Microsoft Surface a Year Later: It’s Not You, It’s Me
It’s been a year since my first tempting encounter with a Microsoft Surface tablet (MSFT) in a Microsoft store during a trip to New York. (A store that soon after was closed.) I was intrigued and hopeful during that first chance meeting. How has the past year shaped my potential interest in Microsoft’s tablet?
Let me start by saying that I would have been a great target buyer for the device. I’m a person who needs a keyboard to do productive work, something that Microsoft had planned for with its keyboard/cover combination add-on to the Surface. And although I’ve owned and liked using tablets (including Kindle Fire and the Samsung Galaxy Tab) I’ve never owned an iPad and I didn’t really want one. Maybe those are the key reasons the Surface was so interesting to me at the start. It offered a way to marry my tablet and laptop experience into a single device. No need for multiple app stores. Just one place for my desktop and tablet experience.
But the initial pricing for Surface Pro ($899 – which did not actually go on sale until Feb. 2013) and the lack of support for an Outlook client in the initial RT product that I saw at the Times Square Microsoft Store (which was the low end choice at $499) put Surface out of my range.
Microsoft has made changes over the last year, including price cuts. The person I was in December 2012 might have had her objections removed by these changes. But she no longer exists. Today I’m happy with my Samsung Note II phone and my Macbook Air. I don’t really need anything else. Plus, since I moved off a PC to a Mac, I have not missed Windows. Looking at the tiles screen that Windows 8 offers just intensifies my attention deficit disorder tendencies.
So, Microsoft, I’m a different person today. It’s not you. It’s me.
Does anyone really care?
Does anyone really care? What value to the world does an article like this provide?
It does seem like an ad.
It does seem like an ad. Though refreshing to hear Microsoft squeal.
So you would not spend 899
So you would not spend 899 for Surface pro but will spend 1200 for Macbook Air and 300 + Contract for Samsung Note 2. Not sure where is the logic that you spend more money and get two incompatible devices.
On top of it you write an article. I keep buying electronics all the time. It is sometimes windows or apple. It is not the same emotions as like breaking up with a girlfriend.
Not sure why do people need to shout or express emotionally when they did not buy a Microsoft product.
Cause people still feel cool
Cause people still feel cool hating on Microsoft.
It’s an opinion piece, jeeze.
It’s an opinion piece, jeeze. If you’re so married to the idea of a corporation being “the one” and all else trash, you need to reexamine your values.
I say this as the owner of an ipad, an iphone, a nexus 7, and two Windows PCs. At the end of the day, it’s technology that we’ll laugh at 20 years from now. Why get so defensive about it?
“Just one place for my
“Just one place for my desktop and tablet experience” – Google allows anybody to have an app store. Apple and Microsoft do not. Both markets will always exist together somehow.
I would have thought that,
I would have thought that, given your initial desired usage scenario, that you would have purchased a Surface Pro as a laptop replacement that could double as a tablet and give you unmatched productivity options. You complain about the price as the sticking point but then you spend almost double to replace your laptop and throw a tablet in to boot. I think you may have shot yourself in the foot here. The Surface Pro would have been perfect for you, saved you some serious cash, and provided a lighter laptop replacement than the one you chose while at the same time providing you with pretty handy tablet functionality (a la the digital stylus pen) when you needed it.
You’re definitely correct.
You’re definitely correct. It’s not the Surface, it’s you.
I’m not sure what you’re trying to relay with this “article”. It lacks substance from first read, but it also has no actual points of interest other than what goes on in your psyche.
You could change the words, “Surface”, “Microsoft”, “Apple”, and “PC/Mac”, to just about anything, and it would read just fine. lol
Work on identifying deeper scenarios that had an impact. I would ask right away, you say you used the Surface/Surface Pro in 2 shops? So you didn’t even have any ‘home time’ with the products? So you’ve never event owned them? You come back to say you’re not the same person you were? Is this a shrink article or a tech review? We don’t care what kind of person you are, we followed your instructions to a tech review.
Should get an award for
Should get an award for dumbest article of the year.
What a useless article. Last
What a useless article. Last time I come to this pathetic site.
Oh, good… So, no more
Oh, good… So, no more comments like that one… Excellent!
Clueless woman with 0 sense.
