is that it doesn't run iOS or Android in tablet mode. That is why the Surface ends up being used as just a laptop.
Don't mistake people's dislike of Windows Mobile as 'proof' that the entire concept of Surface is invalid. It seems to be a double standard when people keep saying "Wait for iOS to get all these new updates so iPad can replace MacBook in a few years, it's just software" while at the same time, the entire concept of Surface is a failure because of "software" today. And iPad can keep getting newer battery technology year after year while Surface is not allowed to. It seems that if the exact same Surface hardware were running some other operating system instead of Windows, people here would not be dismissing it so harshly.
Many of my friends have purchased surface machines. And they all have gone back to the conventional laptop form.
And those friends who purchased the Surface probably also have iPhones or Android phones. I think that people who buy the Surface are looking for a full Windows desktop interface that can run all their Windows applications and connect all peripheral devices when used in laptop form, but they also expect it to look and act exactly like an iPad or Android when they take off the keyboard. While there are Windows Mobile devices which are pure tablets, they are nowhere near as popular as iPads or Android tablets. Another issue is the availability of Windows Mobile versions of iPad and Android apps. So the real problem with the Surface is that it doesn't run iOS or Android in tablet mode. That is why the Surface ends up being used as just a laptop.
Don't mistake people's dislike of Windows Mobile as 'proof' that the entire concept of Surface is invalid. It seems to be a double standard when people keep saying "Wait for iOS to get all these new updates so iPad can replace MacBook in a few years, it's just software" while at the same time, the entire concept of Surface is a failure because of "software" today. And iPad can keep getting newer battery technology year after year while Surface is not allowed to. It seems that if the exact same Surface hardware were running some other operating system instead of Windows, people here would not be dismissing it so harshly.
Surface is a failure today, whatever the sales are, because MS doubled down on a legacy PC operating system, while the world goes mobile. Throw in its own OEM competitors, and its just the start of another race to the bottom.
Surface likely draws its sales from buyers looking to move from a laptop to a hybrid to gain a tablet, but a firmly PC compatible one; that's hybrids cannibalizing laptops. Yet, I'm not seeing much movement on the mobile side, which will ultimately transition to the Surface Phone. Maybe that will be successful, but it will have to compete with two large and well established competitors in iOS and Android OS.
MS is depending on the long list of x86 developers to configure touch, and to write Universal Apps for its strategy to be successful. Apple is, I believe, in a significantly stronger position in mobile, and will be able to leverage all of its strengths to create devices that are comparable in performance to the Surface, while at the same time leveraging its large iOS developer base to fill those devices with desktop quality apps. All of this while maintaining its own PC platform built on x86 compatible OS X.
Microsoft's "Universal App" model is simply creating a parallel universe within the existing Windows PC model to allow it to also act like a smartphone and tablet under certain conditions, whether or not those conditions really make sense - like touch enabled desktops. Rather than having two separate purpose-built devices with form factors, design language, and user interaction metaphors perfectly crafted for a clear purpose they've morphed it all into a single device that compromises on several of the qualities of both of its parents. This is exactly what you'd expect a company like Microsoft to do, keep adding more and more to the pile, because they have always had a very hard time saying "no" to anything. They are finally getting better and killing off some unsupportable legacy products but it'll take time to break their ingrained habits. This is simply Microsoft's mode of operation and the results of it are as visible and pervasive with Surface (PC variation of Surface, not the table variation of Surface) as on the very first "Mobile Edition" Windows laptops with fold-over keyboards, stylus, and finger as mouse. Slightly tweaked form factor, a few more touchable apps, but still the same basic DNA and formula at its core.
