Microsoft Surface Tablet... 199$?! October 26th

[Zaroth]

I'd like to think I know a lot of people. I guess none of them think carrying around an overgrown phone the size of a smaller laptop has a point.

These are media consumption devices. If you don't like reading online articles, getting on facebook, watching netflix, reading digital books, etc... then these are not for you. In the digital age we live in though, there is a huge market for convenient devices to consume media.

Cell phone screens are pretty tough to look at for extended periods of time and a laptop is bulky to carry around. These tablets offer an in between solution. I personally don't own one, but I know plenty of people that are very happy with theirs.

[Alan92RTTT]

How Microsoft could make a $199 Surface RT a reality, and why it shouldn’t | Ars Technica

$199 is a crazy price for a well-built, well-designed, 10" tablet. It's not completely impossible, and there are ways in which the economics could be made to work. But the results for Microsoft and the PC OEMs alike would be nothing short of a disaster.

[Mikes2nd]

its a disaster for the OEM's... Not so much consumers.

But so is apple and people love it.

If MS "can" make better hardware than Acer... why not? From the specs/pics Surface beats anything Acer/Dell/HP have ever put out...

I didn't see Acer go "no ms we won't build android tablets, we will wait with you".

The author mentions nothing of the OEM's falling all over themselves to tout and build android tablets. Sure MS f'ed up sitting on its hands with tablets, but it takes time to bridge tablets/PC's/Phones. But they didn't make squat from android tablets between the R&D and testing/start costs. Not to mention everyone and their brother makes a crappy android tablet.

You couldnt expect them to be able to turn around a OS system that can run on everything in 6 months.

This guy is high thinking MS is charging 85$ a Windows copy.

MS hardware has normally always been good stuff. Seriously compare MS mice to Logitech... Logitech is crap compared.

I still use old school MS trackmans...

http://www.mycashop.com/products/52819/

[CoreyB]

If this thing is as nice as I think it could be, I would be interested.

[Alan92RTTT]

I had a long post in mind to reply to mike.


I realized it's not worth my time to type it in as it won't get through to Mike. The rest of us get it.



Thoes that are not MS Fanboi's carry on.

[jspecmike]

For 199 I would buy one but I would not pay 400-500 for that haha

[IPD]

i'll weigh in.

MS took up the torch with this one because with almost no exception, non-apple tablets are pure fail. MS said "f-that", and decided that if its associate companies can't do it right, that it would manufacture a great tablet in-house. acer is butt hurt because their product offerings are tepid at best. MS doesn't need to make money on this--they've proven they're willing to burn piles of it just to succeed. what it will do is kick-start a stagnant market segment and highlight how overpriced apple products are in this segment as well. i'm no MS fanboi, but i do respect what they're doing...since pretty much every other company has failed to innovate here. same holds true for laptop screen resolutions.

that said, tablet users will probably love windows 8. those of us in "the functional world" will abhor it. MS has a history of bringing the suck with every other OS they release--and win 8 will be another sucky one. no windows button? are you high? i can promise you that win 8 will NEVER be adopted for corporate purposes...it is entirely designed around low-end user interface.

[Alan92RTTT]

MS needs their OEM's They don't have the manufacturing infrastructure to create the number of tablets that this pricing will mean. If the OEM's can't release their own tablet versions at a competitive price they won't release them at all. That will raise MS's cost per unit and make it even hard for them to recoup the costs via app sales.

I would not be surprised to see some of the OEM's just tell MS to f'off and not make tab's for them at all. A Tab for $199 on the market would mess things us for all of the android tabs that are not sales supported(IE kindle)

[IPD]

MS needs their OEM's They don't have the manufacturing infrastructure to create the number of tablets that this pricing will mean. If the OEM's can't release their own tablet versions at a competitive price they won't release them at all. That will raise MS's cost per unit and make it even hard for them to recoup the costs via app sales.

I would not be surprised to see some of the OEM's just tell MS to f'off and not make tab's for them at all. A Tab for $199 on the market would mess things us for all of the android tabs that are not sales supported(IE kindle)

precisely. and MS has already acknowledged that there will be some honked-off OEM's because of it. but look at the big picture. MS has an opportunity to stop bleeding OS market-share, and potentially gain some. it's a corporate gamble. similar to how sony bet on blu-ray, and sacrificed ps3 success to do it.

[Mikes2nd]

Your on crack if you don't think MS doesn't have the muscle to make a frigging tablet... Or brain dead.

Yeah OEM's are giving up on Win 8... and their lives... just closing up shop! hah brilliance...