7 ms·

Microsoft Surface RT price announced

57 points by vignesh_vs_in 14y ago

Synaesthesia 14y ago
Wow, it doesn't have 3G standard! If it came with 3G I think this pricing would be acceptable. As it is, good luck MS!
- Nursie 14y ago
  Indeed, Meh. No 3G or 4G. I'd spend the extra $30 for the entry level iPad2 instead of the entry level RT tablet. And I don't even like Apple...
hfs 14y ago
At that price point, it's not clear to me which market they're trying to break in to.
elorant 14y ago
So with a price similar to the iPad it's obvious MS doesn't want to compete on price but rather on features. Well good luck on that.
- MatthewPhillips 14y ago
  It's $100 cheaper.
  - berntb 14y ago
    As multiple people have pointed out above -- no retina display. It isn't cheaper than iPad 2, which seems to have roughly a similar screen.
- lrem 14y ago
  Well, they may be the only party able to do that. While Google and its herd of OEMs play catch up, MS is actually trying to think different...
  - lawdawg 14y ago
    you assume Android isn't trying to compete on features as well. Guess what, it is, and competing in various form factors and price. No offense, but unless this device blows the doors off in reviews (in battery life and usability) this thing is DOA. The Pro version might have better luck with the enterprise, but no reasonable person is going to buy an RT tablet that can't run desktop apps and lacks the ecosystem that Apple has.
  - jan_g 14y ago
    Excuse me, but I believe it's actually the android ecosystem that produces many different products and the user really has a lot to choose from. One example: http://youtu.be/AxE_Im20UZM http://youtu.be/AxE_Im20UZM Another example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tX9KG369evA#t=10m34s http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tX9KG369evA#t=10m34s Yet another: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Wf_PqPi2tw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Wf_PqPi2tw Now, I'm not saying that those examples are better than products from iOS or WinRT ecosystem, but you can hardly say that there's no innovation.
    - lrem 14y ago
      Well, these are nice experiments. Remind me of the good old Nokia... In the meantime, the mainstream Android tablets (Fire, Nexus, Galaxy Tabs) are actually "me too" devices, lagging visibly behind the iPad. Disclosure: I'm a happy Android user, both phone and tablet.
- wslh 14y ago
  There is an extra competition factor: App Store. I don't think anybody can compete with Apple in some sectors like games and interactive books. I haven't seen anything similar to the iPad offerings even in the Android store.
- adrr 14y ago
  Also given Microsoft's track record with hardware. Xbox360 has a reported 50%+ failure rate with their units. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xbox_360_technical_problems http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xbox_360_technical_problems
lini 14y ago
Really hoped that it will be priced lower than that. Now it's very uncertain if this will be a hit with the Windows Store Apps so few and developers still not convinced about the platform as well. It's still $100 cheaper than the 32GB iPad but storage is useless if you don't have Apps to fill it.
- MatthewPhillips 14y ago
  Even with PC sales on the decline, there are still going to be tens of millions of people with a Windows 8 computer and the "Store" tile staring them in the face every time they turn it on.
- seanmcdirmid 14y ago
  Its also $100 more expensive than an iPad 2 (or the same price if you assume 16 GB = $100). The resolution of the Surface is similar to the iPad 2 (if you care about that), but I'm not sure if the screen is somehow otherwise better (e.g., IPS?).
- wcchandler 14y ago
  That's a nice note on the dev perspective. If they were smart, they'd have something similar to Google I/O and give tons away to potential developers.
  - Roritharr 14y ago
    They already did that for Windows Phone, nearly every mobile dev i know got a free Nokia Lumia or similar at certain conferences (Droidcon Berlin was an odd choice tho). It didn't seem to have helped that much.
    - cooldeal 14y ago
      I think it did help. They have 100K+ apps in the Windows Phone Store.
- omaranto 14y ago
  "... Apps to fill it" I guess some video games could be large, but wouldn't most people with tablets fill most of their storage with audio and video files rather than apps?
Toshio 14y ago
Still no information on battery life.
randomfool 14y ago
Interesting that there's no mention of Office in the screenshot. I had assumed that at that price the inclusion of it would be the differentiator over the iPad since the Surface RT app ecosystem is minimal right now. Personally, I'd have a very hard time recommending this as a purchase. I'm much more bullish on Surface Pro as its legacy support can mitigate any Win8 App Store holes.
- takluyver 14y ago
  Right at the bottom: "Pre-loaded with Windows RT, Microsoft Office 2013 RT...". I'm not sure it will be enough to set it apart from the competition, though.
moron 14y ago
So basically we're going to see pundits compare it to the iPad's price using the keyboard-less price, then compare the actual devices while using the keyboard even though it costs an extra hundo. Awesome.