Microsoft doesn't really seem to have a Plan B for their desktop and mobile strategies. Emulating Apple, e.g., designing and building their own hardware along with software, seems to provide at least a temporary way to sustain themselves as they figure out what their Plan B is going to be. I'm not giving up on Microsoft because they have too many smart people to totally fail. The group of smart people does not include those who try to rationalize their FrankenPC strategy by taking jabs at the iPad. Truth is, Microsoft deeply covets and lusts over the iPhone, iPad, MacBook, and AppStore product lines because they are trying so hard to produce products that deeply resemble Apple's products and services. Microsoft tried to produce a companion device with Surface RT and it failed miserably because it was too compromised as a compromise. Microsoft's problem has been a massive burden of legacy and inertia that keeps them from being agile. With Balmer doubling down on the inertia he cost them at least 5 years of runway while Apple flew right past them. Let's see what they do next, if and when they come up with something novel and not me-too.
In contrast, nobody needs to be reminded how well Apple under Steve Jobs was at saying "no."
Obviously fingers are the primary input, but you stated that he meant the stylus as the primary input. Show me where he said that the stylus is no good if used only as the primary input.
I went back and forth between the iPad Pro and the Surface Pro 4, for about 90 minutes. I used them both, picked them up, ran apps on them, etc.
I finally went with the iPad Pro. Not because the SP4 isn't a good device, it's actually very nice. But there were a few things that pushed me over the edge:
1. The SP4 felt a lot thicker. I realize that in pure measurements, it isn't. But it felt more unwieldy in the hand.
2. I intend to use it for photo work (among other things) while traveling. And Photoshop on a small screen is hellabad. It's intended to be run on full-size screens, the bigger the better. It's great on my 27" 5K iMac.
But something like SnapSeed on the iPad Pro does everything I want without the bulk, and is made for my mobile device. I don't need a stylus to hit the itty-bitty UI elements, because it was designed for touch.
3. Windows 10's ability to morph between desktop and tablet mode is nice. Maybe even the future. But the number of "tablet friendly" apps that I actually care about is vanishingly small. The Office apps adapt nicely, but most other things, not so much. On the iPad, every app is designed for the tablet mode, because it's the only mode; of course, that's also a limitation, but one I ultimately decided was worth the trade off.
This situation might resolve itself if developers get excited about making apps handle tablet mode, but right now it's no competition on the "tablet application" front; the IPad destroys the SP4 in both selection and quality.
4. The iPad had cellular data availability. The SP4, astonishingly given it's prices, does not. I'd rather have a 3G connection out in the sticks someplace where there is no WiFi, than no connection at all. This was really a huge deal breaker for me.
Finally, 5: Windows itself. As a longtime I.T. Professional directly involved in desktop management...I just don't want to deal with Windows potential issues, while I'm trying to get stuff done far from home. I know that's unfair. But years of supporting Windows has left me more than a little wary of it.
I have plenty of critical things to say about iOS and it's limitations, and it was definitely a close fight between the SP4 and iPP. Maybe next year, Microsoft.
Exactly correct. The iPad is plenty good enough for pretty much everybody.
The mobile apps give most everybody all the tools they really actually need.
The Truck versions are way too complicated and need too much overhead compared to the drop-dead simplified mobile versions. This is where the biggest potential profits are for Apple, and it just keeps getting better.
The iPad Pro is "good enough" for most people. For anybody else with their professional edge use cases, there is the Mac.
These dumbasses need to look at Benley commercials which were shot on iPhone and edited on iPad only. I don't see the point of full OS in an iPad which totally defeats user experience. One thing I still love to have in iPad Pro: Support TouchPad on keyboard. I would buy it in a heartbeat.
Indeed. If the iPad is good enough for Bentley, then it should be good enough for pretty much anybody.
I can't say that I disagree with the point of the iPad (Pro) being a companion device. If iOS supported things like docking and extended displays, versus just mirroring, I think they'd get a lot closer. In terms of pure compute power, I'd bet a few dollars that the iPad Pro is right there with the Surface Pro. I think it's the OS though that holds it back. And FWIW I'm typing this on an iPad Pro.
