What lengths did Microsoft go to keep the Surface a secret? | Hacker News Reader

What lengths did Microsoft go to keep the Surface a secret?

extremetech.com

10 pointsevo_918 comments

Maybe people's expectations of Microsoft are just so low that no one actually thought they'd try to compete.

This is the first time they've really done anything squarely in the personal computing hardware space. They've had peripheral devices, and the Xbox, but this is quite a bold new step for them. The thing is, they've not done it before. I'd expect them to make at least a few mistakes.

It's not clear if they are actually intending to make this - or if like Google's Nexus phone it's really only meant as a development standard.

Back in the 386/486 days Intel used to make PCs which you bought to test your code on - but it didn't mean intel were getting into the Walmart space.

> Give Microsoft credit here: the Surface is something different. If the tablet itself doesn’t convince you, then the innovative Touch Cover surely does

Ahh, What about the Surface is "something different", other than the Touch Cover?

So it's a tablet with an integrated stand and digitizer and new kind of case and a new operating system and you think there's nothing remotely different about it?

>integrated stand

Come on, it's a piece of plastic on the back. Overall, this is of low importance for a tablet.

>kind of case

I said other than the case

> new operating system

Windows 8 isn't "new".. it just doesn't exist anywhere yet. All the OEMs will use it too.

I don't see anything to "give them credit for something different"

This is a game changer for MSFT.

For the last 25years they have let the OEMs take the risk, whether Dell/HP/IBM win or lose in the market - MSFT gets it's revenue.

But this led to them losing control of the experience - as we saw with them watering down the "Vista capable" requirements to give OEMs a break on their cheap machines.

In the consumer market this really hurt them: Windows + crap $300 Walmart laptop = Windows is crap. At least in the mind of the consumer looking at Apple's shiny toys. So even if Windows 7 is a better or more capable OS than iPad the overall experience of a Windows7 Starter edition on a netbook certainly isn't.

Whether MSFT build this, or make OEMs step up their quality - the new game is that users experience has to be a lot better. unless MSFT want to try and live on declining revenues from Office licenses and MS-Server CALS

OK, so MS are changing the way Windows integrates with hardware. Cool.

I ask my original question:

Ahh, What about the Surface is "something different", other than the Touch Cover?

(as in, the device itself)

Well, we can certainly call this a smart cover versus what Apple said. The actual Keyboard is a critical piece when it comes to tablets and here it seems Microsoft is supposedly delivering something which could be very useful.

Isn't the (or a) point of a tablet that it doesn't have a keyboard?

I have seen people place their iPad on table in a restaurant, with their wireless bluetooth keyboard and mouse, typing away like they're sitting in front of their desktop at home. So ...

The point is that everything you can do on it, you can do without a keyboard.

Apple thought that the only way to reach that point was by removing the physical keyboard, and they probably were.

Microsoft, apparently, either thinks that that 'everything' need not be everything, or thinks that, with today's user expectations and application developers, adding that keyboard will not lead to a situation where a too large part of 'tablet' apps cannot be (efficiently) used without a keyboard.

I think they may be right. The Surface may not end up being a tablet proper, but I think it can be a successful hybrid, if its price is right and if it provides so much storage that it, for non-power users, can be a desktop replacement.

I think it is obvious by now that tablets without the real keyboards are actually just the reading and entertainment devices. They are not a "serious" stuff by any means. Same goes for smart phones. So it all depends on the target market.

If we look at the landscape, we can see that we have practically adopted tablets as an add-on device over TVs. Sure we're reading conveniently without flipping hard pages but is there a significant and life changing gain? You can use your phones as a GPS so you don't get lost. Big deal. It's not like people never ensured that they have directions before heading out to unknown locations. What else have we achieved via these handheld computer devices? We can take pictures and videos so we don't have to carry additional cameras or camcorders. Is that a gain? We can ask the camera manufacturers. What else is there?

As people use tablets for more and more tasks & as tablets get more and more powerful, we'll see different input devices for them. The keyboard is just the obvious beginning of this...

That "cover" seems to me to be verging very close back to the keyboard on a normal laptop. This seems to me to be a laptop with a touch screen and floppy, rather than rigid, keyboard.

Right. I agree. I said, What about the Surface deserves credit other than the cover.

Pretty sad considering it's going to stay a secret :-D

>Windows is the de facto computing platform, and there’s nowhere else to go.

On the desktop but not on tablets. HP, Dell, Lenovo can just decide that they are going to continue shipping Windows7 on laptops and to corporates and ignore this.

MSFT can hardly tell them all it won't supply them with OEM licenses.

I suspect there will have to be a lot of pre-sales payments made to a lot of OEMs to persuade them to invest in Windows8 products.

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