*** The Official Microsoft Surface Thread ***

Apps are much less important on tablets which is why I think it won't matter too much particularly as RT will support flash which means things like iplayer, 4od etc. will all be eminently usable. If the price is good (and that means lower than equivalent ipad 3 prices on the RT) then I may well consider buying one. It depends on how Apollo shapes up, particularly whether or not old WP7 flagships will be getting it, I think.

If the cross-device integration is as good as it could be, then I'll get one, if not, I'll stay clear of the tablet market. Good to see flash support in a world that's been saying flash will die for the past 5 years to little avail.
 
Apps are much less important on tablets which is why I think it won't matter too much particularly as RT will support flash which means things like iplayer, 4od etc. will all be eminently usable. If the price is good (and that means lower than equivalent ipad 3 prices on the RT) then I may well consider buying one. It depends on how Apollo shapes up, particularly whether or not old WP7 flagships will be getting it, I think.

If the cross-device integration is as good as it could be, then I'll get one, if not, I'll stay clear of the tablet market. Good to see flash support in a world that's been saying flash will die for the past 5 years to little avail.

I'm almost certain I read that Windows 8 Metro tablet's (RT) won't have flash support?

It's a dead bird that isn't being developed any further as well. HTML-5 won out.
 
At Ultrabook prices the Pro will be a niche product at best..
Really? The Ultrabook market is set to be huge and Surface Pro delivers a premium performance ultrabook with full tablet/touch capabilities in addition for, if you take the announcement at face value, a competitive price.

In a research note titled "Ultrabooks to Deliver Ultrafast Growth", iSuppli sees these svelte Windows laptops that run on Intel processors taking 43 per cent of the laptop market by 2015.

Even if Surface Pro looks to sit at the premium high performance end of the market it's still a substantial opportunity, in particular for Enterprise and Higher education (i.e. students that may have bought a Macbook for Uni) customers.

Sure, little billy may not be buying one to surf for porn and play Angry birds, but then that's not it's intended audience.

I suspect it's important to remember the Pro isn't an expensive iPad that can run PC stuff, it's a high end ultrabook that competes with Samsung 9/Apple Macbook Air type devices with full tablet/touch functionality. There will be plenty of RT and other OEM x86 slates to fill the cheaper end of the market.

It's not going to be an "iPad/Android" killer, but it is a start in much the same way the original Xbox was when the living room was completely dominated by Nintendo & Sony.
 
I'm almost certain I read that Windows 8 Metro tablet's (RT) won't have flash support?

It's a dead bird that isn't being developed any further as well. HTML-5 won out.
I believe things have moved on and there will be flash support for some key sites/common scenarios baked into the W8 browser. It won't be a downloadable flash player add-on though
 
I believe things have moved on and there will be flash support for some key sites/common scenarios baked into the W8 browser. It won't be a downloadable flash player add-on though

Every bit of googling i've done say's the opposite to this.

They don't want to use Flash for the exact same reasons Steve jobs gave, it is terrible for the battery.

I don't know if you've noticed, but it's rare to find a website of common day use that uses Flash any longer. I struggle to find one on my Ipad, only old websites of very little significance.

Most have been updated to HTML-5 or new content is using HTML-5.
 
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ie/archive/...-preview-the-sixth-ie10-platform-preview.aspx

With IE10 in Windows 8, we reimagined the browser. We designed and built IE10 to be the best way to experience the full Web on Windows. Consumers can now enjoy more touch-friendly, fast and fluid Web applications with the updated IE10 engine included in the Windows Release Preview. This sixth Platform Preview of IE10 delivers improved performance and support for touch-first HTML5, as well as a new power-optimized, touch-friendly Adobe Flash Player that enables content on compatible Web sites to play in the Metro style Web browser.

As well as others pretty easy to find around the web (bing f t w ;) )

http://www.theverge.com/2012/5/23/3...sh-support-internet-explorer-10-metro-browser

http://pcper.com/news/General-Tech/Windows-8-Metro-browser-will-have-some-Flash-support

http://www.developer.com/daily_news/windows-8-might-support-flash-after-all.html
 
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Having looked at this as objectively as possible, I have to say I'm baffled as to what Microsoft is up to and whether they stand any chance at all.

The lower-end Windows 8 RT product looks like it's the one designed to compete with the iPad and other Android tablets. The problem is, as it's Windows 8 for ARM, you can't just run standard Windows 8 applications on it, they have to be redesigned and/or recompiled for ARM and I don't know how many will be. On the one hand, it'd be fairly easy to just recompile existing Windows apps for ARM, far easier than porting them to iOS or Android for example, yet this isn't good enough for a tablet. They need to be redesigned with a touch interface in mind and I have serious doubts how many will be properly redone for this and how many will simply be a quick botch job. There's also the question of how much traction they'll get with existing iOS or Android developers in porting their existing apps to the platform. Developers have enough problems with two platforms already and many don't bother with Android or put most of their effort into iOS. The hardware looks reasonable but, with the iPad retina display and many Android tablets moving to 1080p screens, 1366x768 just doesn't cut it any more.

