What do you folks think of the MS Surface announcement?

[Sebastian Kügler]

Hey,

On Tuesday, June 19, 2012 04:03:48 Chris Russell wrote:
> It's hard to imagine Microsoft's OEM partners being thrilled with the 
> company's Surface tablet announcement yesterday. It seems like the move 
> is likely to accelerate adoption of Android and may present opportunity 
> for Plasma Active? What do you folks think?

I haven't fully grasped what it's about, but as far as I understand, it's 
pretty much what's to be expected.

The real question wether it's any good is in the details: How much of a 
device's identity (and virtues) are still visible in the interface. The main 
critics Win8 and Metro get is that it dumbs down the desktop (also holds true 
for apps, btw). I don't see this addressed with Surface, but it might all work 
out, who knows?

Another big question mark is wether consumers actually want something like 
this (and if they want it from Microsoft -- not a given if we look at 
Winphone7's sales so far). 
I personally think it has some merits, but Microsoft has a history of screwing 
up good ideas, so we'll have to see how it pans out.

The hardware looks pretty neat, though I wonder about pricing and battery life 
(especially for their x86 version).

Maybe it gives people a better understanding of device spectrum topics, that's 
actually something I hope.

Cheers,
-- 
sebas

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