On Friday, in the Microsoft store there was a small crowd checking out ultrabooks (on display were half a dozen new Vizio ultrabooks -- and note that a couple of the ultrabooks were plagued by a freezing mouse cursor). A few "customers" were using available PCs to play games.
Around the corner, the Apple store was packed -- many huddled at the front of the store around the Retina MacBook Pros (the store had just sold the last one in stock when I walked in) and iPads."
The Surface Pro would be interesting if it weren't 2 pounds. People had issues with the original iPad at 1.5 pounds. It may not sound like a big difference but it's not going to be the type of device you actually hold in your hands to use for very long. If you can bear a little extra weight in your bag a regular ultrabook + cheap 7" tablet is just going to be a much better combination.
That's right. My wife has a wonderful Logitech bluetooth keyboard/cover for her iPad 3, that she hardly ever uses despite its obvious utility for word processing - for that reason. Its just a bit too heavy and she uses the Apple Smart Cover instead.
But for those few times in the office when she needs a laptop style device, e.g. conference room meetings, she takes the Logitech keyboard/cover along and it just magnetically snaps together with easy-to-type-on keys. She switches rapidly back and forth between voice dictation and the Logitech keyboard with a function key.
Of course pc sales are going to be flatter with many other options in the marketplace. I am waiting for Surface however, I will buy windows 8 PC and leap for my kids, the new generation know.
Yes, the author is seizing on the profound drama created by Microsoft appearing to bet their company on Windows 8 and its Metro UI. This bet has certain presumptions, one of which - that Windows 8 will be popular - is not yet testable.
I keep reading the word "analysts", but how trustworthy are those analysts. How do we know they are neither in microsoft's nor in Apple's pockets? Those analysts certainly wouldn't disclose their affiliations because of NDAs. So I suggest having an NLP algorithm (natural language processing) to distinguish PR trolling from trustworthy independent opinion.
On Friday, in the Microsoft store there was a small crowd checking out ultrabooks (on display were half a dozen new Vizio ultrabooks -- and note that a couple of the ultrabooks were plagued by a freezing mouse cursor). A few "customers" were using available PCs to play games. Around the corner, the Apple store was packed -- many huddled at the front of the store around the Retina MacBook Pros (the store had just sold the last one in stock when I walked in) and iPads."