17,011 karma · joined July 31, 2010
However, knowing Google's track record with "new" products, they usually start out making them very expensive, because of stupid decisions they make (like using Intel chips). They did it with the first Chromebook, they did it with the first Google TV, with the first "real" android tablet, the Motorola Xoom, and the Nexus Q last year.
For some reason they don't seem to "get" the right price for a very new type of product, from the first time they launch it. They need like another iteration or two, before they get it, like with the ARM Samsung Chromebook, which hit the sweet spot for a low-end Chromebook at $250.
What "makes sense" to me is to do the same Chromebook now, but with a quad core A15 CPU, a bigger battery, a bigger screen and much bigger resolution, and a touchscreen. And with all of that the sweet spot should be $500. Definitely no more than that.
But again Google's track record is not great here, and I really fear they will build this with some dual core or quad core IVB chip, and make it like $800, which would be way too much for a Chromebook.
I do hope I'm wrong and they get it right though.
I also hope it's another ARM Chromebook, as I don't want it to be very expensive and with poor battery life. In fact their goal for Chromebooks should be 10h battery life, not 6h.
With a Surface RT you get no legacy app support, and it's slow. You get support for Atom ones, but they are still too slow for most legacy apps. And they are not very cheap either. At a time that even an iPad, the market leader in tablets, costs $330, these things are going for $600+ with a keyboard. They stand no chance.
As for Surface Pro, you get the speed of an ultrabook (more than a tablet, but less than a regular laptop, or a PC), but 4h of battery life, so not useful as a tablet, while only having a relatively tiny tablet screen, compared to a laptop, so I don't think you can be that productive on it. It's also too thick and heavy for a tablet.
I now think the future really is having a good, no compromises tablet, that should be very affordable, especially in the future. And a good, no compromises laptop with a large screen, that you can use for work, and you don't have to change every year, or even every 2 years.
The PC is not back, and the falling PC sales during this year will prove it.
http://www.theverge.com/2013/2/6/3958672/new-xbox-always-onl...
And there are plenty of Android devices from $50 to $150 and beyond, too. Microsoft is in no danger of "winning" Africa.
"It tries to do everything, but misses doing anything really well"
Something like the Surface Pro has a lot of compromises, starting from the schizophrenic UI, to high price, too small screen to be productive on it, low battery on it, heat, noise, fans, and so on. It's not the "best of both worlds". It's the worst of both worlds.
[1] http://www.theverge.com/2013/2/5/3955130/microsoft-surface-p...
We'll see a $30,000 model from them in 2015, and then a sub $20,000 model by 2018, with reasonable mileage. By then the country should also be covered with their solar-powered superchargers, that charge the cars for free. All of these factors should help them, and EV's in general, to become mainstream by 2020.
In regards to the author's last statement, when Tesla started pushing for Tesla Roadster I also thought they would eventually become the "GM of the new electric car industry". Tesla is the Apple of EV's, and GM is Nokia. And both incumbents were gigantic at first in their own markets, compared to the new entrants, but that quickly changed in a few years.