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Microsoft Surface


CVByrne

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Currently. Also what people other than anandtech and Engadget failed to report is that Surface gets a free upgrade to Office 2013 when it's complete and released. I imagine this will remove the desktop mode.

As for the gripes with the lack of apps. Developers will be writing apps for Windows 8, it's a given. They will be writing for the Modern UI interface too not legacy desktop. So they will surely do the little bit of extra work and make it for RT as well as 8 pro.

This will mean a flood of apps in the coming months. It's windows, it's got like 10 times as many apps than iOS or Android. Those developers will make apps for the new OS.

The polarised reviews have been strange. Nobody has gone for the middle, it's been a love or hate in every review. It's a new device and new OS. You're gonna expect a few glitches here and there at the start. Remember Android in 2010? Buggy and laggy, but the OS was so great it was worth forgiving.

From all the reviews this Modern UI is a joy, it's that step above Android and iOS. I'm looking forward to testing it all out when my Surface arrives on Monday.

Please don't be an Asus Transformer mk2 please.

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As for the gripes with the lack of apps. Developers will be writing apps for Windows 8, it's a given. They will be writing for the Modern UI interface too not legacy desktop. So they will surely do the little bit of extra work and make it for RT as well as 8 pro.

This will mean a flood of apps in the coming months. It's windows, it's got like 10 times as many apps than iOS or Android. Those developers will make apps for the new OS.

Will they? In my experience businesses are relatively conservative when adopting new technologies and reluctant to change from methods they know. Eg. The adoption rate of Blackberry and iDevices in conjunction with windows. Adoption of a whole new platform where the email isn't properly integrated at present is just not going to happen. Companies who have invested heavily in iDevices are not going to scrap them and buy a load of Surfaces.

In terms of domestic users they just won't be fashionable because Samsung and Apple have well and truely beaten MS to the punch on that.

EDIT had to answer the phone - posted in a hurry

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Well this is Windows. Windows 8 will end up with millions possibly billions of users. So people will write for it. It's that simple, unless it's completely rejected OS. Which it likely won't be as Windows 8 reviews have been hugely positive, whether RT gets the same traction is not known yet.

But windows has billions of users. It's on a level of use that is multiples of Apple or Google software.

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Also companies investing in iDevices is a tiny tiny teeny tiny minute tiny proportion of companies who use windows. Insignificant number.

Also Adopting a new version of Windows has nothing at all to do with adoption of BlackBerry. So that analogy is pointless. Maybe windowsphone , but now windows itself.

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Well most companies apart from office probably have some bespoke software for their particular line of business and not much else. I really cannot see them spending money on apps for their employees. Employees might spend a quid or two but surely on their own accounts not on stuff for work. So who is going to buy these apps?

We have 3 ipads here for the sales team and they dont have any paid apps on there. They are primarily used for email and web browsing - thats it.

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Also I would bet a large chunk of businesses are still running XP let alone Vista or Seven. You explain to the owner of a small company that he needs to spend money on upgrading the OS to Win8 and he is going to want to know what benefit he will get?

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We're at the end of the PC upgrade cycle, though.

The set of applications that are best done with

Well this is Windows. Windows 8 will end up with millions possibly billions of users. So people will write for it. It's that simple, unless it's completely rejected OS. Which it likely won't be as Windows 8 reviews have been hugely positive, whether RT gets the same traction is not known yet.

But windows has billions of users. It's on a level of use that is multiples of Apple or Google software.

It doesn't matter how good Windows 8 is.

Companies will only upgrade when they buy new PCs, and the age of companies buying massive numbers of PCs is over, and has been for years now.

How many times has the support and update deadline for Windows XP been extended? The only reason for that is that enough large companies are using XP.

Maybe they upgrade eventually to Windows 8. But that's only when their decade-old hardware finally dies beyond the point where part replacement is cost effective.

What are most corporate PCs running?

* Word (what was the last "gotta have" version of Word? 2003?)

* Excel (see Word)

* IE (IE7 or lower mostly...)

* Outlook

* custom programs, mostly VB frontends for a database on a server somewhere

For that use profile, there's absolutely no reason to upgrade to Windows 8.

Those custom programs, by the way, are migrating to the cloud (e.g. salesforce), and part of the selling-point of cloud/web apps is that it allows the companies to eliminate almost all of their hardware expenditure (and a lot of their support expenditure as well...). Indeed, it's that trend that's already claimed BlackBerry.

