Originally Posted by
cordelli
A roundup of some of the reviews gathered by Reuters
(Reuters) - Tech bloggers and other reviewers praised Microsoft Corp's new Surface RT tablet for beautiful design but said a shortage of applications and a slow operating system meant the result was heartbreak for users.
Microsoft begins selling the Surface on Friday, joining the fight in a tablet market dominated by Apple Inc's iPads and devices using Google Inc's Android system.
Reviewers given the product early to play with it said its first version paled in comparison with the iPad.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/...89N10E20121024
with links to many full reviews with headlines like
Microsoft Surface RT Review: This Is Technological Heartbreak
Don’t Call The New Microsoft Surface RT A Tablet, This Is A PC
Microsoft Surface RT: Impressive piece of engineering
I pre-ordered a Surface, which should be here tomorrow. I have also made a point to read every review I could find.
You are painting a very negative picture of this tablet that does not jive with reality. Actually, virtually all of your posts to this thread have been very negative towards the device.
On the other hand, Microsoft apparently ordered 5 million Surfaces for release day, and sold out within a day on their website. So much for "nobody is going to buy it".
It is not designed to be a direct competitor to the iPad. I have an iPad2 and an iPad3. They are good devices, but have limitations. The biggest one is that the lack of sufficient interface hampers their use as real business devices. I was in NYC last week and it was frustrating when I had to go online and change a flight, edit a spreadsheet, transfer some files to/from my office, etc. Poking around with a finger and no right-click and a very simplified interface is great for web browsing and watching movies, but not good at all for "real work".
The surface is designed to address that niche through a more robust OS and a keyboard. It is not the same price as the iPad because the 32GB WiFi iPad without keyboard sells for $599. The same Surface sells for $499.
The vast majority of those who actually know what they are talking about (i.e. who have used the device) seem to really like it - with the complaints being the touch keypad being finicky, and Windows RT having some quirks. And the big one is the lack of apps. There is no way to address that other than time. I dealt with it with my iPhone, my Android phone, my iPad and it will be no different with the Surface. I wager that ever day, dozens of new apps will come along.
We'll see how it performs when it shows up tomorrow. But it's clear to me that Microsoft has *already* exceeded both their and pretty much every detractors expectations by selling out within a matter of a day or so... and that was after dramatically increasing the # of devices they initially built.