tl;dr: On the 128GB models (Surface Pro vs. Macbook Air), they both leave ~90GB free space.
The problem for Microsoft is that they are competing at the same time against laptops and tablets. For someone who's looking for a tablet, it loses badly to an iPad (the free space sticks out, but it is by now means the only place an iPad wins). For someone who's looking for a laptop, it loses to many laptops (in price, performance, ergonomics - whatever it is you care about, there's something that handily beats the Surface Pro).
Are there any people who are looking for something that's sort-of-a-tablet and sort-of-a-laptop, and are willing to get a device that is not competitive as either? We'll soon find out.
My own experience leads me to believe that until you have perfected a niche (neither laptops or tablets are there yet), extreme specialization always wins against generalization.
A tablet is nothing like as portable as a smartphone (which also has 3G), and nothing like as fast, as powerful or as capable as a laptop (which also has a keyboard).
Are there any people who are looking for something that's sort-of-a-smartphone and sort-of-a-laptop, and are willing to get a device that is not competitive as either?
Especially as they already own both a laptop and a phone ;-)
> A tablet is nothing like as portable as a smartphone
A lot of people would disagree with you, perhaps most people. A tablet actually is VERY similar to a large portable smartphone - it doesn't fit in your pants pocket, but it does fit in almost any other purse.
In fact, Samsung makes an extremely popular device - the Samsung Note, which is halfway between a phone and a tablet. Do play with one. "nothing like" is a strong statement that I believe has no support in reality.
> So obviously nobody will ever buy a tablet. QED.
The logic that leads to that is flawed, even if one does accept the (wrong, IMHO) premise that a tablet is nothing like as portable as a smartphone.
And my answer to "are there any people ..." is simply "we'll soon see". I don't claim to know a definite answer -- unlike, e.g. Ballmer in response to the iPhone and iPad.
I was parodying your argument to make it look ridiculous, which it was, and I apologise if you missed the point. However, I agree that neither of us knows a definite answer ;-)
I'm not particularly optimistic about Surface sales myself, but it's an extremely interesting approach. I can certainly imagine that version 3 will be a killer product, and I hope it is, but I'm not putting any money on it.
Well there is me. I wanted a dev machine that I could use as a desktop, laptop or occasional tablet. I ended up with a Sony Vaio Duo which is pretty good at what I want.
Or there is my (leaving) boss who has a laptop, desktop and iPad but is now going to a W8 tablet, probably a Surface Pro or Helix.
Or there is my (incoming) boss who has a desktop and an android tablet but would prefer a single device.
When I show my Duo off to people, no-one has said "what a bad idea". What they have said is "how much" and "can I have it".
While the surface pro itself may not be the right device, there are a lot of people who would like a good convertible device.
>For someone who's looking for a laptop, it loses to many laptops (in price, performance, ergonomics - whatever it is you care about, there's something that handily beats the Surface Pro
Is there an ultrabook laptop with a 1080p touchscreen, an active digitizer with a stylus, atleast Core i5 for $1000 to $1100 ? I am not being facetious here, I am looking to buy something to replace my 6 year old laptop so looking for real suggestions here.
If you want to use a pen workflow, Surface Pro is hands down the best choice.
The problem for Microsoft isn't that Surface Pro isn't a good pen tablet. It's that 98% of people don't want, or don't know they want, a pen tablet. Now, before the iPad, 98% of people didn't know they wanted a tablet. That's a fair point. But in the last decade, Microsoft has demonstrated zero market making ability of that kind.
On top of that, Surface Pro is probably not the ideal pen tablet for current technology. I think a cheaper, lighter, thinner device with a Clovertrail processor, digitizer, and 8+ hours of battery life would have hit the sweet spot if Microsoft wanted to make a serious go at making pen computing happen. My guess is that the battery life is going to lose them a lot more customers than the extra oomph of the Ivy Bridge is going to gain them.
You may well be correct. However, since this is Windows, there is some chance that Lenovo, Acer, Asus, MSI, Samsung, Sony, Toshiba, Fujitsu, HP, Dell or one of several hundred other companies will hit your sweet spot. It's not like you were limited to a single manufacturer.
