3 Reasons Why Microsoft Needs 3 Surface Tablets

CowboyRobot writes "It's looking like Microsoft is planning to replace its underachieving Surface tablet with two new products, but it may need three to finally have success with the Surface. Three tablets would provide an entry point and an upgrade path. Multiple Surface RT models would help Windows RT survive OEM skepticism. Microsoft needs device fanfare to accompany Windows 8.1, and to coincide with enterprise hardware upgrades. If the company releases one of the models before the end of the year, the device would arrive in time not only for the holiday season, but also to cash in on user interest in Windows 8.1, which will be released later this fall. Surface devices released next year, meanwhile, could capitalize on enterprise hardware upgrades, which are expected to pick up as Windows XP's April 8, 2014 end-of-service date nears."

couple 'o' questions...

[roc97007]

So.... besides the ".1" in 8.1, we are anticipating this release ... why? I mean, I wasn't aware that the 8.1 release was a thing. You get a start button, which takes you directly to the already existing start screen. Shrug. Personally, I'm sticking with 7 until the start menu comes back or hell freezes over, whichever occurs first.

So, the RT didn't sell well, the Pro sold only slightly better... so the answer is to release more models, and the mistake they made was not timing it with the holidays?

Kidding, right?

Is this post trolling Microsoft?

[AlphaBit]

I think someone is trying to get Microsoft to go out of business by tricking them into doubling down on the Surface RT.

Big phone or small tablet?

[EmperorOfCanada]

What is hurting microsoft is not that many people need anything resembling a desktop computer. Most people are consumer's of content with the only content they create requiring little in the way of complicated interfacing (tweets, messages, pokes, likes, votes, and the occasional picture or even video). Thus a smart phone became many people's primary interface to the interwebs. What people are now seeing is that they want a better interface to the interwebs in their pocket so the larger screen sizes are becoming quite popular. But personally I think the happy size limit is at most an iPad mini or slightly smaller.

But instead MS goes and creates the surface which is basically a laptop with a keyboard that you will misplace. What? Who wants that? If I want a laptop, I want a trackpad, a keyboard, and a proper sized screen. If I want a tablet or larger smartphone that is what I want. Not some hybrid that isn't that great at being either when for the same or less money I can do better.

The reality is that there is a great product sitting right in this area. The product is a keyboard, trackpad, and monitor from a laptop that uses your phone as the computer. Not just one phone that is proprietary to the keyboard/monitor but something that will talk to your entire lineup of phones now and into the future. We know that smartphones are going to get smarter and smarter but a good keyboard and monitor could last through generations of smartphones. This way you can do all your phone stuff quite nicely with your choice of MS phone but then when you need to do some content creation (spreadsheet, video editing, resume polishing, etc) you have a proper keyboard monitor combo. This matches people's common usage pattern where they have a cool new smartphone but a 4 year old laptop (who's battery lasts 8 minutes) mostly gathering dust. But when they need the laptop they really need it.

This would also be nearly perfect for the road warrior. They effectively travel with one device. Also the keyboard/monitor thingy could be insanely thin with no HD, little circuitry, and potentially no cooling needs. Just one large thin battery, the keys, and the screen.

Re:1 reason for 0

[radiumsoup]

I disagree - I've been using a Surface Pro since launch, and I love it. It has replaced my desktop computer and my Apple laptop that I had kept for reasons I've completely forgotten now. It may not be for you, but for my needs (mobile IT consultant for medium-sized businesses), it's perfect. Windows on a tablet DOES work, most assuredly. (Note, I don't mean RT, since that's mostly a reply to iOS anyway and not a target for desktop replacement)

Not the problem

[nine-times]

In my view, the problem with Microsoft's Surface is not really the product lineup. The problem is that, once again, Microsoft has a poor marketing vision, i.e. they're selling a product without a real place in the market.

You might think I'm crazy, but iPads and Android tablets have a more clear place in the market. They're not full computers, we all know they're not full computers, but they allow us to do the things we'd do on our phones if our phones had bigger screens. There are enough people who want that kind of casual device.

There might also be a market for a full-computer tablets, but that's a bit trickier. The problem is that, as we've seen, a good desktop UI won't work well on a small-screen touch device. Likewise, a good UI for a small-screen touch-device won't work well for a full desktop computer.

Microsoft tried to meld the two, and in my opinion, they screwed up. The result looked pretty but wasn't good, and people don't like it. Meanwhile, Android users are basically happy with Android. iOS users are happy with iOS. Not many people really want to jump ship for a half-assed bastard child of desktop and tablet computing. Microsoft just needs to rethink the direction they took with Windows.

Re:What an understatement...

[ackthpt]

There's a juicy irony in calling Windows a new, untested OS. Microsoft have been plugging Windows for touch screens for decades now; they just suck at it.

I'm not disagreeing with your sentiment, by the way, just enjoying the phrasing.

I have one of the old XP tablets and to say it sucks is to put it mildly. It worked pretty good for some things, generally not using the touch screen any more than necessary, but that's counter to what they are pushing these days, whether you like it or not. People are trained on Windows with a Keyboard and Mouse. Windows without either is a strange and unfamiliar thing which creates a lot of mental conflict, trying to figure how to do what we are familiar with with unfamiliar controls. Android and iOS have effectively come out the door without the baggage of prior expectations.

Re:What an understatement...

[Sir_Sri]

They should stay out of the hardware business and work on the operating system for tablets, let anyone make them and encourage development of premium hardware.

That's what surface is. Surface isn't really a serious consumer product strategy. It's Microsoft making clear to the hardware makers that if they refuse to produce anything innovative or worth buying MS will do it for them.

The problem with this strategy is that MS doesn't really seem to have anything innovative to push, in large part because windows 8 is terrible (so is 8.1).

For the better part of a decade MS has been making software work for an iPad like slate device (they even had a term for it: a slate, a tablet is a convertible laptop with a rotating screen). And how many of those did we see on the market? None. MS has been burned badly by their 3rd party partners not rising to the challenge of making devices that aren't shit. If anything the market has gone the other way, to shovelling cheaper and cheaper stuff out that is in many cases junk.

Try and buy a haswell tablet right now. How many can you find? There are a couple, but they are in very few product segments. MS recognizes this problem, and sees surface as the way to address this, but isn't able to implement. Which is sort of ok, if 2 months from now they launch and awesome surface pro 2, and that forces the other vendors to do the same. Late to the market, but forcing some progress maybe. And that's what Surface is there for, it's not to really making microsoft billions directly, it's to make sure that the hardware partners make things worth buying and force them to keep pushing new technology, or they're going to look bad compared to Surface. I'm sure MS would be thrilled if Surface was the most expensive and one of the worst windows 8 devices you could buy - because that would mean windows 8 would be moving at a good pace somewhere.

Re:Huh?

[Pinky's Brain]

Only for the moment. Microsoft doesn't really care about PC gaming ... the decision not to backport DirectX 11.2 and to simply not work on DirectX 12 at all shows their intentions and it might bite them in the ass.

If NVIDIA and Valve decide to heavily push Linux/OpenGL things could go south fast for Microsoft. For instance NVIDIA could decide to make an efficient shim to use their graphics card from a virtualized windows client running on top of a Linux host ... at which point I could just run Windows for my legacy gaming and use Linux for my real gaming all without rebooting.