I don't know why they keep comparing it to the iPad Pro in the first place when it's more of a laptop than a tablet. The Surface Pro sucks as a tablet with it's 3 hour battery life, it really should be compared to a Macbook Pro.
These dumbasses need to look at Benley commercials which were shot on iPhone and edited on iPad only. I don't see the point of full OS in an iPad which totally defeats user experience. One thing I still love to have in iPad Pro: Support TouchPad on keyboard. I would buy it in a heartbeat.
Indeed. If the iPad is good enough for Bentley, then it should be good enough for pretty much anybody.
But do they support CarPlay? I though that any luxury car maker that doesn't support CarPlay is trash.
Obviously fingers are the primary input, but you stated that he meant the stylus as the primary input. Show me where he said that the stylus is no good if used only as the primary input.
Transcript of iPhone launch in January 2007 or at least the three minutes SJ talks about the design logic of the iPhone, of note he hasn't really shown the device at this time it still in his pocket. So yes this is mostly about building a sales pitch against the current market and trying to get people to embrace a new idea in the market.
"[0:30:59]
So, we’re gonna reinvent the phone. [0:31:01]
Now, we’re gonna start… with a revolutionary user interface.. is the
result of years of research and development, and of course, it’s an
interplay of hardware and software.
Now, why do we need a revolutionary user interface? I mean, Here’s four
smart phones, right? Motorola Q, the BlackBerry, Palm Treo, Nokia E62 –
the usual suspects. [0:31:33]
And, what’s wrong with their user interfaces? Well, the problem with
them is really sort of in the bottom 40 there. It’s, it’s this stuff
right here.
They all have these keyboards that are there whether you need them or not to be there.
And they all have these control buttons that are fixed in plastic and
are the same for every application. Well, every application wants a
slightly different user interface, a slightly optimized set of buttons,
just for it.
And what happens if you think of a great idea six months from now? You
can’t run around and add a button to these things. They’re already
shipped. [0:32:07]
So what do you do?
It doesn’t work because the buttons and the controls can’t change. They
can’t change for each application, and they can’t change down the road
if you think of another great idea you wanna add to this product.
[0:32:22]
Well, how do you solve this?
Hmm. It turns out, we have solved it! [0:32:27]
We solved it in computers 20 years ago. We solved it with a bit-mapped
screen that could display anything we want. Put any user interface up.
And a pointing device. We solved it with the mouse. Right?
We solved this problem. So how’re we gonna take this to a mobile device?
What we gonna do is get rid of all these buttons and just make a giant screen.
A giant screen. [0:32:54]
Now, how are we gonna communicate this? We don’t wanna carry around a mouse, right?
So what are we gonna do? Oh, a stylus, right?
We’re gonna use a stylus.
No. No. Who wants a stylus?
You have to get em and put em away, and you lose em. Yuck.
Nobody wants a stylus. So let’s not use a stylus.
We’re gonna use the best pointing device in the world. We’re gonna use a
pointing device that we’re all born with – we’re born with ten of them.
We’re gonna use our fingers.
We’re gonna touch this with our fingers. And we have invented a new
technology called multi-touch, which is phenomenal. [0:33:33]
It works like magic.
You don’t need a stylus. It’s far more accurate than any touch display that’s ever been shipped.
It ignores unintended touches, it’s super-smart.
You can do multi-finger gestures on it.
