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Maybe its just you, I've seen so many iPad owners spend extra 100-200$ just for an extra keyboard and cover. Your needs are well-served by the inbuilt keyboard, so you don't need an extra attachment. But for many others, a physical keyboard solves various problems.

The MS surface keyboard is an extra $100 (if you buy them together; $120 if you buy independently)

> But after I got my first iPad, the original, I found that I could type at nearly the same speed

Speed is certainly one issue, but the ergonomics of typing for an extended period favor separate screen and keyboard components. I too use a table for typing and while I'm pretty quick at it, I can't find a comfortable position that lets me do this for more than half an hour at a time. For this reason alone, the inclusion of a keyboard has certainly made me take notice of Microsoft's offering.

The included keyboard is definitely better than an on-screen one for human factors, but is it good enough to not be in the trough where an on-screen keyboard is more available (no keyboard-cover needed) and a full-size physical keyboard/mouse?

Personally, I think there is some traction in the Transformer style tablet - but the surface cover seems gimmicky. We'll have to see - if it works, I'll be thrilled.

Using either the Bluetooth wireless keyboard or the keyboard dock on the iPad makes it into quite a capable notebook alternative.

It's also what you're used to. Some people can T9 pretty darned fast because of experience.

For anyone who types fast, a physical keyboard is far faster than the ipad on-screen keyboard.

I'm not sure if that will translate to marketshare for the surface, however.

The ipad software keyboard is hard to use for any length of time because you have to switch between several virtual layouts to hit every key.

It slows you down if you're writing code instead of English words.

Having punctuation characters hidden away probably reduces the overall complexity of people's passwords as well. I strongly suspect that people switch to alphanumeric-only passwords for anything they would enter into an ipad/iphone keyboard.

Typical post of an outlier who thinks they are the typical user targeted by Apple. If anyone thinks that Apple designed the keyboard and neglected to optimize it for people writing code is a dope.

I'll put the people that would never buy anything without an SD or MicroSD card slot. Again, useful but to a very small and select group of users.

I wish people here (supposedly smart and intelligent folks) would have the common sense to put themselves into the shoes of a TYPICAL user and make their comments relevant to that viewport.

I think this will sell well into markets that are heavily invested in microsoft infrastructure

These are the Windows RT tablets (ARM-based). Presumably a lot of Windows x86 software won't have ARM versions, so I'm not sure these will be popular even among the Microsoft shops.

Corporate road warriors that need to access the same Office systems the rest of the home-base grunts use.

Let's see if it's actually the same Office. The versions of Office that I got to play with on WinMobile * and WinPhone7 were not on par with Word on windows, or even OpenOffice of the time.

(For all I know, it might still be the best available word processor for tablets; I have never used Apple's "Pages"; but previous versions were ... lacking)

The Office apps that come with the Surface are the real deal. It's the Home and Student version according to the web site.

It's Office RT, whatever that means. I tried to follow the link to the description http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/home-and-student/office-ho... - but on my Linux/Firefox combination, it shows nothing. Perhaps it's a silverlight thing, but the HTML is so messed up that I wasn't able to see if it was.

Way to go Microsoft!

I see this being a strong competitor in the ultra-portable notebook market. It hits a sweet spot for those looking for the portability of tablet with the flexibility of a real latptop/ultrabook. Having a real keyboard and the ability to run and install applications such as Office is a big benefit for many people.

It probably won't click with casual content consumers (web/email), but for people that create and write content, it does seem to provide advantages over a typical tablet without being a full laptop. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

As a bilingual the autocorrect is the bane of my existence. I depend on it but I find myself constantly changing the language... I wished that iOS could switch languages contextually for me.

I don't use autocorrect, but the spelling correction language switches with the keyboard language. Just add your other languages keyboard layouts and swith to the keyboard layout of the language you type in.

This is the opposite of the selling the first laptop problem - some people won't take a device seriously unless it has a physical keyboard. It isn't about the quality of on-screen keyboards, it's about the perception of the accessory. These people see electronics as toys unless they have that one accessory.

