Articles about Surface

It’s an addiction. For nearly three decades, the PC industry has gorged itself on profit margins. Whether it’s a “premium” line of notebooks or the latest uber-gaming rig, vendors have always managed to squeeze enough margin out of their product offerings to line their respective silk purses. And who rides shotgun to this PC profit gravy train like some deranged, hypodermic-carrying monkey? Microsoft.

The Redmond, Wash.-based behemoth injected itself into the basic PC equation a generation ago, and it has milked the OEM license revenue stream ever since. Fortunately for them, average selling prices across the spectrum of PC categories helped offset this Microsoft addiction “surtax”. After all, what’s $70, $80 or $100 when the system in question retails somewhere just north or south of the $1,000 mark?

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Earlier this week, Microsoft bought Perceptive Pixel, a touchscreen development company. Many people see this as Microsoft's commitment to the Surface tablet, the Windows 8 operating system and idea that touchscreen technology will play a much bigger role in the near future.

Currently, Perceptive Pixel has three different models featuring 27-inch, 55-inch and 82-inch touchscreens, and while that certainly is a long way from the 7-inch Surface tablet, it could very well mean that part of the company's technology finds its way into a second-generation tablet or a refresh of the first. The acquisition could have an even larger effect than that. Big changes are afoot.

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Yesterday Betanews published an interesting piece looking at how successful (or not) Windows 8 will be in the enterprise market. One of the areas it questioned was just how well the Metro UI would go down with end users in the workplace.

This reminded me of a concept that seems to have been much forgotten since we all fell in love with the touch screen. It is called Gorilla Arm. The term was coined over 30 years ago by engineers looking for a way to describe how users actually interact with vertical touchscreens in the real world. Basically users arms get sore and heavy when using these types of interface for extended periods of time. It is not a new phenomenon, far from it, and has been backed up by numerous interface and usability researchers for decades. Try it yourself now whilst sitting at your desk. Reach out and stab at your monitor. Then keep doing it. After a period of time your arms will feel like a gorilla's. So how is the Metro UI going to cut it with enterprise audiences?

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Damn, what an extraordinary month.

Let’s recap. First, we saw a spate of exciting new Ultrabook announcements, along with some x86- and ARM-based Windows 8 tablets at Computex. Then Apple introduced new spins of iOS and OS X for tablets and PCs, respectively, at its developer gathering. Microsoft unveiled Windows Phone 8 at the Windows Phone Summit -- and let's not forget the Surface tablet. And this week, Google rolled out new products and concepts buckshot-style at Google I/O, showcasing its first branded tablet, the Nexus 7, and Android 4.1, just to name a few.

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Microsoft just put behind it an eventful and positive week, coming off two major announcements on its two major computing platforms -- Windows and Windows Phone: Surface and WP8. Consumer and expert scepticism hobbled much of the excitement, as Microsoft nose dives into paradigm change. Nevertheless, the third week of June 2012 is indicative of a profoundly new direction for Microsoft, characterized by refreshing perspectives and paves a path that leads ultimately in the right direction.

Microsoft is making genuine inroads towards a new strategy that represents a complete paradigm shift from the fundamentals that defined the company and its products over the last couple of decades. The company used to be the antithesis of Apple in practically every sense, selling products based on the abundance of choice as opposed to Apple's strategy of marketing a small hardware lineup. Apple's strategy has always focused on ease of use, simplicity and form; whereas Microsoft, although not neglecting form and aesthetic, put functionality first and foremost and wrapped design around this in the most appealing way possible. The announcements this week represent a fully-committed digression from this strategy from Microsoft.

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In an article that appeared earlier today on BetaNews, Robert Cringely talks about how Microsoft can compete with Apple on pricing but -- due to supply and manufacturing issues -- won’t be able to undercut its rival. It’s an interesting observation, and one that’s based on sound thinking.

But Surface is a curious beast. The iPad is, to all intents and purposes, a scaled-up Smartphone. Microsoft’s tablet (or tablets, rather) is a touch-screen PC. It runs Windows 8, and Office, and applications like Photoshop.

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Last week Microsoft kinda-sorta announced its new Surface tablet computer. This week will come a Google-branded tablet. Both are pitted against the mighty iPad. Both companies see opportunity because of what they perceive as a Steve Jobs blind spot. And both companies are introducing tablets under their own brands because they can’t get their OEM’s to do tablets correctly.

For all the speculation about why Microsoft or Google would risk offending hardware OEMs by introducing name branded tablets, the reality is that neither company really had any choice but to make the hardware. In the commodity PC market, no one company is likely to be willing to make the investment necessary to compete with the highly-integrated iPad. Samsung tried, and even then it didn’t pay off for them. Taiwan Inc + Dell just don’t seem to run that way. Furthermore, it is a lot easier to make a product when you control the operating system. You have the experts right there. You don’t have to go through support channels to fix stuff. So ultimately, Microsoft and Google should be able to make much better products than their licensees.