And boy, have we patented it. [0:33:54]"
Comments
Since Microsoft never quite figured out how to sharpen human fingers down to mouse pointer size in a nondestructive way to substitute for the required mouse, a reasonable substitute had to be devised- hence the stylus. In this case the stylus was, and still is with Windows a Surface, predominantly a Mouse Replacement. This underscores the fact that Windows was never designed to be touch based. I've owned and used every failed generation of Windows tablet wannabe device and every single one of them has been fundamentally crippled on tablets by its reliance on the need for a pixel accurate mouse for primary user interaction. The Microsoft Surface inherited all of these limitations because it's still based on an operating system that depends on a multifunction mouse and controls with tiny hit zones. It's not just an issue with tiny hit zones either, many Windows applications require right mouse clicks to uncover context menus, mouse drag & drop, double clicks, etc. There's decades of mouse dependency baked into Windows and its app ecosystem. It really needs a first class mouse for full functionality and a stylus is typically a poor compromise as a mouse. Add in high cost, a marginal floppy keyboard, small screen, limited storage, limited battery life, fan, and no built-in expandability and the Microsoft Surface becomes the perfect example of everything you don't want in a Windows PC. Surface does a perfect job of combining the worst possible implementation of every single feature that Windows users have come to rely on over the lifetime of the Windows PC. It's frighteningly amazing that anyone who really values a PC can get snookered into purchasing a PC that misses on so many levels. Sure you can add a large monitor, mouse, keyboard, and docking station, but why not buy a PC that delivers what you need from the start?
The fact that a stylus device can also be used for drawing purposes has nothing at all to do with REQUIRING a stylus as a mouse substitute for the base user interaction model. The drawing function is a totally different set of use cases. Even DOS supported drawing styluses and drawing pads all the while the base user interaction model was command line based.
The iPad was designed from the ground up for touch and gesture based interaction. Touch as in sausage sized fingers. Touch as in no mouse or stylus required for navigation and interaction. The Apple Pencil is not a mouse substitute, it's a highly functional drawing and markup tool that serves a distinctively different purpose that extends the feature set of the device and applications on the device that use the Pencil in novel ways. It's an adder, not a crutch.
All devices have compromises. Let's take as an example the iPad Pro. A few years SJ mentioned an Apple research where they found that using touch in a vertical screen is "ergonomically terrible".
http://www.businessinsider.com/steve-jobs-touch-screen-mac-2010-10
And that's exactly what the iPad Pro + keyboard is, an "ergonomically terrible" device. Plus it has no file system, no expansion ports, no multiple users profiles and side by side applications is limited. You don't find these compromises in the SP4, even though it has it list of limitations (battery life + universal apps comes to my mind).
IMO, both, the SP4 and the iPad Pro are great devices and both have compromises. But looking at the whole picture, the iPad Pro is a larger iPad with stylus support, while the SP4 does much more.
And that's exactly what the SP4 offers. If you have desktop applications, use the trackpad included with the keyboard. Want to use touch applications, like Netflix, MS Office Mobile or DropBox? No problem at all.
http://quotes.lifehack.org/quote/steve-jobs/so-lets-not-use-a-stylus-were/
To anyone who saw the reveal of the iPhone, the context was unmistakeable; multitouch was the future of the phone. Not a stylus nor a keyboard, just a touchscreen. Anyone who thinks that Steve had no use for a stylus should note that he was well versed in calligraphy. I think, I expect that, Steve would approve of the Pencil.
Don't mistake people's dislike of Windows Mobile as 'proof' that the entire concept of Surface is invalid. It seems to be a double standard when people keep saying "Wait for iOS to get all these new updates so iPad can replace MacBook in a few years, it's just software" while at the same time, the entire concept of Surface is a failure because of "software" today. And iPad can keep getting newer battery technology year after year while Surface is not allowed to. It seems that if the exact same Surface hardware were running some other operating system instead of Windows, people here would not be dismissing it so harshly.
Surface likely draws its sales from buyers looking to move from a laptop to a hybrid to gain a tablet, but a firmly PC compatible one; that's hybrids cannibalizing laptops. Yet, I'm not seeing much movement on the mobile side, which will ultimately transition to the Surface Phone. Maybe that will be successful, but it will have to compete with two large and well established competitors in iOS and Android OS.