The keyboard question will be interesting. I've got an iPad and shelled out the $100 to get a keyboard cover (the Logitech one, where I curse its lack of an escape key sometimes). For general use I don't need a dedicated keyboard and/or the on screen keyboard is fine, but the two problems that the onscreen keyboard has are the fact that it covers half the screen when it appears, and it has some really long multi-key sequences for some characters. If I'm composing email or working on an ssh session I definitely prefer the hard keyboard.

So I'd certainly guess there is a product here, between tablets and laptops, and it will be interesting to see how the Surface fills that role.

> they have managed to meet Apple in terms of pricing for a comparable iPad

No 3G / LTE.

I don't think the $500 iPad has 3G?

Correct, it's $529: http://store.apple.com/us/buy/home/shop_ipad/family/ipad/ipa...

Note: I haven't kept up the specs etc.

That's the iPad 2. If it's comparable to the Surface, then your point is valid.

The cheapest iPad 3 with 3G costs $629.

And while YMMV, I don't require 3G on my tablet. I already have 3G on my phone, which is always in my pocket, and I can create a personal hotspot if reqd.

My point was that it's comparable to Surface: similar HW specs, no Retina display. iPad 3 offers more hence it's pricier. I simply don't see why anyone except Microsoft Office users (in 2013;-) would prefer Surface to iPad 3.

In what way is the Surface RT more comparable to the iPad 2 and not the iPad 3.

The new iPad has a Retina display but beyond that ? (I'm talking about hardware)

You can't even buy an iPad 2 with more than 16GB anymore.

"The new iPad has a Retina display but beyond that ? (I'm talking about hardware)" For a tablet form factor, one can argue that a fantastic display plays an enormous role in the user experience.

That's the 16 GB model. The surface has 32 GB. The version of the iPad with 32GB and 3G is $729.

That is the iPad 2 however. The New iPad with cellular starts at $629USD.

You can't get 3G/4G on the Surface at any price. How mobile is that? Hotspot/cellphone-tether needed? - not going to work for some users.

Since it has USB ports and runs Windows you can just plug in an aircard for either 3G or 4G and have that coverage.

As I posted in the other story that got flagged off front page, the new TV ad is here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mSckyoAMHg

The good thing about the keyboard covers is that Windows RT supports mouse input unlike the iPad and a track pad is included in the keyboard covers. This will help alleviate some of the gorilla arm issues if you're trying to get work done. Native remote desktop with RemoteFX[1] support is good when you have WiFi access, say at Starbucks.

The Surface RT does some things better than the iPad. For example, it has a MicroSD slot and a full USB port. The side-by-side multitasking view is pretty nice to put a chat or Twitter client while browsing/working etc. The built in snap out stand is also pretty cool.

[1]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RemoteFX

PS: Funny to see this story as well getting flagged down. Stay classy HN.

You should get upvotes because you made a counter argument with specifics. (And that TV ad is the one I was referring to.)

The funny thing is, and this is totally in the realm of personal opinion-- I think all of the advantages you mention are actually detractions. Mouse input on a tablet? Seems like a big mistake (but I know, MSFT chose to go with a "windows mode" rather than port their office apps to touch) MicroSD slot? I'd rather that space went to more battery capacity or something more useful. "Full" USB port? If I could plug a mouse into the iPad I still wouldn't.

The snap out stand is something that I forgot about, but might use if the iPad had it. Finding a good case that supports all the different usage modes for the iPad is a pain. But still when I saw the stand shown off, it felt like a gimmick that makes the Surface feel cheap. That might be a marketing misfire, since this is actually a feature I might wish the iPad had, maybe if presented better.

Anyway, all just our opinions based on our preferences. If you buy a surface, I hope you love it!

You compare it to a tablet, which isn't really fair, since that's not really what MS seems to be aiming for. They are building more of a hybrid tablet/netbook. Wether that's a good idea, and they can execute it is uncertain.

For the SD slot, I think they absolutely have a use. Like transfering photos from your camera. Yes, you could do it over wifi, but then you'd still need to transfer them to another computer first. If you have one...

Even the USB slot can be extremely useful for some usecases. Look at the hacks people put up with for the ipad to connect external devices. Square use the audio jack both for powering their perhapial and to transfer data. It's riddiculous. And you sacrifice all sound while using it.