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Comment by jusben1369 | Hacker News Reader

Given that we all know headlines are made for clicking, I think it's pretty clear why this time is very different vs the previous 10 years: "He notes that the company is now managing inventory, building relationships with carriers, sourcing components, making supply chain deals and managing distribution. Google is even making accessories, including cases and cables." This article isn't about the technical approach, it's more about the business/go to market approach.

That's _very_ different to how Google went to market prior. Is this going to materially impact the iPhone? I don't know. But it is different enough that it warrants some sort of "This is a new approach by Google to taking on the iPhone" headline.

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It's different, but it doesn't mean it's an iPhone killer.

MS started making their own hardware and it certainly helped push the market but the Sufarce never turned into the 'iPad killer' that tons of sites decided to declare it.

It's a new Android phone, Google was heavily involved (more than the Nexus line). That's it. That's not bad, but it doesn't automatically make something an X killer.

Wasn't saying it was an iPhone killer. Actually specifically said I have no idea. More addressing OP's questioning that there was anything of real import in the article.

> MS started making their own hardware and it certainly helped push the market but the Sufarce never turned into the 'iPad killer' that tons of sites decided to declare it.

The Surface is basically a superior option to the iPad Pro, which all accounts give inferior sales to.

Depends heavily on the task and way you're using it. They both excel at different things.

Besides "using iOS apps" what exactly is the iPad's use case? Certainly the Surface line as a whole has seen a really big uptake from the art community. So while the pen specs are slightly better on the iPad side it doesn't seem to influence consumer behavior.

Besides 'using windows apps that weren't designed for a tablet' what exactly is the Surface's use case?

It runs full windows.

Allow me to repeat.

It runs full windows.

I'm a grad student. I have a workstation in my office. But at home, it's perfect for reading research papers thanks to the high resolution display, the fact that I can disconnect the keyboard, and the included pen which I can use to annotate.

Yes, the iPad can do all that, but I can reconnect the keyboard, and continue using Matlab, or log in remotely to my office machine and continue my office work, or edit spreadsheets/PPTs/thesis in full MS Office. And it's light enough that I can throw it in my backpack "just in case" I need it. Honestly, the being able to disconnect the keyboard thingy seems gimmicky before you get used to it. After you do, it's a godsend.

You've seen the iPad Pro?

I have one collecting dust. My partner was going to use it for digital illustration but ended up hijacking my S4 and I use a SB now.

They're really quite nice. Not sure why people are predisposted to hate them. Certainly it can't be the usual privacy concerns: the iPad Pro is more instrumented than any install of Win10 could ever dream of getting away with.

There's a hell of a lot more "windows apps that weren't designed for a tablet" - 20+ years' worth - than there are "iOS apps". And not just apps but also a lot of hardware peripherals. I play '90s games at lan parties (which aren't really substitutable - iOS might have strategy games, but it won't have Supreme Commander and that's what my friends are playing). I run eclipse (is there any kind of Java IDE on iOS?). I run the vocaloid software (which iOS doesn't have, though it might have other music synthesis software), and the fan-made 3d modelling software that people use to animate the characters (which definitely won't exist for iOS); I render and encode the resulting video. If a program hasn't got a windows release I can compile it on the surface itself and run it there (can iOS do that?). If I want to run a program for a different platform I can run an emulator on the surface (which the iOS app store disallowed last I knew).

How many non-crossplatform apps does iOS have? How many of those don't have acceptable substitutes for at least most use cases?

It's an excellent development environment for everyone but iOS and macOS developers. It's got a great set of digital illustration tools with a lot more time put into development than the newer iOS equivalents. It's is a full windows box, which gives it impressive range. It has better linux binary support than MacOSX (unfair, that has none).

There are a lot of windows apps that are designed and work really well on the tablet. It's not like Apple holds a monopoly here.

Isn't that what literally every android manufacturer has been doing since day 1?

Google doing it "too" doesn't sound like a game changer.

Well every other manufacturer has looked to Google (largely) for the sw and built the hw. It's this bundling together of the two that's being presented as unique and is different to every other Android manufacturer.

But that's hypothetical. I'm not seeing any features that Google is uniquely placed to offer. And it's not like Android is so antithetical to third party modifications.

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