The low end laptop is dead just because it was fitted with low margin high volume parts. There was almost no point in making them because they were anemically slow and X86 at the time didn't have low power chipsets yet. Fast forward to now after Intel has basically become the king of node shrinking and we have x86 chips that give ARM chips a run for their money in terms of performance and power consumption. Honestly consumers never really wanted the netbook. It did it's job but it was anemically built and was not worth continuing. But now with battery life on the rise x86 tablets can pull their own weight. In fairness, it isn't quality, but packaging and accessibility. It's what made apple apple, their idiotproof nature.
As somebody who had to support tablets from the first generation through to the present Nexxo has hit the nail squarely on the head. The idea was always a good one but the hardware was not ready for it and the MS always tried to use the same OS layout on everything from desktops, tablets, PDA's and phones.
Does anyone know where the pen for the Surface Pro lives when you aren't using it? Is there a slot or will I just lose it?
Everything I read and hear online about the surface RT is that it is a really good tablet. Its just that hardly anyone is using it. I admit to liking the windows phone 7 & 8 interface as well as the metro interface but only on touch devices I think it is not suited to windows 8's desktop. However that may just be me showing my age. Considering the amount MS has invested in the device in PR i can not see it going the way of the Playbook. However, MS is very unpredictable when it comes to EOL'ing products, theres been a few they have killed rather early in the products life cycle, One of the pre windows phone 7 devices comes to mind as does the HD Zune's. This time round I think they have invested too much money and energy trying to tie in the phone, tablet and desktop device interfaces that they can not let it fail, as it will have implications across their whole product range. The things that really put me off is the price of the Pro line of surface and the current lack of Apps. But then this is a device for early adopters/hipsters (who all seem to be using Windows phones these day - at least near me), give it a year or until V2 then it will be established enough. On a side note, this hack is VERY interesting for Surface RT owners. It would allow you to side load apps that are not from the marketplace. If someone could port wireshark, Putty and the like over to Windows RT then it would be a better device. Oh. And the Ubuntu Arm port. That would own on the surface RT tablets, and make me buy one without thinking, especially if it was along the line of the ubuntu for phones project as that is where I see the future of converged devices going, albeit in a Google Glass format.
Nexxo, you've mentioned how the Surface has provided what appears to be a good complement to your desktop setup, particularly due to how well all of your data is integrated between the two platforms. I'm curious if you plan to continue using the iPhone, or if you're considering a Microsoft/Android offering in the furutre. Right now I have a Macbook Pro and Windows 7 PC for work, a Windows XP PC at home (soon to be Windows 8), an iPhone, and a Nexus 7 tablet. Although I currently have no problem in the organizational aspect of my life - Dropbox and external hard drives make data sharing easy for me - I find that I'm enjoying the ease of use and customizability of my Nexus over the iPhone. As such, I'm looking at an Android phone the next time I upgrade. I'm curious about your thoughts on how you'll manage the operating system diversity.
That looks good, have some rep. But can it use my usb to RS232? That would be the deal breaker right there.
I'll be going Android or WP8 next. Android for one allows me to tether my Surface without jailbreaking or paying my network provider extra, while iPhone does not. It also is growing into a really mature, coherent OS. I really like WP8 but it feels like it needs to mature a bit more.
Nexxo I have a Lumia 920 and its fantastic and it has internet sharing so you can teather it to your Surface, apps are good and alot of the popular Android apps are comming to WP8 slowly. My phone before the Lumia was a HTC HD7 and I had that from 2 months after WP7 came out and I have to say that WP may still be behind the Iphone and Android but if WP8 grows and Microsoft devlops it at the same rate as they did with WP7 it wont be long before theres nothing between them.
That is an interesting observation. I work in a University and i'm seeing a lot of the students with Windows phones now.
Here's hoping. I really like WP8 (although I also have a soft spot for Android). Number of apps available does not really bother me as I rarely use them. I don't Facebook; I just follow Twitter for info (but never tweet myself). And for most things not phone related, the Surface RT is now my go-to device.
Currently have a W7 phone, and will be looking to get a W8 phone as my next (or maybe W9 or whatever). More and more of my friends are switching to Windows, and my brother is looking to W8 for his next phone (or W7) since his broke.
I hope microsoft keep to a 2 yeas cycle on Win Phone as it fits nicely with a 24month contract but I have a feeling they might stick with WP8 untill Windows 9 comes out and then bring WP9with it but who knows. I do like the wireless charging on my 920 I got mu charging plate free from Nokia as I got my phone on the first day and its realy good I leave my phone in its case put it on the plate and it charges faster than pluging it in. I dont use apps that often I have alot installed but never realy use them. I do like having Xbox games on it and they can cost abit but I had to get Final Fantisy 1 I think it cost £5.49 but so worth it. I am hoping they bring over the WP8 xbox games to Surface RT because I do want a tablet but realy surface costs to much for me as it will just be used for lite gaming and going on the internet but if I can have all my WP games on RT then the £50 or so I have spent on WP games over 2 years wwont be waisted.
if they dont upgrade the software for 2 years its DOA as it will be so far behind the competition by that stage that they may as well give up. It must follow a yearly update cycle this applies for both the phone and tablets. Surface RT id guess will see an update to the surface 2 around Oct this year and if nokia still exists we will see a lumia 1020 whatever they call it around the same time. As well as Windows blue for desktop owners ( effectively windows 8 first service pack but it will cost money similar to how apple does the OSX stuff) Id expect windows 9 around 2015 2016 depending on how well windows 8 sells ( not very well at the moment but theres time) Lumia 920 must be updated this year as must the Surface RT. Theres a few people on here who have a phone and one of them long wants to sell his already as his words are its a broken piece of junk. But he does not want to take the already considerable hit. As you can guarentee there 2 biggest rivals are planning upgrades to there big sellers. Ipad 5 Iphone whatever SG4 SG Note 3