Not too long ago, it was common for someone with an iPhone to also have a BlackBerry, because that's what work provided them with. RIM focused on that market, selling primarily to the corporate IT masters, not end-users. Suddenly, companies start realizing that they can make email and such work on the iPhones and droids their employees are buying and not have to spend a penny on BlackBerries. The cost-benefit of going to the cloud and not buying PCs, tablets, and phones for their employees but having them bring their own to work is off the charts.

Microsoft needs to find a killer app and fast.

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The uptake of windows 8 will open a market of buyers. So when people update to windows 8 they have the modern UI. So when writing software, developers will write their new software for this interface. As a new laptop or hybrid can be used in touchscreen or with a keyboard etc..

This means there will be plenty written for Windows 8. Just like there has been for previous versions of Windows.

Now what's important to note is, these will be useful. They won't be the utter throwaway impulse buy trash that Apple has invented with the ipad. All useless novelty stuff that people assume should be aped.

No it shouldn't. It should be kept to the Apple and Apple Copying Android tablets. They are useless at actually doing anything bar Web and video.

So Microsoft need to get the good parts of touch interface, browsing Web and portable video. Then merge it with the useful software that's the confine of a computer and they are onto a winner.

That's the single part that half these reviewers overlook. We don't want a Microsoft ipad. We want a Microsoft tablet computer.

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Given the choice between:

* shelling out for a Microsoft tablet computer

* shelling out for ports of custom apps to a touch interface

and

* migrating to a cloud/web-based app

* having employees buy their own iPad/Nexus/Surface/Playbook to access said app

Which is a company going to choose?

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I don't see quite where in the market this fits. It's never going to be as good as the ipad for media consumption and 'apps', and it's never going to be as good as a PC for 'work'.

I think aiming at such a broad market is going to be the surfaces downfall, personally.

I certainly don't understand this OS brand loyalty/familiarity thing CVBryne is talking about. Windows 8 is completely different to any other versions of windows.

I suppose I'll wait and see on this, but I remain unconvinced, at least I couldn't see what I'd use a surface for.

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* having employees buy their own iPad/Nexus/Surface/Playbook to access said app

Which is a company going to choose?

What employee would work for a company that doesn't provide the tools to do work? I'd tell that company to **** right off!

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What employee would work for a company that doesn't provide the tools to do work? I'd tell that company to **** right off!

Fair one, but a tablet with cloud based software is going to be cheaper than a full LAN setup with fuckoff big services and hardware.....

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Fair one, but a tablet with cloud based software is going to be cheaper than a full LAN setup with fuckoff big services and hardware.....

Very much so, and we are going there, especially for the 5-50 employees types of business that don't want/need an in-house IT-dep.

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Forget companies for a second, though I do think Microsoft has a great opportunity here especially with blackberry demise.

How many people own windows laptops, many many multiples the number of macbooks. They will buy new devices and they will run Windows 8. People who own devices will update to windows 8. So now we have a huge number of people on Win8. Win 8 has Modern UI as it's main interface, so when developers write new software they'll write it for that as it's the main UI. So we then get loads of new Win8 software.

 

Apple said they've sold 100mil iPads. So lets say half (or slightly more) than many number of people have owned an iPad, as plenty of peple own or have owned multiple as they are after all Apple fans. It's new it's Apple. Buy. Repeat iPad ownership merged into total sales.

 

People don't usually own multiple laptops. So the number of people using Win8 is going to me mega multiples the number using iPads very soon. It's simple, it'll be the most used touchbased software (phones aside) very soon and by many multiples.

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I completed a information/sales course for Windows 8 a few weeks back, it's the first real in depth look at the features of Windows 8 I've had, or even just a look at how it actually works.

Even in Microsofts own words I was struck by a feeling of, as a desktop user, how dumb a lot of it was. There are lots of features that to my eyes seem to be touch and gesture based inputs fudged for a mouse and keyboard. I can't recall a single one that I felt was an improvement or even just a simplification of something Windows already does.

I really don't think Windows 8 is going to translate to people used to using Windows terribly well. Microsoft might have got this one very, very wrong.

They'll be perfectly aware that business sales aren#t going to be enormous - it's not any different to the other times they've introduced a new OS. The problem they may have is convincing enterprises that DO look to bring in new machines or upgrade, that this OS works for them. Being honest... I don't see much that would entice me were I running a business.

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Microsoft have to drag people away from the desktop and get them to embrace the touchscreen. As the reviews state, it's a superb OS, but it has a learning curve. This is the hump Microsoft have to get users over. People will get over them. People are used to touchscreen devices now and it'll be a lot easier to get people to make the move.

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