takluyver 14y ago
Pricing like an iPad, fewer apps than Android tablets, and no way to run legacy Windows applications. It's hard to see what the selling point is here.
- MatthewPhillips 14y ago
  $100 cheaper than an iPad.
  - Synaesthesia 14y ago
    iPad 2 can be bought from $399, and the $499+ iPads have a Retina display, this is only 1366x768.
  - Toshio 14y ago
    $100 more expensive than an iPad 2.
    - MatthewPhillips 14y ago
      New things cost more than old things.
      - adrr 14y ago
        Its more equivalent to an Ipad 2 than the Ipad 3 since it doesn't have a retina like screen. The Surface pro has the screen where pixels aren't visible. I do wonder if the surface will be more reliable than a xbox 360. I'm on my second one and it just broke again. Microsoft isn't know for reliable devices and as a business, i can't have tablets die on my employees. With apple, i haven't had any issues with three year old ipad that is used daily.
        dpark 14y ago
        > I do wonder if the surface will be more reliable than a xbox 360. I'm on my second one and it just broke again. Microsoft isn't know for reliable devices and as a business, i can't have tablets die on my employees. With apple, i haven't had any issues with three year old ipad that is used daily. Well if we're trading anecdotes, I went through 3 Macbook Pros in 3 years. Two screens broke and one trackpad stopped working. One of the headphone jacks also broke. Apparently the issues I hit were fairly common, at least on the generations I had. This doesn't mean Apple makes bad hardware. It means that their hardware isn't perfect (no one's is), and that I got unlucky. My wife has a Dell laptop that's years old and has no problems except that the battery needs replacing. Anecdotes don't count for much. Disclosure: Microsoft employee
james-skemp 14y ago
For those who don't like TC, $499, $599, or $699. According to the mistakenly launched product page.
hhudolet 14y ago
As early adopter of WP7, i'll make that mistake again. Those devices always looks great on commercials and (biased) reviews, but when you start using them on daily basis you notice that they're missing some important features (like buggy notifications on WP7). Also, metro apps often crashes on my desktop Win8 rtm, and not third party-ones ....
- NoJobsOnlyGates 14y ago
  I will not make the same mistake again. I already bought a Nexus7 and I'm very impressed with the quality of the device and the high availability of good and cheap applications.You can really realise how limited, poor and primitive WP7 is after playing 10 minutes with some android 4.1 device.Microsoft lost this race like they did with Zune.They should stick to desktops and ultrabooks.
bobsy 14y ago
I really like the look of this. I don't mind Windows and if I didn't have an iPad - which I only use for consuming content and browsing the web - I would probably consider getting one. Maybe when Apple stops supporting iPad2 eh? The problem for me is the price. With Apple you know you are paying a premium for what is a luxury item. Microsoft's brand to me isn't luxury. Its functional or economical. Its like the XBOX. Its a nice system but its middle of range in terms of cost, design and specs. Maybe this is the start of Microsoft re-branding? The trouble is I still have memories of cheap laptops taking a minute+ to boot up running windows. I associate these horrible machines with the Microsoft brand. This is why I find it hard to see myself paying what is essentially an Apple price for a Microsoft product.
- mamp 14y ago
  If the iPad is a luxury item why have other companies not beaten it in price/performance? The Surface doesn't have a retina display, for example. Yes, Apple make a profit on their hardware, which is apparently not the case for Nexus tablet or Surface (rumor has it), but their devices are pretty competitive in price for equivalent quality. They just ignore the low-end market in the non-iPod category.
- dpark 14y ago
  > Its like the XBOX. Its a nice system but its middle of range in terms of cost, design and specs. Out of curiosity, what do you mean when you say the Xbox is middle of the road in terms of specs? I believe the original Xbox was far more powerful than the PS2 and GameCube, and ditto for the Xbox 360 vs PS3 and (obviously) Wii. I guess cost of the XBox 360 was middle of the road, but only because the PS3 was so crazy expensive at launch (I bought one as a Blu-Ray player well after launch and it was still crazy expensive).
JimmaDaRustla 14y ago
Not the price point many people were hoping for. So now I have to do a "proof of concept" that I can use it for business - I'm going to download Win8 and test apps before I ever buy the tablet.
mikecane 14y ago
The only way I'd get an RT tablet is if all of the XP (yes, I'm still using it!) programs I use came out with an RT version. That's very unlikely. Is there still a controversy over Firefox having an RT version, btw? I'll wait for the full 8 Surface -- but if the rumored $899-$999 pricing for that is true, I might wait and wait and wait for prices to drop.
emehrkay 14y ago
