Surface RT - the next Zune?

http://www.nbcnews.com …e-rt-price-349-6C10641252

Looks like Microsoft has another dud on its hands.

Tony-S wrote in post #16122632
http://www.nbcnews.com …e-rt-price-349-6C10641252

Looks like Microsoft has another dud on its hands.

Yup. Ballmer ranks as one of the top five CEOs in the USA who should have been fired years ago. He's the dud.

Yup, its more expensive than a tablet, doesnt have a big app user base, it runs windows (sorta), sounds like a fantastic idea. Sort of like an Ipad without the whole cool or functional part.

I borrowed one for a week from a friend that write reviews. After that week, I returned it to my friend and went out and bought a Surface Pro. Except for the shorter battery life, it's much nicer.

Most of the Win 8 apps are awkward to use, even simple ones like the Kindle app seem much smoother on my Android tablets. I do however love having full Windows functionality on the Pro though. I can't wait for 8.1 to come out so I don't have to even see the start screen anymore.

Specs don't outsell user friendliness in this market.
MS does not want to believe it, and releases a higher spec product and "logically" assumes people will pay more for it since "it's better, right?"

None of these specs offer a convincing argument to gamble on an unproven niche in the market.

I could see using this as light laptop.. but it's not a very good tablet simply due to the fact it won't run Android or IOS tablet apps.

Absolutely love mine (am typing on it now).

Had a week long family vacation last week and brought my Surface RT and no other laptop or tablet. Its thinner than an iPad, has a "real" keyboard, great battery life, I can connect external USB storage to it to back my photos and videos throughout my trip, there are Win 8 apps with RAW support so I could do some editing, and it has Office - including Outlook in the 8.1 preview, and we used HDMI out to watch Netflix on the hotel TV.

Prices have come down - 64gb with keyboard is $549 (32gb is $349). At that price, with everything it has to offer, there's not another tablet that can touch it.

I played with it and it's nice but I'd rather the Pro but the battery life is horrible. I'm waiting to see what Haswell brings to the table and what the SurfacePro 2 will be like. It's going to be a tossup between that or the new ASUS Android tablet.

I use it a lot for flying and want good battery life with a good display. I don't care much for apps. With windows platform I can do a lot of my financials using a web browser. Whereas with Android, I have apps since the mobile browser is limited. Other then that, I only have a few games on it. It's all movies.

Always was.

Hot off the press: http://www.zdnet.com …-rt-bet-flops-7000018263/

Looks like Microsoft has lost a lot of money off the RT.

I received a 64GB Surface with the keyboard cover for free at an I.T. show. Quite obviously, it being free has a lot to do with my perception. I think it's a decent tablet. There are some annoyances including the identity challenged Windows 8 O/S. It's absolutely not as refined as some of the more popular tablets out there that are Android and iOS based.

The screen is OK. Resolution isn't all that great compared to a recent iPad. I like that it has a regular USB port. I like that it has the same interface as my PC which also has Windows 8. I like it for reading ebooks and surfing. And that's all I use it for.

But the thing is, it's kind of big and it's much heavier than my Google Nexus 7. And that's the problem. It's neither here nor there.

nicksan wrote in post #16134191
I received a 64GB Surface with the keyboard cover for free at an I.T. show. Quite obviously, it being free has a lot to do with my perception. I think it's a decent tablet. There are some annoyances including the identity challenged Windows 8 O/S. It's absolutely not as refined as some of the more popular tablets out there that are Android and iOS based.

The screen is OK. Resolution isn't all that great compared to a recent iPad. I like that it has a regular USB port. I like that it has the same interface as my PC which also has Windows 8. I like it for reading ebooks and surfing. And that's all I use it for.

But the thing is, it's kind of big and it's much heavier than my Google Nexus 7. And that's the problem. It's neither here nor there.

I was looking at them and I came to the same conclusion. It didnt seem to be the right choice for the time-wasting type of activities that my android tablet does, but not quite beefy enough for serious computing tasks. At the initial issue price it cost more than a full featured (albeit bulkier) notebook which would work better for serious computing tasks.

MS are now being sued by shareholders for possibly telling porkies about the RT. LINK

It's a shame that they blew it because I really find my iPad pretty awful for anything business related, and iTunes has got to be one of the worst programs I've ever used on a desktop. For me the iPad is a nice toy that's ok'ish for web browsing, email, watching Netflix and reading the news, so I was really hoping MS would hit a home run.

However, Balmer blew things in numerous ways. While the MS device is decent, it's over-priced, advertising for it is HORRIBLE, apps are a big yawn, it's a bit too big ... and then they try to push Metro down peoples throats as a desktop user interface ticking off the users that might actually buy a Surface.

I'm going to hold off buying anything more tablet wise until I see how this plays out. Hopefully my iPad will last a bit longer, although it's showing some signs of age (screen flickers in one quadrant and the battery life is significantly less than new).

hollis_f wrote in post #16219158
MS are now being sued by shareholders for possibly telling porkies about the RT. LINK

I love the shareholders, they could have looked at "the interwebs" to find the real story. This is only a shock to them.

This thread reminded me of this...