Surface 2 / Surface RT


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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9somrcpcuF4

 

just came across this video,

till i saw that, i was a cynic based on the reviews on tech sites.. but after i saw that, i think Surface RT isnt as bad as it is made it out to be :/ and infact, in a few areas much better than iPad any Android tablet.

 

i wonder why Surface RT / Windows RT has low sales and eveyone seems to be abandoning it :/

 

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you kinda answered your own question there. the tech blogosphere is infamously biased against anything MS does.

 

Not really. The Xbox 360 was loved by many and Windows 7 and Office 2010 were well liked,

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Not really. The Xbox 360 was loved by many and Windows 7 and Office 2010 were well liked,

 

It's only until MS tries to do something new that a group of people toss a fit.   Anyways, that's a different matter altogether.

 

As far as Windows RT and the Surface RT, sales lacked because of a few things, one at the time v8.0 of the OS wasn't good enough for a pure tablet device like the Surface.  You had to go into the desktop for quite a number of things and once people had to do that the experience drops because the desktop UI just doesn't work for touch only input.   Second the core apps that came with 8.0 lacked a lot, just plain bad v1.0 apps.   Now though with 8.1 the core apps have seen vast improvements, though some still need work, Xbox Music is still lagging, others have become very good IMO.  Like the new mail app that comes with RTM.   Also the store has more apps now and they're getting better overall.

 

The last thing is still the price, but MS is in a tough spot here, they can't price too low or the OEMs will toss a fit.  At $450 for the base Surface 2 it is a bit hard to sell but with everything updated I think it's possible that it will sell fine compared to the first.   I don't expect any massive number but as long as they don't make way too many again and only as many as they need to then there's no problem.  From MS' point of view if they sell another million Surface 2s and a million Surface Pro 2s then they're fine, specially at these prices because I'm sure they've got some good margins going there.

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Surface 2 / RT hardware is excellent.  Windows 8.1 is better than 8.0 and the built-in Modern apps are geting better.  And you get Microsoft Office for free!

 

The remaining problem is the lack of good apps, more so in games, in the Store.  I know you can replace some apps with real website using IE, a bonus you can't do with iOS or Android.

 

Still, even if you remove all the crap, there is more apps on iOS or Android.  I could list many apps/games that I have on my iPad that I can't find in the Microsoft Store.

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Surface 2 / RT hardware is excellent.  Windows 8.1 is better than 8.0 and the built-in Modern apps are geting better.  And you get Microsoft Office for free!

 

The remaining problem is the lack of good apps, more so in games, in the Store.  I know you can replace some apps with real website using IE, a bonus you can't do with iOS or Android.

 

Still, even if you remove all the crap, there is more apps on iOS or Android.  I could list many apps/games that I have on my iPad that I can't find in the Microsoft Store.

 

Windows Phone has gained parity on pretty much all of the big name apps. I expect Windows 8 to get to that point soon.

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Not really. The Xbox 360 was loved by many and Windows 7 and Office 2010 were well liked,

 

When they release a good product they get good reviews, when they release a bad product they get bad reviews.

 

Some people just can't accept any criticism of anything Microsoft does so they come up with pathetic excuses to explain it.

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I love my surface RT, sure it can't run desktop apps, but then again, I don't *want* or need it to, I have a full featured laptop should I need an x64 application. The Surface RT makes for a nice, and light travel companion, and it's a godsend to use in the classroom.

 

I asked this question on one of John Callaham's articles the other day, and I'll ask it again: What consumer is setting out to run desktop applications on a tablet? Yes, Windows RT has the desktop, but it doesn't take much to realize it's a legacy component. Further development will fix that, but that takes time. The only ones making a big deal out of this are tech bloggers, who seem to think that they should be allowed this kind of kludgy-ness, but why? Can anyone please tell me why Windows tablets need kludgy desktop apps?

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The Surface RT does have a few plus points, If all you do is browse the internet and check email then it could be perfect for you, plus you have the benefit of Microsoft Office included for free which is really nice i admit.

However i still think the problem is its lacking app wise both for power users and normal users, with the quality off apps on the iPad and Android people expect to be able to use the latest apps, e.g. Instagram, a version of Facebook designed for touch and so on, or even just the latest tablet / phone game that has gone viral.

Having just had a look at the Windows 8.1 store now i'm greeted with absolute trash the second i click on it:
 
y1fk.jpg

In my personal opinion the majority of apps and "meh" at best, i think apart from a select group of people the Surface RT is just too limiting and doesn't have the brand recognition like the iPad does. In its current state it's not really for me, i don't really need a tablet. However hybrid devices like the surface pro have a lot of potential. The best of a laptop with the convenience of touch screen tablet apps.

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Windows 8.1 and the update to WinRT that it brings with it will improve the app landscape in time.  4k new APIs for developers to use should bring a good jump in the functionality of apps in general.

 

WP has better apps and games compared to Windows 8/RT because it's been in the market for almost 4 years now (in November I think it'll be 4yo), while the Windows Store is in it's first year.  If you could go back and see where WP was in it's first year it didn't have much going either app/game wise.   The same is said for iOS and Android, app stores just take time to build and bring quality.

 

That said, they should work on letting us run WP apps in Windows RT at least on our tablets, probably in a 1/3rd snapped view or scaled to full screen if they look good.   I expect it to happen but I don't know when, could be by this time next year or in 2015 with the 8.2 updates.

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the biggest issue with reviews of new products like this is mainly the people doing the reviews are not qualified to review a product like this. they are mainstream people that usually do not have a tech background and they are going to compare it to a non like device. which is a huge problem.

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