I like the idea of windows 8, just not the execution. If MS' future is Metro, they should have went the iOS route with dedicated devices -- windows phone 8 and windows tablet metro that run the same apps -- and eventually added classic desktop as an app when x86 emulation was good enough on arm. There should had been a clear distinction between the two environments. As it stands now, metro is billed as the only start menu on x86 devices, but the full os on RT devices. This is confusing and offers no compelling reason to buy the RT version. I see Apple releasing OSX as an iOS app in the near (>=5 years) future. The reason that will work for them is because iOS is a standalone brand that people understand. Just my 2¢, I'm not a windows user.
- WrkInProgress 14y ago
  You do realize that Microsoft is going to release exactly that in a little under ten days. The "desktop" is a tile on the Start Screen.
  - emehrkay 14y ago
    Well, the "desktop" in RT is completely different than the desktop in x86. What I said was that Metro and Windows 8 should be separate products until the x86 desktop can be emulated as an app inside of Metro. As it stands now, your RT "desktop" apps will not run in the x86 desktop and vice versa. Those two desktops are only similar in look and feel. I do think that the Metro apps will run on both x86 and RT, not too sure about this though. This is so fucking confusing. We have two versions of Windows 8: x86 and RT, both with two separate environments: desktop and metro. If an app can run on metro in both rt and x86, the consumer is faced with a 1/3 chance that a given app will work on their Windows 8 machine.
- dpark 14y ago
  > metro is billed as the only start menu on x86 devices Metro (Windows 8 style) is not billed as "only the start menu" (assuming that's what you meant) on x86. You're hearing that from hanging around HN, not from Microsoft. Windows 8 fully supports Windows 8-style apps on x86, and it's expected that you can and will install some of those apps. However, Windows 8 on x86 also fully supports all the desktop applications you use on Windows 7/Vista/XP. So if you want, you can indeed avoid all the Windows 8 applications on x86 and stick to the traditional desktop, in which case you'll only see the new style on the start screen and perhaps in various settings screens. But that's not the expected experience on x86.
cooldeal 14y ago
The new TV ad is here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mSckyoAMHg http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mSckyoAMHg The Surface RT does some things better than the iPad. For example, it has a MicroSD slot and a full USB port. The side-by-side multitasking view is pretty nice to put a chat or Twitter client while browsing/working etc. The built in snap out stand is also pretty cool.
- ygra 14y ago
  I guess the main problem is that there are pretty much only two comparisons: 1. How does it compare to an iPad? Available apps is a major factor here. 2. How does it compare to a regular Windows laptop? Windows RT not running normal Windows applications is the problem here. For most people, at least. Maybe those problems are moot, but as long as no one really has such a device we can all just guess.
  - numo16 14y ago
    Comes with office and has internet, which covers the use cases for a very large number of people.
    - ygra 14y ago
      Many people probably don't really think about what they actually need but instead about what they might need. So a large app(lication)? ecosystem probably plays a large role in that, even though many of them only ever use a browser and install two games.
- mandlar 14y ago
  What an... odd commercial. Emphasizes a lot on the "snap on" of the keyboard.
  - dmix 14y ago
    It made me feel uncomfortable but I'm not sure why.
  - 14y ago
esusatyo 14y ago
$110 for the soft keyboard cover, $120 for the hard keyboard cover. They think $10 difference is big enough for giving customers confusion of choice. It's still the same company that released 6 editions of Vista.
- dpark 14y ago
  > They think $10 difference is big enough for giving customers confusion of choice. Who says they're trying to confuse anyone? The touch cover is the primary offering, which is why it's in all the ads. The type cover is a secondary offering, intended for people who want a more traditional keyboard and are willing to tolerate the extra thickness. The $10 difference presumably covers the difference in manufacturing costs. I guess you'd be happier for some reason if they didn't offer the type cover? Disclosure: Microsoft employee
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
solarchaos 14y ago
If you read Hacker News, this product isn't aimed at you, sorry...
- r00fus 14y ago
  So who is it aimed at? Why would my mom or college-attending cousin get this over say, a Transformer or iPad? Windows apps? Not available for RT option. Cover? $100 more. What need does this product fill for it's users that it shines at?
  - solarchaos 14y ago
    My parents bought an ipad and then paid $100+ for a keyboard case, they use their ipad like a laptop - even though that's not really the intention of the ipad whereas it is with Surface
tiredoffps 14y ago
Terrible strategy by Microsoft. Don't they realize they are behind in the race? MS Phone still has no devs...The iPad is viewed as "cooler". Average users won't see the tech differences between the iPad and Surface. At the same price they'll pick the iPad because it's "cooler" and the Joneses have it too.

