An iPad Lover’s Take On The Surface With Windows RT
techcrunch.com
techcrunch.com
I know several people will Surface's and I haven't heard of the app store crashing from any of them. And I use the app store on a standard Win8 w/o a crash in the months I've used it.
And of the couple of people I've read who have had app store crashes, they have been people who typically don't like MS products.
The Surface is becoming more of a Rorschach test than anything else. Did anyone seriously think that MG would like the Surface? Does anyone seriously think that MG won't like WHATEVER Apple ships next?
No, but you might expect Paul Thurrott and Peter Bright to, if you were judging it on the basis of their general opinion of Microsoft.
The problem with ascribing opinions of the Surface/Windows 8/RT to one's general opinion of Microsoft and/or Windows is that so much of it is incongruous with what we think of as "Microsoft". People who like one Apple product tend to like most Apple products because there is a clear thread of simplicity and elegance that runs through them.
I'm not sure what thread has traditionally run through Microsoft products (lots of buttons, lots of choices, lots of legacy?), but the Surface, with its vertical integration model, and Metro, with its "non-power user" interface, breaks that thread. But then at the same time you have the desktop mode, which tries to maintain a connection to the Microsoft of old. So in conclusion it's a big mess and old biases don't necessarily apply.
I mention Thurrott as an exception. Peter Bright covers Microsoft, but certainly not someone who typically likes MS products. He tends to strongly dislike as often as he likes MS products (if not moreso).
People who like one Apple product tend to like most Apple products because there is a clear thread of simplicity and elegance that runs through them.
Really? Like the simplicity that is iTunes? The elegance that is AppleTV? The simplicity/elegance of OSX? Apple has been consistently elegant in hardware, but their software has been as jumbled a mess as anything from Microsoft or Google. It's just been coupled with much superior hardware -- and maybe that's enough, but it certainly not a thread that runs through all their products.
So in conclusion it's a big mess and old biases don't necessarily apply.
Yet old biases still seem to apply. Odd isn't it. And IMO the biases come out so clearly when you read what they write -- whether about the Surface or not, but especially about the Surface.
How is it possible that so many find it a joy to use, and so many can find no use for it at all. And it seems to fall completely along party lines?
I think it's just because not that many people actually have the Surface yet.
So as another commenter pointed out, it's probably either going to be early adopters who want it to be good anyway or the tech review sites which everyone seems to accuse both of having an Apple bias anyway.
Not saying either camp is correct, but it's not like we're talking about a big sample size here, in either case it's probably the vocal minority contributing to the initial impressions.
Even its power user apps, like Aperture and Final Cut Pro X (controversies notwithstanding) show a thoughtfulness and polish that I just don't see in the products of other large software companies, let alone a company that is also a first-class hardware manufacturer.
I feel like people tend to get enraged just because one person doesnt heap praise on the underdog and criticise the leader.
But the reality could just be he likes the products that work for him.
(Totally off topic but the wireless support for my desktop's card is bordering on unusable.)
I can already hear the IT department drooling over the prospect of a locked down machine that's cheap but still has the Office Suite and IE (the browser or large business) which frankly covers what 95% of office workers actually need.
It's a response to BYOD iPad's in the Office, not iPad's at home. Its also why I think Steven Sinofsky had to go. He wanted Microsoft divisions to fight each other, not work together.
Think of it this way, assuming Microsoft works on close integration between its products (without Sinofsky this might fly) it is in a unique position. They can offer the most complete end to end business solution for large companies. Hardware (Surface RT and x86), Phones (Windows Phone), Desktop OS, Server OS, Programming Languages, BI suites, Email (exchange), Database etc.....
I can't think of any other company that comes close to offering this except possibly Oracle and they are still missing a few things (Maybe they should offer to buy RIM?).
Source: Micrsoft, who has approached our company to build a Surface Pro app to compete in the enterprise space.
What a ridiculous amount of self-importance. Microsoft probably stopped sending out review units because reviews have been bad.
With all that up-and-running, I immediately headed to the Windows Store (the virtual one with apps, not the physical one with Surfaces) to get some apps. Total nightmare. In the ten days I’ve been using the Surface, that Store has either been down or completely unresponsive a large percentage of the time. It just hangs and hangs and hangs, seemingly forever. I restart, re-open and some things work, then it hangs again. I’ve been trying to download one app for days — still no luck. I’m sick of restarting. And the back-button just isn’t working. Joy.
I expect a dirth of apps at the start but this sounds like a PR disaster if true.
Otherwise, I've had zero problems with finding apps in the store...on the desktop and the Surface
I've run into availability issues with the Apple App Store, and they're much less severe. Then again, the Apple App Store is more mature; the Windows 8 app store is new.
I'd like to chalk all of this up to teething pains, but by gum Microsoft has run the Xbox thing fairly well overall, and the lessons should have transferred.
I suspect one factor that may be affecting a lot of first impressions is that the Windows and Office will be downloading and applying a few hundred MB of updates sometime in the first day or two after unboxing. This is perhaps worthy of some criticism, too, but it's not the normal state of operation.
Disclosure: I recently accepted a position at Microsoft, but in an unrelated part of the company. My Surface was purchased at full retail.
Further, there are apps already in the store for some of the things he mentioned no official apps being available for. Dropbox access is available through a free app named "New File Manager v2", for example. I don't know if he just didn't put in the effort to look for them or purposely used the "official" wording to paint the picture he wanted to, but it's somewhat misleading.
Windows RT tablets have a lot of the same neither-fish-nor-fowl nature. They are clunky and inefficient compared to an iPad or good Android tablet, but weak and underpowered compared to a Windows PC.
I got a chance to play with a Surface last weekend. The very first thing I noticed was the placement of the "home" button. I guess it might be called the Start button? No matter. It was located along the long edge of the device, as opposed to the short edge, which was really odd.
At first, I thought this was because the device is meant to be used horizontally with a keyboard attached to it, so having the button closer to the keyboard makes it more accessible. But then I realized this is unlikely to be the case, because the keyboard already has a (much more) accessible Start button! Which leaves the button on the device useless, because even when you're holding it in your hands, your thumbs are too short to reach it.
It's little details like this that killed the experience for me. It confirmed my suspicion that Microsoft does not understand user experience.
You can also swipe in from the right and get the "charms bar" which has a start button on it too, positioned midway up, which might be easier to reach for some people/grips.
I think the MS tablets (and they are tablets, despite Seigler saying they aren't because they're the "wrong shape") are between a rock and a hard place. On one side, the locked-down, user-friendly world of Apple. On the other, the free, tweaking, custom ROMing world of Android. It's trying to sit somewhere between the two and I'm not entirely convinced that it can.
I think that's kind of the point. Using the iPad is just a cleaner, nicer experience because it's not bogged down with a lot of the desktop cruft.
There is a trade-off between features and complexity, but Siegler doesn't try to evaluate that once in the article.
Spoilers: he tosses his Surface into a trash can at the end. Now that's what I call quality journalism.
But, it's a blog post. If I want solid content I must force myself to expect a lower bar, particularly on TC.
iPad lover insists everything should function like an iPad, then gets upset when it doesn't.
He claims the app store doesn't work at all, not that it doesn't look like the apple app store.
He may be a liar, but that is a different offense than what you accuse him of.