4 ms·

The point of the Surface "exercise" for Microsoft is not really to make a profit. They're trying to "lead the herd" in creating a feasible merge of the "deskto

The point of the Surface "exercise" for Microsoft is not really to make a profit. They're trying to "lead the herd" in creating a feasible merge of the "desktop" paradigm and the "mobile" paradigm, keeping Windows in the center. This is extremely important to Microsoft, since they have no foothold in the mobile market, and that's where the entire consumer market is headed. We can expect the merge of the desktop paradigm and mobile paradigm (i.e. keeping both battery-life, light weight and performance) to happen at some point in the future anyway, but meanwhile, Android and iOS/OS X are growing at a rapid pace, all at the cost of Windows marketshare. If mainstream users move to these OSs, the merge will happen with Android and iOS as center, and Microsoft will have a real rocky road ahead. Trust me, Microsoft is willing to throw tons of money at this problem.

tmzt 14y ago
Unfortunately it's a repeat of the Windows Mobile/CE debacle, the enthusiast crowd that makes your product acceptable to the general computing public is treated with apathy bordering on hostility. They shipped a Windows NT-based system that cannot run win32 applications due to a marketing decision and expected it to be sung with high praises. Compare this with Google Chromebook, while Google is focusing on users using it with the ChromeOS (and no local storage), they are not stopping anyone from using it how they choose. One of the positive outcomes of the earlier experience was XDA, and it's members are at it again: http://forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?f=1288 http://forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?f=1288