57 points by vignesh_vs_in 14y ago

Synaesthesia 14y ago

Wow, it doesn't have 3G standard! If it came with 3G I think this pricing would be acceptable. As it is, good luck MS!

Nursie 14y ago
Indeed, Meh. No 3G or 4G. I'd spend the extra $30 for the entry level iPad2 instead of the entry level RT tablet. And I don't even like Apple...

hfs 14y ago

At that price point, it's not clear to me which market they're trying to break in to.

elorant 14y ago

So with a price similar to the iPad it's obvious MS doesn't want to compete on price but rather on features. Well good luck on that.

MatthewPhillips 14y ago
It's $100 cheaper.
- berntb 14y ago
  As multiple people have pointed out above -- no retina display. It isn't cheaper than iPad 2, which seems to have roughly a similar screen.
lrem 14y ago
Well, they may be the only party able to do that. While Google and its herd of OEMs play catch up, MS is actually trying to think different...
- lawdawg 14y ago
  you assume Android isn't trying to compete on features as well. Guess what, it is, and competing in various form factors and price. No offense, but unless this device blows the doors off in reviews (in battery life and usability) this thing is DOA. The Pro version might have better luck with the enterprise, but no reasonable person is going to buy an RT tablet that can't run desktop apps and lacks the ecosystem that Apple has.
- jan_g 14y ago
  Excuse me, but I believe it's actually the android ecosystem that produces many different products and the user really has a lot to choose from. One example: http://youtu.be/AxE_Im20UZM http://youtu.be/AxE_Im20UZM Another example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tX9KG369evA#t=10m34s http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tX9KG369evA#t=10m34s Yet another: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Wf_PqPi2tw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Wf_PqPi2tw Now, I'm not saying that those examples are better than products from iOS or WinRT ecosystem, but you can hardly say that there's no innovation.
  - lrem 14y ago
    Well, these are nice experiments. Remind me of the good old Nokia... In the meantime, the mainstream Android tablets (Fire, Nexus, Galaxy Tabs) are actually "me too" devices, lagging visibly behind the iPad. Disclosure: I'm a happy Android user, both phone and tablet.
wslh 14y ago
There is an extra competition factor: App Store. I don't think anybody can compete with Apple in some sectors like games and interactive books. I haven't seen anything similar to the iPad offerings even in the Android store.
adrr 14y ago
Also given Microsoft's track record with hardware. Xbox360 has a reported 50%+ failure rate with their units. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xbox_360_technical_problems http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xbox_360_technical_problems