Clueless woman with 0 sense. Not sure how she found her way off 5th Ave.
Nice twist at the end “I’m
Nice twist at the end “I’m happy with my Samsung Note II phone and my Macbook Air” this was because you were not willing to buy $900 Surface pro but happy with over priced and costlier Mac Book Air. Why not just say you don’t want any MS product as it would make your article less silly.
an idiot
an idiot
this is quite possibly the
this is quite possibly the most pointless article ever
Thanks for sharing your
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, gentlemen.
You are correct that this was not a planned technology replacement purchase when I was looking at Surface last year. Nor was my purchase of the MacBook Air (bought on Woot for less than $1K), or the acquisition of the Note II (an upgrade gift from my husband after his phone failed. He upgraded us both.)
There was a point in time when the Surface appealed to me and what I was looking for — as Curtis Quick correctly noted. But I didn’t have $900 bucks of discretionary income at that time. And even though Microsoft has answered my concern at this point in time, I’m no longer interested. The moment has passed for me. And THAT was the point. I’m sorry if I did not spell it out clearly enough for you.
This article is not intended as a review. We do not review products on this website. If that’s what you are looking for, your beef is with someone else, not with me. This article was intended as a commentary article about consumer whims. Clearly something Microsoft was interested in capturing by putting a pop up store for Surface on Times Square in 2013.
-Jessica Davis
Managing Editor
I think some of the
I think some of the commentators above are using this thread as a reason to be unnecessarily critical. Please keep the negative dialogue out of this forum. Healthy debate is encouraged but sexism and blankets statements are not.
Apologies Ms. Davis.
It’s a blog not an article in
It’s a blog not an article in the Wall Street Journal. She gave an opinion, give her a break.
Here’s a concurring opinion
Here’s a concurring opinion by Paul Thurrott of Windows IT Pro:
“Windows is in trouble because people simply don’t care about it anymore. It’s not outright hostility; there’s far less of that than the anti-Microsoft crowd would like to believe. It’s ambivalence. It’s ambivalence driven by the nature of “good enough” mobile and web apps. It’s ambivalence driven by the allure of anytime/anywhere computing on tiny devices that are more cool to use and even cooler to be seen using.
“And make no mistake, this is a serious issue. ”
More here: http://windowsitpro.com/windows/facing-biggest-problem-windows-2014
-Jessica
I bought my wife a Surface
I bought my wife a Surface Pro 2 for Christmas to replace her laptop and iPad. The laptop was too bulky and the iPad didn’t have the productivity tools she needed. We looked at the Surface Pro last year but it wasn’t ready for prime-time so we waited. In my case, my experience was the exact opposite as yours so I’m guessing it depends on the individual and their specific needs.
First off I own a Surface Pro
First off I own a Surface Pro 2 and love the device, but this is not a religious article about device choice. Jessica’s driving point is while she was fully in the Microsoft camp and was willing to go down the Surface road with Microsoft last year, over the past year that has changed. She is now willing break away from the Microsoft vision that many in the MSP and IT spaces have tied their businesses. Her new devices are now something that her IT provider must address as she uses them to perform her work. As others see her successfully using those devices more will appear more accessing their business.
Once a consumer or business decision maker has made up their mind that an alternative is valid and a better user experience, that allows them to better perform their job, it is near impossible to hold off that change. Think Novell versus Windows NT, Blackberry versus iPhone and on premise servers versus cloud. Your position as their trusted business advisor and rational arguments about performance, security and standardization can hold off the decision, but the issue will continue to come up. The only questions that remains are can you adapt and give them a solution that meets their desires or will someone else?
Most MSPs are firmly standardized on delivering and supporting Microsoft centric solutions. The consummation of IT is going to impact the market share of the pure Microsoft SMB network. The simplification of the user interfaces in smart phones, OSX and Windows 8 all show the manufacturers driving toward this trend. Microsoft’s recent market failures with mobile, Windows 8 and the Surface launch are all accelerating this shift. Consumers have seen Microsoft fail to adapt to their needs multiple times over the last couple of years. While Microsoft is not going away, their failures in the recent years may have damaged their dominance in the market permanently.
So as we stand back and evaluate our businesses for 2014, I believe Jessica’s personal tale asks us to consider how we can better support multi-vendor networks to meet customer demand.