In October 2014, Microsoft paid $400 million to the NFL for the exclusive rights to be the league's sole provider of tablets for use during the game, including Surface carts with integrated Wi-Fi for on-field use. However, nearly immediately, game play-by-play announcers called the devices "iPad-like tool" tablets on more than one occasion.
It's crazy they have to pay people this much to use their products and they still end up tossing them out. Microsoft really needs to rethink how it spends marketing dollars. Windows isn't designed properly as a touch OS. The people happy with Surfaces will be using them like laptops and not tablets. For all the resources that Microsoft has, it's unbelievable that they put out Windows in the state it's in. The UI is now split between some modern style and the old style and configuration settings are split between them too:
Having to configure advanced settings in tablet mode with UI elements that small and the sun bouncing off the screen would be a very frustrating experience.
Most of the screenshots show the NFL people using a single app:
It's just taking pictures from the stadium cameras for them to draw play strategies onto but if it loses the connection to the cameras, they can't get the images so getting printed frames from the feeds would be more reliable. They mentioned inconsistent performance too, this is just classic Windows where there are little glitches everywhere that they couldn't be bothered to fix:
In Windows 10, if you just open a file or have an app pointing to a file, Windows flags it as in use and won't allow you to move it but it won't tell you what's using it. You have to get a 3rd party process viewer to find what's using the file, close that down and then move it. With files, OS X even updates the references in the apps using the files when you move something.
Windows 10 also has an annoying habit of updating things all the time on its own leaving you staring at this stupid thing for ages (either that or locking up the OS):
They probably thought it would be a good idea to make a fancy design for the wait icon but it's so much more annoying because it never shows the progress. You can be waiting for 5 minutes or half an hour and it will finish one update with its own progress bar reaching 100% and you get ready to start using the computer again for it to start another update at 0% right after it and the spinner just keeps going. Windows has had a few improvements over the years but it's still constantly infuriating to use on a daily basis.
Did you know that the customer satisfaction for the Surface Pro is at the same level as the iPad?
I think a lot of commenters have missed the point. I'm speculating as well of course, but I suspect the problem is threefold: interfaces, reliability, and connectivity. And, even if connectivity is an issue, the implementation of the networking system matters; this is an area where Apple has typically eclipsed Microsoft by a huge margin.
Comments
http://www.zdnet.com/article/microsofts-surface-apples-ipad-in-customer-satisfaction-dead-heat/
Maybe MS is doing something right, and the SP4 is not as bad as your post mention.