lini 14y ago

Really hoped that it will be priced lower than that. Now it's very uncertain if this will be a hit with the Windows Store Apps so few and developers still not convinced about the platform as well. It's still $100 cheaper than the 32GB iPad but storage is useless if you don't have Apps to fill it.

MatthewPhillips 14y ago
Even with PC sales on the decline, there are still going to be tens of millions of people with a Windows 8 computer and the "Store" tile staring them in the face every time they turn it on.
seanmcdirmid 14y ago
Its also $100 more expensive than an iPad 2 (or the same price if you assume 16 GB = $100). The resolution of the Surface is similar to the iPad 2 (if you care about that), but I'm not sure if the screen is somehow otherwise better (e.g., IPS?).
wcchandler 14y ago
That's a nice note on the dev perspective. If they were smart, they'd have something similar to Google I/O and give tons away to potential developers.
- Roritharr 14y ago
  They already did that for Windows Phone, nearly every mobile dev i know got a free Nokia Lumia or similar at certain conferences (Droidcon Berlin was an odd choice tho). It didn't seem to have helped that much.
  - cooldeal 14y ago
    I think it did help. They have 100K+ apps in the Windows Phone Store.
omaranto 14y ago
"... Apps to fill it" I guess some video games could be large, but wouldn't most people with tablets fill most of their storage with audio and video files rather than apps?

Toshio 14y ago

Still no information on battery life.

randomfool 14y ago

Interesting that there's no mention of Office in the screenshot. I had assumed that at that price the inclusion of it would be the differentiator over the iPad since the Surface RT app ecosystem is minimal right now. Personally, I'd have a very hard time recommending this as a purchase. I'm much more bullish on Surface Pro as its legacy support can mitigate any Win8 App Store holes.

takluyver 14y ago
Right at the bottom: "Pre-loaded with Windows RT, Microsoft Office 2013 RT...". I'm not sure it will be enough to set it apart from the competition, though.

moron 14y ago

So basically we're going to see pundits compare it to the iPad's price using the keyboard-less price, then compare the actual devices while using the keyboard even though it costs an extra hundo. Awesome.

takluyver 14y ago

Pricing like an iPad, fewer apps than Android tablets, and no way to run legacy Windows applications. It's hard to see what the selling point is here.

MatthewPhillips 14y ago
$100 cheaper than an iPad.
- Synaesthesia 14y ago
  iPad 2 can be bought from $399, and the $499+ iPads have a Retina display, this is only 1366x768.
- Toshio 14y ago
  $100 more expensive than an iPad 2.
  - MatthewPhillips 14y ago
    New things cost more than old things.
    - adrr 14y ago
      Its more equivalent to an Ipad 2 than the Ipad 3 since it doesn't have a retina like screen. The Surface pro has the screen where pixels aren't visible. I do wonder if the surface will be more reliable than a xbox 360. I'm on my second one and it just broke again. Microsoft isn't know for reliable devices and as a business, i can't have tablets die on my employees. With apple, i haven't had any issues with three year old ipad that is used daily.
      - dpark 14y ago
        > I do wonder if the surface will be more reliable than a xbox 360. I'm on my second one and it just broke again. Microsoft isn't know for reliable devices and as a business, i can't have tablets die on my employees. With apple, i haven't had any issues with three year old ipad that is used daily. Well if we're trading anecdotes, I went through 3 Macbook Pros in 3 years. Two screens broke and one trackpad stopped working. One of the headphone jacks also broke. Apparently the issues I hit were fairly common, at least on the generations I had. This doesn't mean Apple makes bad hardware. It means that their hardware isn't perfect (no one's is), and that I got unlucky. My wife has a Dell laptop that's years old and has no problems except that the battery needs replacing. Anecdotes don't count for much. Disclosure: Microsoft employee

james-skemp 14y ago

For those who don't like TC, $499, $599, or $699. According to the mistakenly launched product page.

