“After using Microsoft’s Surface for the past week I can say that I honestly get it. This isn’t an iPad competitor, nor is it an Android tablet competitor. It truly is something different. A unique perspective, not necessarily the right one, but a different one that will definitely resonate well with some (not all) users.” AnandTech’s review is positive, because they focus on Surface’s potential.
Yeah. Playbook had potential. Touchpad had potential. Heck even old Windows tablets had potential. Sadly, people tend not to shop for potential, and they shouldn’t.
Potential is akin to a great idea. It’s nothing without great execution.
There’s a clear difference: You can see the road in front of you with Windows. Not so much with webOS backed by HP much less RIM.
It is a given that the Windows ecosystem will grow apps. It is a given that stock apps will be updated (and they have been, numerous times since RTM). It is a given that Microsoft isn’t going to disappear tomorrow (not so much for RIM, and HP doesn’t know what its doing).
There is a lot less uncertainty with a Surface and with Microsoft’s ecosystem to even warrant a comparison.
Indeed, just like Windows for Pen and derivates have been the dominant tablet platform for the past decade, and how Windows CE took over the embedded markets, and them Windows Phones are flying off the shelves during the past couple of years with all that overwhelming amount of apps . Oh, wait….
And your point is…?
I would want to tread down the road Windows is going down about as much as I would want to go down whatever road RIM is heading. Which is to say, not at all.
RIM and WebOS may be heading nowhere, but Windows is effectively hitting a dead end from my perspective and if I were still on it, now would be the time to get the hell off.
My comment has nothing to do with what you want. It has to do with the long term viability and what that means with regards to a product having “promise”.
People cried the sky was falling with Vista, yet, here we are almost 7 years later and Windows is still kicking.
Actually, not it’s not. Vista and the other failures MS force fed people contributed to the steady change of the PC market.
The average person, will compare a tablet with the PC.
Games? Tablets have lousy games compared to PC, but very simple to get and install.
Viruses and malware? Tablets and smartphones don’t have them as long as you stay away from shady app markets. PC’s up until a few years, ago, connecting your computer to the internet for updates was enough to get it infected.
Both have problems and advantages, but PC’s are seen as unreliable shoddy expensive to maintain and upgrade, toys. And Windows bears a large share of the blame.
Edited 2012-10-25 08:46 UTC
PCs are toys and, by your reasoning, tablets are for serious stuff?!? Okay, then! 😉
RT.
I USE HAIKU, YOU INCENSITIVE CLOD!