Contractor problems. I have a second hand Surface Pro. Its much lighter than a laptop, but more powerful than the laptop I had before. It runs Visual Studio, Eclipse and all the other tools I need very well. When I'm at a client site or at home I can use the USB port to dock into monitor, keyboard and ethernet. When I'm in meetings I make notes with the pen. When I'm in between on the train I can use it in tablet mode or mini-laptop mode.
I figure that in a few years I'll be able to do all of that on a smaller 8" form factor - even better.
I've done a bit of development on a 7" tablet and it's kind of painful, even if you're using "just" a text editor (or an IDE like Eclipse with most of the chrome hidden).
At some point you start hitting some physical limits of the human body. At 7" or 8" you can't have a full-size physical keyboard and there are only so many lines of code you can fit onto the screen, and so forth.
Personally (and I do mean this is personal preference and not the One Right Solution For Everybody) carrying around a 3-5lb notebook isn't a big deal because I'm already going to be carrying pen, paper, a few medications, and a charger or two. Even if my main computing device weighed zero pounds I'd still be carrying a small bag.
Apple were not the first company to create a phone with navigation features.
Surface is a tablet which can also run Photoshop, AutoCAD, MATLAB, Visual Studio, Flash, and whatever other weird legacy apps are kicking around. It can multitask. It has a proper digitizer. It has a kickstand and a very innovative cover. Yes it's not a laptop. No it doesn't have the Android store. That doesn't mean it's useless.
(P.S. just noticed my hacker news account is 1337 days old today. wheee.)
You had me interested right up until Flash. Really?
Adobe and Autodesk all have multiple apps on iOS. How many Metro apps have they released? That's the metric that counts when we're talking about tablets.
All the software you're talking about only really works in desktop/laptop mode with a mouse. As long as that is true, MS will be an also-ran in the tablet space.
>"Adobe and Autodesk all have multiple apps on iOS"
They don't really compare well, iOS versions lack a lot of important features in comparison with the windows ones.
>" How many Metro apps have they released? "
I believe the point is they don't need to, they desktop software runs just fine.
>"All the software you're talking about only really works in desktop/laptop mode with a mouse"
Not really, all those apps actually benefits from the use of a stylus (actually artist prefer that more than using a mouse) and that's something that you can't really do with an iPad (I own an Ipad2 and I had really tried hard to do anything productive on it without luck)
For me its the form factor + the power to use a full blown OS when travelling. I don't have to lug around my laptop anymore. On my way I can get some work done; when feeling tired I can switch to the Metro, play games for sometime and get back to work again. I find it to be really productive. I have also set it up so when I am back home it automatically syncs the changes to my laptop (using BitTorrent Sync).
I was disappointed that the iPad turned out to be essentially a giant iPhone. The Surface Pro looks like it finally delivers on the promise of a slate that runs a real O/S. There's a bit of sticker shock if you compare it to a Nexus or iPad, but it's not bad for an ultraportable with a high-res display and Wacom digitizer. I ordered the Ivy Bridge model during Best Buy's fire sale, and I'm looking forward to putting it through its paces.
"I made the switch back to an iphone recently after having a Windows phone for about a year. I really liked the OS but I had nothing but trouble with the hardware. I went through three different handsets and all of them ended up failing on me. Eventually I gave up and just bought an iPhone 5c. I have to say that after a year on the Windows phone I had forgotten what the Apple app store looks like. I think I had managed to convince myself that the Windows app store was pretty solid. Jesus Christ was I wrong."
That even someone directly targeted by Surface "professional-stylus-user" demographic, and who was willing to try Windows Phone, now has one foot in another ecosystem that also offers a quite popular tablet? Surface (and PC Gaming) wasn't enough to keep him on Windows Phone, but maybe iPhone will be enough to pull him to iPad (even if it's not as good for some tasks, but better for others e.g. gaming) if the two competing attempts at lock-in clash (and they will, because lock-in is lock-out if you're on the wrong side of it).
>"I think I had managed to convince myself that the Windows app store was pretty solid. Jesus Christ was I wrong."
True, but keep in mind only refers to games in that article, which is hands down the stronger point of the app store. I don't play games any more and I hardly miss anything from iOS that doesn't exist in the Windows Phone Store.
iPhone completely changed my life overnight, mostly due to its navigation features and ability to look up phone numbers.
I'm not disputing that the iPhone changed smartphones forever, but looking up numbers was something existing smartphones had apps for, long before the iPhone.
I have a first generation Surface RT and I want nothing more than to put Ubuntu on it and get real work done. Since that is not possible, it goes unused.
Combining 2 devices into 1. This is useful for many people. While there are compromises with hybrids, sometimes the end result is good enough for people, e.g. camera phones.
For example, iPhone completely changed my life overnight, mostly due to its navigation features and ability to look up phone numbers.
I think Surface will only be dominant if it solves a problem for people. So, which problem does it solve, and why is it useful for people?