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Comment by lotharbot | Hacker News Reader

My biggest takeaway from the announcement was that this was a very Microsoft-like approach to the tablet market, and I mean that in a good way.

When I think of an iPad, I think of something that's a natural progression from the iPod and iPhone, running bigger and better versions of the apps you can get from the Apple walled garden. It's a fantastic piece of hardware and a tight ecosystem.

Microsoft isn't just trying to compete by offering its own similar piece of hardware to run its own similar apps. They are looking to offer high-performance hardware (an Ivy Bridge chip in a tablet!) with great design, and they're looking to run full-fledged Windows applications.

They're not just competing with iPad, they're offering a possible desktop replacement tablet. That's a bold move.

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Admittedly details are everything but isn't the desktop replacement tablet Microsoft's vision all along？I mean Bill Gates back in the early 2000s promoted the concept heavily.

This is much slicker and powerful enough to amount another try, but "bold"? More like stubborn.

The Ivy Bridge won't offer anywhere near the battery life of an ARM tablet, though. At best it will be half of that.

What it will offer though is a full compatibility to existing windows application. People might be ready to lose a few hours of battery life for that.

what windows app exactly will people trade for few hours of battery life?

seriously, other than PC games, I don't know a single windows app I want to run on a tablet form factor.

Maybe not, but they designed it so that it's a tablet/ultrabook hybrid. Do your research on the couch in tablet format, then move to the kitchen table to write it up in Microsoft Word. Read and write emails during a bathroom break, then create an insightful business presentation in Microsoft Powerpoint (don't forget to wash your hands)!

So what will happen when you have Word open in "ultrabook"/desktop mode, but then start using the Surface in tablet mode? Is the same instance of Word still open? Is its interface the same? These are the type of things that MS hasn't proven themselves good at designing. MS tends to overcomplicate their UI (Ribbon etc) and in my opinion, a tablet tends to benefit best from focus and simplicity.

That's just battery life... wait until we see what the heat will be like! Seriously, even my Macbook Air gets hot under mild load -- the only reason I tolerate it is because it sits on a desk.

Fans and vents on a tablet... I just can't see that catching on for many people. The ARM model is more promising, but this competes much more closely with the iPad.

Also, the video was very funny with the pen input -- his palm interferes with the initial demo and 20 seconds later he's talking about their amazing palm rejection technology. Don't even get me started on the fact that none of the presenters seemed able to get the swipe-in-from-the-side gesture to work on the first try.

Nor is it likely to be priced at or under $499.

And it was a "bold move" the last 3 or 4 times they've tried it as well. This move just convinces me that MS is a one trick pony.

MS has so many products in so many different markets that I can't help but laugh at calling them a "one trick pony".

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