Microsoft's cheapest Surface tablet won't cost $1K after all | Hacker News Reader

Microsoft's cheapest Surface tablet won't cost $1K after all

news.cnet.com

21 pointszacharye24 comments

Below $1k was a given anyways. Microsoft has said repeatedly that it would be competitively priced with the iPad.

$1,000 for a new and unknown tablet is anything but competitive.

I'm not sure that was a given for me.

I would pay that for a tablet that did more than surf the web and play video and games. So, yes, if it was only going to match the capabilities of an iPad but have a different (Metro) interface, then yes, it would have to be priced on par with the iPad. But if it does more and integrates with the enterprise, I think 1,000 is not uncompetitive, given the possible advantages.

My iPad integrates with the enterprise. Doing it right now as a matter of fact, and I work for a conservative Fortune 200 company with stringent, U.S. Federal Government mandated, security requirements. My iPad has become my main mobile machine at work, and with the exception of reading HN, I do real work with it - not just web surfing.

And Androids need not apply. We stopped supporting them. Too many security issues as a result of their divergent platform.

I should have been clearer. I meant to say that it would integrate with something like the AD structure out of the box, GPOs and such. I know there are enterprise mgmt kits for ipads and so on. But if this integrated into an existing ecosystem, it'd make a good case for those extra hundred(s) of dollars (given it would also run the apps people are used to in the ent.)

In any event, I'm not saying that a Surface would be _the_ system in the ent. All I'm saying is that given its legacy and avant capabilities, the extra price is justifiable, to me. For you an ipad is the perfect solution, there is no problem with that.

You know you can buy tablets with Windows 7 today right? It does not have a touch-optimized interface but you can run any program on it, and you might even be able to dual-boot Android.

That's a good point: you can buy Windows 7 tablets today and yet Apple owns the tablet market. We can only reasonably assume Microsoft considers their current tablet strategy a failure and are seeking to rectify the situation with Surface and Windows 8.

You could argue that the iPad does much more than surf the web and play videogames. It's a matter of how you use it and how well is integrated in your workflow.

I know plenty of medical staff who are receiving training now to use iPads as the sole computing device in the hospital, for example. Same for a lot of financial companies.

Microsoft is trying to sell the idea that you can have the best of both worlds (traditional PCs and tablets) without sacrifices but its simply not true. Something's gotta give. In the case of Surface I expect a lot of frustration trying to use a standard windows app on a small touchscreen. And if you are going to connect the device to an external monitor, keyboard and mouse, you might as well have a small desktop PC.

this is not new, either. Microsoft has tried time and again, first with TabeltPCs, then the overhyped UMPCs (remember those?) and its always hitting the same walls.

If you are going to do a big change in the paradigm you have to have the balls to do it completely and take the advantages that switching to a "pure" tablet experience can offer. Leave bloated software behind, leave all the legacy support, etc...

In the case of Surface I expect a lot of frustration trying to use a standard windows app on a small touchscreen. And if you are going to connect the device to an external monitor, keyboard and mouse, you might as well have a small desktop PC

So don't buy the x86 version. The ARM version doesn't have the desktop, so there's no complaining about how you foolishly installed non-touch apps and now you can't use them easily.

Well then, you really aren't getting the best of both worlds, are you. Might as well by an iPad.

Might as well by an iPad

Unless an iPad isn't what you want. There are other selling points for a Windows 8 tablet than "runs desktop apps that you won't like using". That was the selling point for Windows XP and 7 tablets.

I have a friend who claims his aunt (Who works of MS) said that it would cost $1k (This was literally the day of the announcement, too). He has been rather reliable in the past, but it should still be taken with a grain of salt, since I was given no context.

The Surface Pro is really undercut by the existence of the Nexus 7 or the rumored 8" iPad. Not because they are in direct competition but because a cheap tablet makes owning both types of device realistic. You would barely even notice the nexus 7 in your bag and it doesn't weigh 2lbs when you're holding it.

I think Microsoft is betting on you having a sudden urge to run Office on your tablet. Or Visual Studio (something I find very unlikely to be a satisfying experience.

If the Surface Pro sells for more than an iPad and a reasonable laptop (which you can have for US$400), I cannot imagine an excuse to have one device that's good at neither role instead of two, each one good on its own thing. It's not like it'll make much of a difference in my backpack.

Well the fact that people use the ipad with keyboard and mouse tell me that people want to be able to run other things on their device besides just touch apps. I think being able to run Sublime 2 or Ableton Live from a tablet would be amazing and worth the higher device price.

How many people actually do it? Is it worth developing a product just for this niche?

>> You would barely even notice the nexus 7 in your bag

That's the point. To carry more than a device comfortably, now you need a bag :)

The syncing of documents, browser tabs, settings etc. has to be flawless to make the comparison valid. There is a definite advantage to not having separate devices.

The Surface Pro (not RT) is navigating a thin line between the iPad, and ultrabooks/MB Air or even a transformer.

I'm still struggling why anyone would choose it over an ultrathin laptop.

It would be absolute suicide for Microsoft to release the Surface for anything north of 800$ (for the WinRT only version at least)

Anything north of an iPad is suicide. If you had the choice of picking up a proven, popular tablet versus a more expensive, unproven, brand-new, version 1.0 tablet, which one would it be? ARM-based tablets are already unable to run current Windows software - there is no software-base advantage there as we had with Windows versus its competition over time.

If it goes beyond iPad plus Nexus 7, it's certain, HP WebOS-style, doom. Not even funny.

As soon as you start talking about different versions, you've lost.

You can have big memory, small memory, with or without cellular. Even Apple are stretching it, but if Microsoft fragment the perception by launching similar devices that run different software, they will be screwed.

TLDR: It won't cost that much but we really don't know how much it will cost.

This isn't even unusual, Swedish web retailers tend to put a price on pre-orders that can't possibly be exceeded when it goes on sale.

Even if a Swedish price was real, it says nothing about what it will retail for in the US, we both have a high VAT and tend to get gouged in the currency translation by the seller.

How on earth does anyone believe this kind of nonsense?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com