MS is depending on the long list of x86 developers to configure touch, and to write Universal Apps for its strategy to be successful. Apple is, I believe, in a significantly stronger position in mobile, and will be able to leverage all of its strengths to create devices that are comparable in performance to the Surface, while at the same time leveraging its large iOS developer base to fill those devices with desktop quality apps. All of this while maintaining its own PC platform built on x86 compatible OS X.
Microsoft doesn't really seem to have a Plan B for their desktop and mobile strategies. Emulating Apple, e.g., designing and building their own hardware along with software, seems to provide at least a temporary way to sustain themselves as they figure out what their Plan B is going to be. I'm not giving up on Microsoft because they have too many smart people to totally fail. The group of smart people does not include those who try to rationalize their FrankenPC strategy by taking jabs at the iPad. Truth is, Microsoft deeply covets and lusts over the iPhone, iPad, MacBook, and AppStore product lines because they are trying so hard to produce products that deeply resemble Apple's products and services. Microsoft tried to produce a companion device with Surface RT and it failed miserably because it was too compromised as a compromise. Microsoft's problem has been a massive burden of legacy and inertia that keeps them from being agile. With Balmer doubling down on the inertia he cost them at least 5 years of runway while Apple flew right past them. Let's see what they do next, if and when they come up with something novel and not me-too.
In contrast, nobody needs to be reminded how well Apple under Steve Jobs was at saying "no."
The mobile apps give most everybody all the tools they really actually need.
The Truck versions are way too complicated and need too much overhead compared to the drop-dead simplified mobile versions. This is where the biggest potential profits are for Apple, and it just keeps getting better.
"[0:30:59]
So, we’re gonna reinvent the phone. [0:31:01]
Now, we’re gonna start… with a revolutionary user interface.. is the result of years of research and development, and of course, it’s an interplay of hardware and software.
Now, why do we need a revolutionary user interface? I mean, Here’s four smart phones, right? Motorola Q, the BlackBerry, Palm Treo, Nokia E62 – the usual suspects. [0:31:33]
And, what’s wrong with their user interfaces? Well, the problem with them is really sort of in the bottom 40 there. It’s, it’s this stuff right here.
They all have these keyboards that are there whether you need them or not to be there.
And they all have these control buttons that are fixed in plastic and are the same for every application. Well, every application wants a slightly different user interface, a slightly optimized set of buttons, just for it.
And what happens if you think of a great idea six months from now? You can’t run around and add a button to these things. They’re already shipped. [0:32:07]
So what do you do?
It doesn’t work because the buttons and the controls can’t change. They can’t change for each application, and they can’t change down the road if you think of another great idea you wanna add to this product. [0:32:22]
Well, how do you solve this?
Transcript is from http://www.european-rhetoric.com/analyses/ikeynote-analysis-iphone/transcript-2007/Hmm. It turns out, we have solved it! [0:32:27]
We solved it in computers 20 years ago. We solved it with a bit-mapped screen that could display anything we want. Put any user interface up. And a pointing device. We solved it with the mouse. Right?
We solved this problem. So how’re we gonna take this to a mobile device?
What we gonna do is get rid of all these buttons and just make a giant screen.
A giant screen. [0:32:54]
Now, how are we gonna communicate this? We don’t wanna carry around a mouse, right?
So what are we gonna do? Oh, a stylus, right?
We’re gonna use a stylus.
No. No. Who wants a stylus?
You have to get em and put em away, and you lose em. Yuck.
Nobody wants a stylus. So let’s not use a stylus.
We’re gonna use the best pointing device in the world. We’re gonna use a pointing device that we’re all born with – we’re born with ten of them. We’re gonna use our fingers.
We’re gonna touch this with our fingers. And we have invented a new technology called multi-touch, which is phenomenal. [0:33:33]
It works like magic.
You don’t need a stylus. It’s far more accurate than any touch display that’s ever been shipped.
It ignores unintended touches, it’s super-smart.
You can do multi-finger gestures on it.
And boy, have we patented it. [0:33:54]"
only because it was the first one in google.