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People can't stop talking about Microsoft Surface. It’s a very hot and disputed topic. Some critics say that the tablets (there are two) will fail, while others are enthusiastic. There's heated discussion about price, too.

For me and many others like me, Surface is the only tablet that can be used for more than common tasks -- certainly not Apple's iPad. Windows is a very powerful platform, and most professionals need it for work. I want to tell you why you need Surface.

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What a week! Just when I thought Microsoft could never be as cool as Apple, bang! Here comes Surface (no, not that Surface) to shatter my preconceptions about the weather in Seattle and its effect on product innovation.

Surface is sleek, sexy, and, dare I say it, kind of cool. It’s got this rockin’ kickstand thingy at the back, a neat-o magnetic keyboard/cover and is made from some cutting-edge alloy straight out of a Star Trek episode (specifically, Voyager -- DS9 would never stoop so low). In short, Surface has all the ingredients of an iPad killer. But while it may achieve some success in the consumer space, enterprise IT shops won’t touch it with a 3-meter pole.

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Microsoft’s Hollywood announcement Monday of its two Surface tablet computers was a tactical triumph but had no strategic value for the world’s largest software company because the event left too many questions unanswered. If I were to guess what was on Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer’s mind it was simply to beat next week’s expected announcement of a Google branded tablet running Android. Microsoft, already playing catch-up to Apple’s iPad, does not want to be seen as following Google, too. So they held an event that was all style and no substance at all.

This is not to say that Microsoft shouldn’t make a tablet and couldn’t make a good one, but this particular event proved almost nothing.

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After seeing the latest information about Microsoft's new Surface tablet computers and also reading Joe Wilcox's latest article about them, I finally get Microsoft's mindset -- and I am impressed. So what does this Windows developer think of Surface? Need a tablet to appreciate what it is all about.

I don't have deep pockets, so I try to use my computers as long as possible, but after hearing about Windows 8, I knew I needed to get a tablet as soon as possible. Something big was afoot! Fortunately Microsoft made is easier for me when the Microsoft Store had an amazing deal on an ExoPC Windows tablet for only $399. I jumped on that deal, and I think it was the right one.

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Surface isn't just about the future. The tablet is also about the past, and Microsoft bringing to market a vision quashed by its hardware partners. In 2012, Surface is all about Apple and Microsoft securing a fast foothold in the emerging cloud-connected device category. But the tablet also encompasses something sought six years ago: Project Origami.

It's no coincidence that Project Origami's launch was, until yesterday, the last time Microsoft held a super-secretive media event that generated big buzz. Surface and the other share much in common, and not just buzz. Before there was iPad, Microsoft developed Ultra-Mobile PC -- or what Project Origami came to be branded. The idea: To bring to market a sub-$500 touchscreen computer. The software giant sought this product category four years before iPad stormed the media tablet market. Surface is Project Origami's revenge, against Apple and Microsoft's hardware partners.

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I dunno if it's branding or magic, but Microsoft's "big-ass" Surface table suddenly is smaller. In a jam-packed media event this evening, the software giant unveiled a 10.6-inch display tablet. Case is magnesium with beveled edges that give a sleek appearance. The tablet weighs as little as 676 grams. That's a helluva lot lighter than the Surface table introduced 5 years ago. That baby measured 30 inches and newer Samsung model is 40 inches. The tablet is pretty compact compared to the table.

So the rumors were true about a Microsoft tablet. But Surface? Not Xbox? It's smart branding that pits Microsoft's tablet against Apple's -- industrial design, announcement timing, Surface branding and more.

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Well, all we can tell you at the moment for sure is that there's a Microsoft event in Los Angeles today at 6:30 pm Eastern Daylight Time. The invitations came in plain text, and it seems like nobody knows what's going on for sure.

We've heard a few guesses -- from a Microsoft branded tablet to a Xbox accessory. We've pinged our sources within Microsoft, and these normally reliable sources don't know what's going on themselves. What's this Steve Jobs-like secrecy? It's sure building a lot of buzz.

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Microsoft Surface, the touch interface for interactive advertisements and signage was given a massive technology overhaul and revealed at CES 2011. Instead of a huge, foot-thick table that utilized cameras to detect user touches, it shrunk down to just 4" in thickness, using "pixel sense" touch detection for 50 simultaneous points of contact.

Today, nearly a year after Surface 2.0 was revealed, Samsung's next generation Microsoft Surface device is finally up for sale.

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