4 ms·

I find it interesting that Msft is choosing to battle Apple head on in the consumer space, I recall Sun Tzu "attack where your enemy is weak". Yet, msft is atta

by josho 10y ago

I find it interesting that Msft is choosing to battle Apple head on in the consumer space, I recall Sun Tzu "attack where your enemy is weak". Yet, msft is attacking Apple at their most loyal user base—designers. Not only that but the machines, at a glance, resemble Apple's, so there is little physical differentiation. Is aluminum gray the only color for computers these days? This strategy strikes me as incredibly odd, I wonder if anyone here sees the angle that I'm missing.

msabalau 10y ago
Traditionally designers have been Apple's strongest supporters. But there has been a fair bit of grumbling about Apple abandoning power users in favor of consumers and an iOS focus. If Apple isn't inclined to make investments in supporting the segment, Microsoft is as well placed as anyone to go after it.
egypturnash 10y ago
Hi, I'm a pro artist. I've been an Apple zombie for a long time. Since like 2000 when I finally retired my beloved Amiga. Windows does everything the "wrong" way from the perspective of my habits. Yet I would be using a Surface 4 for most of my art nowadays if not for the fact that Adobe Illustrator, my main tool, doesn't talk to the Surface's NTrig stylus properly. So I'm still hauling around a four-year-old Air and a Wacom tablet. I have been ready to give Apple money for a new machine to do my work on for about a year now and they haven't put out anything that's worth bothering with for me. And when's the last time Apple updated their super-high-end desktop machines for the Serious Major Power Users? They've been focusing on phones and tablets, and that leaves the segment of the market whose work is "using Serious Art Power Tools" unserved. Unless Apple's announcement tomorrow has something in it like "oh hey we finally decided to build a tablet that can run desktop apps" I'm probably gonna be pretty meh about it. And the rumors all point to "new Pro lappy with a touch panel instead of the f-keys", which is about as exciting to me as a lukewarm glass of milk. I do not pretend to speak for all artists. Just for myself.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- avtar 10y ago
  I don't think I'll be getting a Surface anytime soon but I'm curious, what sort of Illustrator/Surface NTrig stylus issues would one encounter?
  - egypturnash 10y ago
    It drops about the first half-second of every stroke when you're using the pencil or brush tools, and completely loses some very short, quick lines. Which is a problem for someone like me who's been trained to draw with a lot of quick, confident strokes.
WorldMaker 10y ago
How's this for a collection of angles that seem to converge? 1. Windows has long been the platform of "boring corporate creative": the AutoCAD using mechanical engineer; the board room PowerPoint presenter. The drafting desk is a familiar acquaintance in some offices with a Windows PC. 2. Microsoft's DNA is in the maker space: it did begin as the software company for software developers. There is a creative DNA there too, but yes that creativity sometimes shines as rather "vanilla". Microsoft here seems to be trying to celebrate its existing (sometimes unsung) creative users as much as to attract (back, sometimes) the same sorts of creatives that have been Apple's loyal following. The drafting desk is a staid, icon of all sorts of important, but "mundane" creative work, and Microsoft building essentially a "sexy" digital drafting desk seems as much for the "boring CAD shop" as the designer that clings to their MBP all hours of the day. There's also some implication that Apple may have grown weak/complacent among creative types in the last few years. Certainly a great criticism lately has been that Apple's iOS/tvOS/watchOS-first strategies over the last few years seem much more content and much more at home with targeting (ease of) consumption over creation. I think Satya in his closing remarks did a pretty good job of trying to tell the story of Microsoft long seeing itself as a creativity-enabling company. It's interesting seeing the Surface brand trying to shake off at least some of the long reputation of mundane creativity for something shinier. But it's also something I think they tried to sell the story of there's an importance to mundanity too; to everyone having a chance at creativity, to it not being a special class of person but something everyone should have access to. (In that way it seems also an attempt to grow a new user base of creative types that don't fit the classic Apple loyal model. Several references to keeping/capturing the imaginations of the so-called "Minecraft generation".)

by josho 10y ago

msabalau 10y ago

Traditionally designers have been Apple's strongest supporters. But there has been a fair bit of grumbling about Apple abandoning power users in favor of consumers and an iOS focus. If Apple isn't inclined to make investments in supporting the segment, Microsoft is as well placed as anyone to go after it.

egypturnash 10y ago

Hi, I'm a pro artist. I've been an Apple zombie for a long time. Since like 2000 when I finally retired my beloved Amiga. Windows does everything the "wrong" way from the perspective of my habits. Yet I would be using a Surface 4 for most of my art nowadays if not for the fact that Adobe Illustrator, my main tool, doesn't talk to the Surface's NTrig stylus properly. So I'm still hauling around a four-year-old Air and a Wacom tablet. I have been ready to give Apple money for a new machine to do my work on for about a year now and they haven't put out anything that's worth bothering with for me. And when's the last time Apple updated their super-high-end desktop machines for the Serious Major Power Users? They've been focusing on phones and tablets, and that leaves the segment of the market whose work is "using Serious Art Power Tools" unserved. Unless Apple's announcement tomorrow has something in it like "oh hey we finally decided to build a tablet that can run desktop apps" I'm probably gonna be pretty meh about it. And the rumors all point to "new Pro lappy with a touch panel instead of the f-keys", which is about as exciting to me as a lukewarm glass of milk. I do not pretend to speak for all artists. Just for myself.

deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
avtar 10y ago
I don't think I'll be getting a Surface anytime soon but I'm curious, what sort of Illustrator/Surface NTrig stylus issues would one encounter?
- egypturnash 10y ago
  It drops about the first half-second of every stroke when you're using the pencil or brush tools, and completely loses some very short, quick lines. Which is a problem for someone like me who's been trained to draw with a lot of quick, confident strokes.

WorldMaker 10y ago

How's this for a collection of angles that seem to converge? 1. Windows has long been the platform of "boring corporate creative": the AutoCAD using mechanical engineer; the board room PowerPoint presenter. The drafting desk is a familiar acquaintance in some offices with a Windows PC. 2. Microsoft's DNA is in the maker space: it did begin as the software company for software developers. There is a creative DNA there too, but yes that creativity sometimes shines as rather "vanilla". Microsoft here seems to be trying to celebrate its existing (sometimes unsung) creative users as much as to attract (back, sometimes) the same sorts of creatives that have been Apple's loyal following. The drafting desk is a staid, icon of all sorts of important, but "mundane" creative work, and Microsoft building essentially a "sexy" digital drafting desk seems as much for the "boring CAD shop" as the designer that clings to their MBP all hours of the day. There's also some implication that Apple may have grown weak/complacent among creative types in the last few years. Certainly a great criticism lately has been that Apple's iOS/tvOS/watchOS-first strategies over the last few years seem much more content and much more at home with targeting (ease of) consumption over creation. I think Satya in his closing remarks did a pretty good job of trying to tell the story of Microsoft long seeing itself as a creativity-enabling company. It's interesting seeing the Surface brand trying to shake off at least some of the long reputation of mundane creativity for something shinier. But it's also something I think they tried to sell the story of there's an importance to mundanity too; to everyone having a chance at creativity, to it not being a special class of person but something everyone should have access to. (In that way it seems also an attempt to grow a new user base of creative types that don't fit the classic Apple loyal model. Several references to keeping/capturing the imaginations of the so-called "Minecraft generation".)