Horace Dediu brilliant as usual:
Microsoft’s problem is not that it has difficulty offering an operating system for tablets. The problem is that the economics of both systems and application software on tablets is destructive to its margins.
I firmly believe, now more than ever, that the tablet is taking the place in the hearts of many consumers as the new personal computer. This again cements in my mind the fact that this market will be much larger than the notebook and desktop market ever was and I believe even closer in size to the smartphone market than people realize.
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What I would be worried about if I am an Apple competitor is that the iPad and perhaps specifically the iPad Mini, becomes the tablet that large portions of the market cut their teeth on.
Via @asymco
This is a great device. It is a new thing, in a new space, and likely to confuse many of Microsoft’s longtime customers. People will have problems with applications — especially when they encounter them online and are given an option by Internet Explorer to run them, only to discover this won’t work. But overall it’s quite good; certainly better than any full-size Android tablet on the market. And once the application ecosystem fleshes out, it’s a viable alternative to the iPad as well.
— Wired
“Likely to confuse longtime customers”? Even from nerd point of view the Surface is “Yeah, nice, but…”, I think from the point of businesses it will be more of a “Why?” and for home users it could be “What?”.
I doubt that anyone expects the Windows 8 and new Microsoft tablets to be great success rivaling the iPad. I think the success will be if it does not flop.
Anyway, Microsoft is looking in the face of falling profits down the road and the question is what it should do?
Via Daring Fireball
The Verge reviews most of the styluses on the market in a very in quite some detail.
Good work, guys!
I found it interesting that the video is so, shall I say, technology-oriented? The magnesium body is presented as the main feature as we are wathing the dust turn to liquid metal blobs jumping and orbiting one another while the aggressive electro music is playing.
For Microsoft’s sake, I hope this is just the result of them not having been able to show what you can actually do with this thing right now, as the OS is some 5 4 months from releasing.
Source Microsoft Surface