Editorial: The mysterious failure of Microsoft's Surface RT

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  • Reply 181 of 347

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Dick Applebaum View Post



    Sometimes, though very seldom, I am pleasantly surprised by a a concise, unbiased DED article.


     


    I am probably enjoy DED's editorial/opinion pieces more than you because it's fun, to me, to read a nice biased (but factually based) pro-Apple piece. It's then especially a fun read if Microsoft is getting pilloried at the same time. DED does these on a weekend and sort of serves as entertainment during a lull in the weeks news.


     


    So, my advice is to set aside the weekend to read something that's not serious or bad news and enjoy a mental romp along with an author of your choice. 

  • Reply 182 of 347
    hypoluxahypoluxa Posts: 694member
    MS should stick with making software.. which can be a pain-in -the-ass to use as well, but they really need to give up with hardware making and blatantly copying Apple. Badly. Seriously MS, stop trying to make hardware. Give it a f'n rest. Please.
  • Reply 183 of 347
    droidftwdroidftw Posts: 1,009member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Suddenly Newton View Post


     


    Is that why Microsoft Windows tells you to "Contact your administrator" whenever an error occurred? Because that was really helpful for consumers... /s



     


    Don't forget Clippy!  image

  • Reply 184 of 347

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by wizard69 View Post



    As to Ballmer he will likely be around for a long while. 


     


    GOD, I hope so!!! As long as Uncle Fester is leading the clown parade in Redmond, there will plenty of opportunity for innovation and progress by other companies, including Apple. 

  • Reply 185 of 347
    sirdirsirdir Posts: 186member
    snova wrote: »
    I think you are on to something here.  Maybe Microsoft should follow your holier-than-thou attitude and abandon their attacks on the iPad in their commercials  See what I did there? Re-read what you wrote from the point of view of Apple engineer's designs being attacked by Microsoft in their adds.
    You would have a point if I'd say I like the microsoft commercials. I hate them. I think they're stupid.
    But just because Microsoft isn't able to make good ads (I haven't seen a single good one as far as I remember) - does that mean appleinsider has to post bad articles as well?
    You know, this type of holier-than-thou rhetoric is best reserved for church and for people who are trying to find a way to cope with living their lives with liars, sinners, alcoholics, and drug addicts .   I kicked out that good-for-nothing bumm "Microsoft" many years ago after many long attempts to fix him up. Wasted nights, weekends, crying myself to sleep at night and waiting for promises that it will all be better in the next release.  Fool me once shame on him, fool me 10 times shame on me. 

    When Microsoft is at death's door and shows signs of coming out with something revolutionary, then I may talk to him again. Until then, I have disowned him.

    I don't think it has anything to do with 'holier-than-thou', I just don't see the point in exaggerating a failure that already would be big enough without any exaggeration! It just lessens the credibility of the writer. The truth is already 'funny' enough.
  • Reply 186 of 347

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by sirdir View Post



    Well, I feel sorry for you if you can only feel good when you're looking down on others.


     


    FYI: telling strangers in forums that you "feel sorry for them" is one way to look down on others. You're passing judgment on, not empathizing with, the person/people you are addressing.

  • Reply 187 of 347

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Rogifan View Post





    Another thing, they rarely ever show the device being used in portrait orientation. A lot of people use tablets as e-book readers. The Surface, always being shown in landscape orientation and with the kickstand out and the keyboard attached didn't make it look like a thin and light tablet you could just pick up and read like a book or easily take on the go.


    The dot matrix on the Surface is optimized for landscape mode. In fact the number they quote for DPI is based on the landscape mode. If you think this looks like a stinker in landscape, wait until you see text in portrait mode. MY eyes! My eyes!


     


    NOTE: if the Surface tablet refuses to rotate into portrait mode, you may need to go into "Windows settings" and tell it to do so... yeah, you read that right. Depending on the application Surface is locked into the landscape mode.

  • Reply 188 of 347
    ijoynerijoyner Posts: 135member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by ascii View Post



    Apple (as they have always been open about) develop software and services only to sell more hardware. ... hardware design (Apple's strength) matters more than in the past.