hhudolet 14y ago

As early adopter of WP7, i'll make that mistake again. Those devices always looks great on commercials and (biased) reviews, but when you start using them on daily basis you notice that they're missing some important features (like buggy notifications on WP7). Also, metro apps often crashes on my desktop Win8 rtm, and not third party-ones ....

NoJobsOnlyGates 14y ago
I will not make the same mistake again. I already bought a Nexus7 and I'm very impressed with the quality of the device and the high availability of good and cheap applications.You can really realise how limited, poor and primitive WP7 is after playing 10 minutes with some android 4.1 device.Microsoft lost this race like they did with Zune.They should stick to desktops and ultrabooks.

bobsy 14y ago

I really like the look of this. I don't mind Windows and if I didn't have an iPad - which I only use for consuming content and browsing the web - I would probably consider getting one. Maybe when Apple stops supporting iPad2 eh? The problem for me is the price. With Apple you know you are paying a premium for what is a luxury item. Microsoft's brand to me isn't luxury. Its functional or economical. Its like the XBOX. Its a nice system but its middle of range in terms of cost, design and specs. Maybe this is the start of Microsoft re-branding? The trouble is I still have memories of cheap laptops taking a minute+ to boot up running windows. I associate these horrible machines with the Microsoft brand. This is why I find it hard to see myself paying what is essentially an Apple price for a Microsoft product.

mamp 14y ago
If the iPad is a luxury item why have other companies not beaten it in price/performance? The Surface doesn't have a retina display, for example. Yes, Apple make a profit on their hardware, which is apparently not the case for Nexus tablet or Surface (rumor has it), but their devices are pretty competitive in price for equivalent quality. They just ignore the low-end market in the non-iPod category.
dpark 14y ago
> Its like the XBOX. Its a nice system but its middle of range in terms of cost, design and specs. Out of curiosity, what do you mean when you say the Xbox is middle of the road in terms of specs? I believe the original Xbox was far more powerful than the PS2 and GameCube, and ditto for the Xbox 360 vs PS3 and (obviously) Wii. I guess cost of the XBox 360 was middle of the road, but only because the PS3 was so crazy expensive at launch (I bought one as a Blu-Ray player well after launch and it was still crazy expensive).

JimmaDaRustla 14y ago

Not the price point many people were hoping for. So now I have to do a "proof of concept" that I can use it for business - I'm going to download Win8 and test apps before I ever buy the tablet.

mikecane 14y ago

The only way I'd get an RT tablet is if all of the XP (yes, I'm still using it!) programs I use came out with an RT version. That's very unlikely. Is there still a controversy over Firefox having an RT version, btw? I'll wait for the full 8 Surface -- but if the rumored $899-$999 pricing for that is true, I might wait and wait and wait for prices to drop.

emehrkay 14y ago

I like the idea of windows 8, just not the execution. If MS' future is Metro, they should have went the iOS route with dedicated devices -- windows phone 8 and windows tablet metro that run the same apps -- and eventually added classic desktop as an app when x86 emulation was good enough on arm. There should had been a clear distinction between the two environments. As it stands now, metro is billed as the only start menu on x86 devices, but the full os on RT devices. This is confusing and offers no compelling reason to buy the RT version. I see Apple releasing OSX as an iOS app in the near (>=5 years) future. The reason that will work for them is because iOS is a standalone brand that people understand. Just my 2¢, I'm not a windows user.

