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Comment by gthtjtkt | Hacker News Reader

Then sell the screen itself.

Why chain it to mediocre, non-upgradeable hardware?

Because user experience. Simply selling a screen that can move like this one with the proper touch inputs is going to require multiple drivers to make it behave correctly. Selling the screen by itself and now you have this issue of supporting all sorts of hardware (and you just KNOW someone is going to buy it and try using it with their Windows XP machine).

Tying it to the computer allows them to control the entire user experience including adding specialized software to take advantage of such an interesting screen. There is a reason Apple owns the full stack and why Microsoft and Google are trying to get into that space: it offers the best UX and ROI.

I guess because when you inevitably go to upgrade the hardware in a couple years, you'll have to buy a new screen, too.

Works for Apple. Seems to be working so far for the "Smart TV" market.

I don't get it myself, but then I have not owned a completely "new" desktop in over 15 years, even though my desktop PC is full of modern components (and I'm fairly sure at this point, not a single piece that was in the original is left, including the case).

I'm not the type of person who thinks "Hm, I need more disk space. Guess I better throw out my PC, monitor and keyboard and buy a completely new system." but I think this is aimed at the segment of the market that thinks that way, or at least is willing to in order to get the new input/interaction features.

This is actually targeting illustrators and people who typically work with large wacoms (cintiq). The true display 1:1 ratio is amazing for checking designs for letterheads, business cards, etc. The process typically involves printing it out and doing side by side comparisons.

They probably went with the hybrid storage since PSD / illustration files take up an enormous amount of space. Unfortunately there's no such thing as git for design. The SSD would be appreciated, but once Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator is opened, SSD makes little difference.

From a feature aspect the surface dial seems pretty amazing. Ill be interested in trying it out at the store. The ability to go from desktop to working directly on it is also incredible. Cintiqs take up a lot of space...

Perhaps because this machine is basically a very big platform for professional input methods. If you have no need of a stylus and a large working space for media with flexible positioning factor...

Then you're not the target market.

What's more, when we're talking about the professional space it's like... it's quite normal to NOT have hyper-upgradable boxes with cutting edge hardware that isn't well supported by the current crop of editing tools. Cutting edge hardware is the product of Dentists and Software Engineers who fancy themselves a member of that space even though they're really not. Not unlike how professional photographers almost never ride the latest model release.

It seems like a lot of people here are thinking of this as a recreational gaming box for rich people. Surface machines in general perform poorly there.

Works for Apple. I'm only trolling a little bit. :)

If they were to, would you buy it?

Honestly, I would in a heartbeat. I mean, I guess it depends on price but yeah, I totally would.

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