The higher-end Windows 8 Pro device looks good for those who want to run full Windows apps but it's going to be expensive. They've said on a par with Ultrabooks so why wouldn't you buy an Ultrabook instead? Given that most full Windows apps aren't designed with a touch interface in mind, you're going to need a keyboard and stylus for most of them, as evidenced by the big deal they've made of their keyboard covers. Whilst many of the geeks and nerds (no offence, I'm one of them) on here like the look of such a device, it's very niche in my opinion and won't appeal to the mass market at all.

I may be totally wrong but I just don't see Microsoft making much inroads into the tablet market with these products, especially considering how late they are to the party.
 
They've said on a par with Ultrabooks so why wouldn't you buy an Ultrabook instead?
I've heard this a few times and I just don't get it so maybe I'm missing something. Assuming the price and spec/performance/price is similar (which given their statement and your quote above we assume they are) why would you buy an Ultrabook instead of a surface if the surface gives you everything the Ultrabook does and adds the ability to use it as a high performance slate? :confused:
 
I've heard this a few times and I just don't get it so maybe I'm missing something. Assuming the price and spec/performance/price is similar (which given their statement and your quote above we assume they are) why would you buy an Ultrabook instead of a surface if the surface gives you everything the Ultrabook does and adds the ability to use it as a high performance slate? :confused:

More storage? Better keyboard? If you're going to be using it with a keyboard 90% of the time, an Ultrabook makes more sense to me really.
 
But the thing is an Ultra book is still in effect a laptop, its sells as a very slim laptop that you are paying for design over features.

Now you have a decently specced Ultra book which is more practical in the real working world. Then when you go home you simply go into the start menu and have the ease of life the touch screen will give you. And lets face it, using a touch screen you can lay down with is the best way to hop about the internet. Take that and put it in a 10.6 form factor with a FULL BROWSER, not some stripped out kack mobile browser, you have a lot of people considering it.

Also, that handy looking dock connection, Im hoping they make a side dock, come home, drop it in, and you're using your stand alone screen Keyboard and Mouse whilst charging.
 
Half of them should be slapped, especially one going on about how they called it Surface, after another product 95% of the population have no clue even exists.

To be fair, when I first head about this my initial thought was "isn't Surface that table thing Microsoft did?"
 
More storage? Better keyboard? If you're going to be using it with a keyboard 90% of the time, an Ultrabook makes more sense to me really.
Surface Pro is already 128Gb SSD and a choice of touch or chiclet keyboard so hardly lacking in that area (although of course there are one or two Ultrabooks that offer 256Gb if that is really important to you).

You said "They've said on a par with Ultrabooks so why wouldn't you buy an Ultrabook instead? Whilst many of the geeks and nerds (no offence, I'm one of them) on here like the look of such a device, it's very niche in my opinion and won't appeal to the mass market at all."

Assuming they are on a par, and in addition Surface Pro adds a choice of keyboard plus the touch functionality, I just don't think the average informed consumer in that particular market would prefer a bog standard Ultrabook as you infer unless it met a specific requirement (like the 256Gb SSD). This is particularly relevent as increasingly touch functionality will be regarded as a normal expected interface for a mobile device by consumers and the mass market.

Perhaps in direct opposites to you, I'd suggest the Surface Pro is no more "very niche for geeks and nerds only" than a comparable Ultrabook and pretty much appeals to the same (growing) market. In fact it may well be that non touch enabled mobile devices become the "niche" offerings of the next five years, seeming incredibly archaic to the average consumer. To be honest I can easily imagine standard Ultrabooks going the same way Netbooks did when they had to suddenly compete with similarly priced and performant slate devices.

There may be a few "niche" scenarios where an ultrabook offers an advantage (again, perhaps a larger SSD as you suggest) but I suggest given the choice of a identically speced and priced Surface Pro or standard Ultrabook my money is the vast majority taking the Surface Pro.

This of course is all in the perspective of the current and projected premium ultrabook market, which although growing is unlikely to ever be as mainstream as the $500 tablet market where iPad and Surface RT are likely to play.

Ultimately, to each their own I suppose...
 
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Nah, no need for a higher end GPU, it would get to hot and battery life would be rubbish. The higher end GPU would be built into the dock so you could use it at home when you wanted (see Sony Z series).

This is exactly what I meant, just having it built in or connected throught a port, so you could upgrade and sell them and use them as you pleased. I really see this becoming the 1 Device to rule them all.

TBH the iPad is mostly good just beacause it has nice apps, android tablets personally for me offer a better overall os in terms of ICS but they lack any good apps and seem to be more like hey lets make a random tablet and not put much thought into it but will add millions of random things and hope we can get a few sells.

These MS tabs seem to be very well thought out, and are a step ahead of the game, I would have liked to see 1080p be the only res on these just to give them that extra sharpness. The build is top notch, the OS runs very well on tablets and its not just a mobile phone os like apple and google. What will be the big thing is how well everything runs, and if you can run all the desktop apps for me.
 
Interested in these for work. Few of the managers at work were going to get iPads but Id much rather have something based on Windows 8.

Gonna see what the pricing is like first.
 
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