WrkInProgress 14y ago
You do realize that Microsoft is going to release exactly that in a little under ten days. The "desktop" is a tile on the Start Screen.
- emehrkay 14y ago
  Well, the "desktop" in RT is completely different than the desktop in x86. What I said was that Metro and Windows 8 should be separate products until the x86 desktop can be emulated as an app inside of Metro. As it stands now, your RT "desktop" apps will not run in the x86 desktop and vice versa. Those two desktops are only similar in look and feel. I do think that the Metro apps will run on both x86 and RT, not too sure about this though. This is so fucking confusing. We have two versions of Windows 8: x86 and RT, both with two separate environments: desktop and metro. If an app can run on metro in both rt and x86, the consumer is faced with a 1/3 chance that a given app will work on their Windows 8 machine.
dpark 14y ago
> metro is billed as the only start menu on x86 devices Metro (Windows 8 style) is not billed as "only the start menu" (assuming that's what you meant) on x86. You're hearing that from hanging around HN, not from Microsoft. Windows 8 fully supports Windows 8-style apps on x86, and it's expected that you can and will install some of those apps. However, Windows 8 on x86 also fully supports all the desktop applications you use on Windows 7/Vista/XP. So if you want, you can indeed avoid all the Windows 8 applications on x86 and stick to the traditional desktop, in which case you'll only see the new style on the start screen and perhaps in various settings screens. But that's not the expected experience on x86.

cooldeal 14y ago

The new TV ad is here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mSckyoAMHg http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mSckyoAMHg The Surface RT does some things better than the iPad. For example, it has a MicroSD slot and a full USB port. The side-by-side multitasking view is pretty nice to put a chat or Twitter client while browsing/working etc. The built in snap out stand is also pretty cool.

ygra 14y ago
I guess the main problem is that there are pretty much only two comparisons: 1. How does it compare to an iPad? Available apps is a major factor here. 2. How does it compare to a regular Windows laptop? Windows RT not running normal Windows applications is the problem here. For most people, at least. Maybe those problems are moot, but as long as no one really has such a device we can all just guess.
- numo16 14y ago
  Comes with office and has internet, which covers the use cases for a very large number of people.
  - ygra 14y ago
    Many people probably don't really think about what they actually need but instead about what they might need. So a large app(lication)? ecosystem probably plays a large role in that, even though many of them only ever use a browser and install two games.
mandlar 14y ago
What an... odd commercial. Emphasizes a lot on the "snap on" of the keyboard.
- dmix 14y ago
  It made me feel uncomfortable but I'm not sure why.
- 14y ago

esusatyo 14y ago

$110 for the soft keyboard cover, $120 for the hard keyboard cover. They think $10 difference is big enough for giving customers confusion of choice. It's still the same company that released 6 editions of Vista.

dpark 14y ago
> They think $10 difference is big enough for giving customers confusion of choice. Who says they're trying to confuse anyone? The touch cover is the primary offering, which is why it's in all the ads. The type cover is a secondary offering, intended for people who want a more traditional keyboard and are willing to tolerate the extra thickness. The $10 difference presumably covers the difference in manufacturing costs. I guess you'd be happier for some reason if they didn't offer the type cover? Disclosure: Microsoft employee

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

solarchaos 14y ago

If you read Hacker News, this product isn't aimed at you, sorry...

r00fus 14y ago
So who is it aimed at? Why would my mom or college-attending cousin get this over say, a Transformer or iPad? Windows apps? Not available for RT option. Cover? $100 more. What need does this product fill for it's users that it shines at?
- solarchaos 14y ago
  My parents bought an ipad and then paid $100+ for a keyboard case, they use their ipad like a laptop - even though that's not really the intention of the ipad whereas it is with Surface

tiredoffps 14y ago

Terrible strategy by Microsoft. Don't they realize they are behind in the race? MS Phone still has no devs...The iPad is viewed as "cooler". Average users won't see the tech differences between the iPad and Surface. At the same price they'll pick the iPad because it's "cooler" and the Joneses have it too.