    That's not true at all. Apple is about creating an entire user experience by combining software and hardware. This really starts with the software. The fact that they are great at hardware design is because they are very good at removing the constraints of hardware in order to support the software and then remove the constraints of software to support the user experience.


    Apple controls the design of the hardware so they can remove the constraints. Microsoft is bound by those constraints.


    What ascii states is a false aphorism - it is widely stated but untrue.

  • Reply 189 of 347
    drblankdrblank Posts: 3,385member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Apple ][ View Post





    Well that's just you. I like sarcasm, and this POS tablet deserves to be mocked and so does anybody who defended this POS tablet on this forum in the past.



    This was an obvious flop from the very beginning and anybody who didn't see that is extremely out of touch.


    But it has a kicksatand.   See.   click.

  • Reply 190 of 347
    drblankdrblank Posts: 3,385member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Apple ][ View Post





    Well that's just you. I like sarcasm, and this POS tablet deserves to be mocked and so does anybody who defended this POS tablet on this forum in the past.



    This was an obvious flop from the very beginning and anybody who didn't see that is extremely out of touch.


    But it has a kickstand.   See.   click.

  • Reply 191 of 347
    drblankdrblank Posts: 3,385member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Dick Applebaum View Post







    Hey, guys I dislike MS as much as the next guy... including DED!



    I just try not to let my emotions confuse/color my logic.





    MS Has done some good things and deserves credit for them -- early Word, Excel, Access -- not to mention investing in Apple ($ and Office Support) when Steve returned. Sure, these were driven by self interest,,, but who / what public company isn't?





    IMO, the problem with DED's rants is they are usually a verbose over-the-top rehash of the same-old, same-old. They give the impression of recounting history -- but you have only DED's perspective and no conflicting facts or points of view are included. And, if you post any challenge to an AI article of his -- he often takes issue and demeans the challenge and poster using the pseudonym "Corrections". Why is that permitted?





    Sometimes, though very seldom, I am pleasantly surprised by a a concise, unbiased DED article.


    I just read an excerpt on Wikipedia on Excel about the way they calculate high precision numbers and that they might not be that accurate.  I don't know about you, but if I was a scientist and had to rely on a spreadsheet to do precise numbers like the trajectory of the Enterprise back to a certain date to save some humpback whales and Excel wasn't accurate enough, that could be a life threatening situation.  I would prefer accuracy over speed of the calculation.   What would you prefer?


     


    Actually Access was a horrible database, Filemaker Pro was and still is a far better database and it runs on both OS X and Windows.  I used to sell both Access and Filemaker and even a lot of my Windows customers preferred FIlemaker Pro to Access. Go figure.


     


    I don't have a problem with Microsoft Apps as long as they don't have security issues, bugs and they work well.  Even though I used Word, Excel, and Powerpoint, I haven't always been happy with their operation.  They dragged their feet in re-writing the code for OS X.  Remember they had to run Rosetta because they wouldn't re-write their app?   Excel used to originally written natively on the Mac and then ported over to Windows, and then Microsoft changed and did the opposite.  When they write natively written apps, they run better than the ported version.  I don't know if they re-wrote Office natively for OS X, it would be nice if they did.

  • Reply 192 of 347
    rkevwillrkevwill Posts: 224member
    MS opened a new store a couple of weeks ago in Indy. They gave away hundreds of free concert tickets, to Kelly Clarkson, on a Saturday. Monday, I walked by their store at lunch. 6 people in the store, besides the staff. Down a bit, an Apple store. Probably a hundred or more people inside. Of course, MS will keep that store open as long as they want. But......why? Whats wrong with this picture?
  • Reply 193 of 347
    gazoobeegazoobee Posts: 3,754member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Corrections View Post


     


    One thing, however: Windows was subsidized by Microsoft's huge DOS business. Windows then tried to subsidize a variety of pen, tablet, clamshell PDAs, watches, screens, auto integration and various other things that have never taken off. Through the 2000s, Microsoft had tons of cash to waste in paying for the next big thing, but failed over and over. 