In fact, if you think your sweet spot PC would be attractive to a lot of people, you could set up a company and market it yourself. There are hundreds of factories in the Pearl River Delta capable of producing that sort of thing at a reasonable price. Kickstarter here you come?
Most of those manufacturers sell crappy products with bizarre bits of brain damage in otherwise good machines. E.g. awesome Sony laptop that's got 2 hours of battery life, or great Samsung device that's a fax-aluminum plastic piece of shit. I wouldn't even touch a PC laptop from someone other than Lenovo, and judging by everyone else's sales figures, I'm apparently not alone.
That's the real hope of Surface--to free us from OEM's and their OEM crapware and OEM brain damage. Microsoft has a lot of money, but even it can't buy the Chinese/Taiwanese OEM's taste.
There is just a powerful marketing pitch in being able to sell a product "this is the one true way Windows 8 was meant to be experienced." There is a reason everyone raves about the Nexus 4/7/10. Surface is the only Windows 8 tablet on the market that can go toe to toe with Apple in terms of industrial design and vertical integration. The success of Windows 8 tablets lives and dies with Surface.
I'm not sure that overstating your case is a sensible approach to argument. Lenovo is not the only company with good PCs, and a handful of PC companies sell more units than Apple, so clearly people do buy them. More than 300m a year of them, as a matter of fact.
However, your point on crapware is well made. Unfortunately, Microsoft can't do anything about it (because the DoJ sued it into the ground and specifically prevented it). Also, crapware brings in money and this is significant in a market that buys on price. I don't see it changing in the near future.
I loved the X201 tablet (apart from heating issues), but the crap resolution and 16:9 on that line makes it not worth having.
I have a feeling that this year, we're going to see a lot of decent small-sized, full res devices, thanks to Apple's Retina push. Haswell is supposed to be out mid-year so that might also help create some better devices.
Samsung Smart PC Pro (include ATIV in the name for North America I think). Ticks all the spec boxes you mention, but is a bit above the price range.
I like it because it can be a full laptop, with real hinge (unlike the Surface Pro), but can still detatch to be a real tablet. Coupled with the official 360° handstrap case, I don't find its heft to be an issue in tablet mode either.
I was unsure about whether I'd have use for the stylus when I bought it, but it has exceeded expectations. It is great for inputting short text here and there (e.g. searching the web). It is also great for having finer grained input for those occasions when I want to drop into the Win8's 'desktop mode' without switching the hardware back into 'notebook mode' (i.e. avoiding the need for the mouse pad for casual usage).
3rd gen Intel® Core™ i7 processor available
Windows 8 64-bit
11.6" Full HD IPS touch display (1920 x 1080)
Converts from tablet to laptop
Digitizer stylus
Do you really need a digitizer? Quite a few artistic people I know are fine with a "capacitively detectable stylus". It doesn't have 1024 pressure levels (or however much the wacom or whatever on the surface does). The accuracy of some touch screens (most notably the ipad) seems to be sufficient unless you require a real pressure sensitive surface.
Ok, poll: how many of you really want a digitizer (and have ever used one for more than a few minutes)?
Yes, there's an Asus Zenbook one, with a larger 11.6" screen. It doesn't have a stylus though, but unless you really care about a stylus, and you just want a laptop, then it shouldn't matter.
The problem for Microsoft is that they are competing at the same time against laptops and tablets. For someone who's looking for a tablet, it loses badly to an iPad (the free space sticks out, but it is by now means the only place an iPad wins). For someone who's looking for a laptop, it loses to many laptops (in price, performance, ergonomics - whatever it is you care about, there's something that handily beats the Surface Pro).
Are there any people who are looking for something that's sort-of-a-tablet and sort-of-a-laptop, and are willing to get a device that is not competitive as either? We'll soon find out.
My own experience leads me to believe that until you have perfected a niche (neither laptops or tablets are there yet), extreme specialization always wins against generalization.