
Microsoft's cheapest Surface tablet won't cost $1K after all - zacharye
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-57481272-1/microsofts-cheapest-surface-tablet-wont-cost-$1k-after-all/
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Karunamon
Below $1k was a given anyways. Microsoft has said repeatedly that it would be
competitively priced with the iPad.

$1,000 for a new and unknown tablet is anything but competitive.

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mc32
I'm not sure that was a given for me.

I would pay that for a tablet that did more than surf the web and play video
and games. So, yes, if it was only going to match the capabilities of an iPad
but have a different (Metro) interface, then yes, it would have to be priced
on par with the iPad. But if it does more and integrates with the enterprise,
I think 1,000 is not uncompetitive, given the possible advantages.

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wklauss
You could argue that the iPad does much more than surf the web and play
videogames. It's a matter of how you use it and how well is integrated in your
workflow.

I know plenty of medical staff who are receiving training now to use iPads as
the sole computing device in the hospital, for example. Same for a lot of
financial companies.

Microsoft is trying to sell the idea that you can have the best of both worlds
(traditional PCs and tablets) without sacrifices but its simply not true.
Something's gotta give. In the case of Surface I expect a lot of frustration
trying to use a standard windows app on a small touchscreen. And if you are
going to connect the device to an external monitor, keyboard and mouse, you
might as well have a small desktop PC.

this is not new, either. Microsoft has tried time and again, first with
TabeltPCs, then the overhyped UMPCs (remember those?) and its always hitting
the same walls.

If you are going to do a big change in the paradigm you have to have the balls
to do it completely and take the advantages that switching to a "pure" tablet
experience can offer. Leave bloated software behind, leave all the legacy
support, etc...

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freehunter
_In the case of Surface I expect a lot of frustration trying to use a standard
windows app on a small touchscreen. And if you are going to connect the device
to an external monitor, keyboard and mouse, you might as well have a small
desktop PC_

So don't buy the x86 version. The ARM version doesn't have the desktop, so
there's no complaining about how you foolishly installed non-touch apps and
now you can't use them easily.

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easp
Well then, you really aren't getting the best of both worlds, are you. Might
as well by an iPad.

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freehunter
_Might as well by an iPad_

Unless an iPad isn't what you want. There are other selling points for a
Windows 8 tablet than "runs desktop apps that you won't like using". That was
the selling point for Windows XP and 7 tablets.

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jsz0
The Surface Pro is really undercut by the existence of the Nexus 7 or the
rumored 8" iPad. Not because they are in direct competition but because a
cheap tablet makes owning both types of device realistic. You would barely
even notice the nexus 7 in your bag and it doesn't weigh 2lbs when you're
holding it.

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rbanffy
I think Microsoft is betting on you having a sudden urge to run Office on your
tablet. Or Visual Studio (something I find _very_ unlikely to be a satisfying
experience.

If the Surface Pro sells for more than an iPad and a reasonable laptop (which
you can have for US$400), I cannot imagine an excuse to have one device that's
good at neither role instead of two, each one good on its own thing. It's not
like it'll make much of a difference in my backpack.

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ladzoppelin
Well the fact that people use the ipad with keyboard and mouse tell me that
people want to be able to run other things on their device besides just touch
apps. I think being able to run Sublime 2 or Ableton Live from a tablet would
be amazing and worth the higher device price.

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rbanffy
How many people actually do it? Is it worth developing a product just for this
niche?

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modarts
It would be absolute suicide for Microsoft to release the Surface for anything
north of 800$ (for the WinRT only version at least)

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rbanffy
Anything north of an iPad is suicide. If you had the choice of picking up a
proven, popular tablet versus a more expensive, unproven, brand-new, version
1.0 tablet, which one would it be? ARM-based tablets are already unable to run
current Windows software - there is no software-base advantage there as we had
with Windows versus its competition over time.

If it goes beyond iPad plus Nexus 7, it's certain, HP WebOS-style, doom. Not
even funny.

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xutopia
TLDR: It won't cost that much but we really don't know how much it will cost.

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kryptiskt
This isn't even unusual, Swedish web retailers tend to put a price on pre-
orders that can't possibly be exceeded when it goes on sale.

Even if a Swedish price was real, it says nothing about what it will retail
for in the US, we both have a high VAT and tend to get gouged in the currency
translation by the seller.

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drivebyacct2
How on earth does anyone believe this kind of nonsense?