     


    Problem is, the cash cow of Win PCs is now drying up. Microsoft doesn't make most of the profits of the industry anymore, so it can't fritter away money on projects forever. So it's now more quickly killing things like the Zune and KIN.


     


    It's now Apple's turn to spend cash on new projects. What has it done: Apple TV, iAd, iPod touch gaming, iCloud, Maps, iOS Auto integration and lots of other stuff that critics have laughed at derisively but which are sustainably making money, despite being "just experiments." 


     


    So if you look at the future of Surface RT, it's much less compelling than one of Apple's "hobbies." Meanwhile, Apple has more new billion dollar businesses cranking out cash.



     


    Good insight, and totally true. 

  • Reply 194 of 347
    gazoobeegazoobee Posts: 3,754member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Suddenly Newton View Post


     


    Because if you rotated the Surface, the gaudy neon click-in keyboard would be hanging off to the side, and the kickstand would flop uselessly.


    The iPad OTOH is fully functional with or without a keyboard in landscape AND portrait mode. In other words, a true tablet from the ground-up, not a desktop in tablet clothing. Post-PC vs. PC pretending-to-be-Post-PC.


     




     


    I still maintain that the Surface RT and the Surface Pro are actually hybrid laptops.  


     


    You have to use them in landscape mode, and you have to use the attached (but detachable) keyboard, and you have to put them down on a table to make them even work, or to get the benefits out of them that Microsoft is selling.  They also run desktop software and work best with a mouse.  Sure they tell us it's a tablet, but other than the name I don't see the difference between them and some of Dell's convertible laptops, or the (Acer?) ones with the detachable screen.  


     


    Take a look the next time you see someone using one in a coffee shop (if you ever do).  How is the experience any different than just having a laptop with a touchable screen?  


    Can you type on it while walking or standing up on the bus?  Can you cruise the web with it on your lap?  No, and no.  (at least not really, and not in practice). 


     


    They are fucking laptops, not tablets.  They are screwed up little hybrid laptops for people that want to think they have a tablet, but can't really let go of the past.  

  • Reply 195 of 347
    ifly51ifly51 Posts: 3member
    Steve & Tim have be saying forever that Apple always designs their products to change peoples life's for the better, and not their bottom line as most other companies do. The end result is that the cream always rises to the top, always!
  • Reply 196 of 347
    droidftwdroidftw Posts: 1,009member


    I just visited Microsoft's website for their Surface devices to see what they had to say about them.  I'm now left with a feeling that there's a team of people at MS who saw the increase in web traffic.  I suspect they're highfiving each other and looking forward to a bright new future.

  • Reply 197 of 347
    koopkoop Posts: 337member
    Nice tongue in cheek editorial. Such wit and biting sarcasm. I can't contain myself with all this self congratulatory I-told-you-so retrospection. Self restraint and humbleness was so last year anyway.

    It's times like this i'm filled with relief that adblock is defaulted to 'on'. I shudder to think i'm providing click revenue to such tripe.
  • Reply 198 of 347
    koopkoop Posts: 337member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by dasanman69 View Post





    How well has that worked out for Sega?


    quite well. 

  • Reply 199 of 347
    iPad was not invented - to be tablet with keyboard, and that is main thing MS argues.
    For me, it is under the belt, and it is not - truth.
    iPad is #1 and it will stay.
    Higher price is reflection of better quality and support.

    With videoclips like this, MS just confirmed that intelligent man must avoid MS products as a plague.
  • Reply 200 of 347
    koopkoop Posts: 337member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by vojislavcar View Post



    iPad was not invented - to be tablet with keyboard, and that is main thing MS argues.

    For me, it is under the belt, and it is not - truth.

    iPad is #1 and it will stay.

    Higher price is reflection of better quality and support.



    With videoclips like this, MS just confirmed that intelligent man must avoid MS products as a plague.


     


    Or semi-intelligent robots in the case of this post. Though I don't think robots can catch plagues, so you're OK. But viruses ... Are you Mac or PC? 

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