Posted on 06/21/2012 9:38:39 AM PDT by Swordmaker
Last night, Microsoft introduced us to the their Microsoft branded Surface Tablet. Never have we seen such a clear line of demarcation between Apple’s and Microsoft’s visions of what a tablet should be. And at the end of the day, it is those differences in outlook that will determine the fate of each company’s respective tablet offerings.
Historical Background
For ten long years Microsoft tried to get us to use their desktop operating system on a tablet device. What we really wanted, they told us, was the brain of a desktop in the body of a tablet. Didn’t work.
In 2007, Apple introduced us to the first modern tablet to use touch – and only touch – as the user input. They called it the iPhone. Three years later, Apple introduced us to the iPad, and while the tech world sat on its collective hands, Apple proved that size really does matter – at least when it come to tablets.
Microsoft’s Tablet Vision
Now here we are just over two years later and what is Microsoft telling us with the introduction of the Surface Tablet? They’re telling us that what we really want is a keyboard so that our tablet can be used more like a notebook computer. What we really want is a pen so that our tablet can be used like a PDA. What we really want is a kickstand so that our tablet can stand more like a notebook computer. What we really want is a trackpad so our tablet can BE a notebook computer. (A trackpad on a tablet computer? Really? Just think about how redundant that is.)
The Microsoft Surface is not a touch tablet, it’s the ANTI-touch tablet. While Apple is doing everything in its power to embrace touch on the tablet, Microsoft is doing everything in its power to negate the influence of touch on the tablet. Microsoft is saying: “Sure, touch is nice, in a pinch, but what you really wanted all along is a tablet that runs like a notebook.” With the Surface, Microsoft has come full circle, back to where their tablet efforts began. But they’ve added a twist. Not only did they put the brain of a notebook in the body of a tablet but they made the tablet look and act like a notebook too.
The Lure of Everything and the Best of Both Worlds
“But wait,” you say. “Microsoft is not giving us the anti-tablet. They’re giving us a tablet AND a notebook. They’re giving us both. They’re giving us the best of both worlds.”
It’s a compelling argument. Why not do both? Why not have both a desktop and a touch OS on a tablet? Why not add a pen? Why not add a keyboard? Choice is good. Why not let the customer choose to use the device the way they see fit? Why not have it all?
Before we answer that question, ask yourself this one: Do you think for even one second that Apple – who had a two year head start on Microsoft – could not have added a kickstand, added an integrated pen or added an integrated keyboard to the iPad? Apple did not neglect to do those things…they CHOSE not to do those things. Why?
Focus and Simplicity.
“That’s been one of my mantras — focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.”-Steve Jobs
One of Steve Jobs’ greatest talents was as an editor, selecting what not to include in a product. Think of all the products that have way too many features. Now think about the iPod. The iPhone. The iPad.
“…the result of that focus is going to be some really great products where the total is much greater than the sum of the parts.”-Steve Jobs
Every iPod killer, iPhone killer and iPad killer had one thing in common – they all had more features than did their Apple counterparts. Yet they all had less success. How could this be? Simply put, simplicity may be the greatest feature of all.
“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”-Steve Jobs quoting Leonardo da Vinci
Apple realized – long before anyone else did – that touch was the key to tablet computing. Styluses and keyboards are useful, but they pull the tablet away from its essence. They’re to be used, if required, to supplement, not sustain, the tablet.
“People think focus means saying yes to the thing you’ve got to focus on. But that’s not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas…”-Steve Jobs
Diverging Philosophies
Now, more than ever, we can see how differently Apple and Microsoft view tablets. Apple thinks less is more. Microsoft thinks more is more. Apple thinks “both” is the enemy of focus. Microsoft thinks “both” is the best of all worlds. Apple thinks that simplicity is the key to everything. Microsoft thinks that having everything is the key to success.
Apple’s philosophy is clear. The iPad is a touch device. It excels at doing the things that tablets are excellent at doing. If you want the benefits of a computer, buy a computer. Preferably one of ours.
“…we have a vision for the tablet. It’s a tablet that works and plays the way you want to. A tablet that’s a great PC. A PC that’s a great tablet. Surface.”-Steven Sinofsky, introducing the Windows Surface Tablet
Microsoft’s philosophy is also clear. The tablet is a PC. The PC is a tablet. If you want a PC that functions as a tablet, buy the Surface. If you want a tablet that functions as a PC, buy a Surface. Heck, we’ll make this easy for you to understand: Buy a Surface.
There Can Be Only One
To paraphrase that great philosopher, Sesame Street:
One of these things is not like the other,
One of these things just doesn’t belong,
Can you tell which of these won’t work like the others
Which is right and which is wrong?
Was Steve Jobs and Apple right about the what’s important in a tablet or will Steve Balmer and Microsoft’s vision prove to be the more perceptive of the two?
I’ll tell you this much – we’re about to find out.
I bought a transformer last year, and it is almost the perfect gadget. It hits almost every check box that the surface does and has been doing it since last spring.
In fact Swiss Army Knives are practically useless, unless you need to use those tiny scissors to cut a sewing thread. They are hard on pockets as well. If you need a knife get a knife. You can't really break out of jail and send secret messages that you have made using the cork screw, of awl, or saw or.......
These threads are pretty useless for actual information because they attract so may haters that nothing useful ever gets heard. It is a free market, buy what ever you want.
Do try to keep up koik, Apple cut the cord already.
I have a 16 core MacPro mounted on my hoveround along with a LCD screen and a little cart to carry my Gasoline powered generator that I use when the Sun is not sufficient to provide enough power from my solar panels. I take it all with me just like you can with your surface.just kiddin
Yeah I know the whole internet meme about “if it isnt for sale right now then we will call it vaporware”.
It’s a silly conclusion to make. Microsoft didnt go through all of this to just say “meh. We decided to do something else. Nevermind”.
They announced the product. They said they are going to do it. It isnt like this is some garage outfit looking for Kickstarter funding.
And yes I get because it is Microsoft, the supposed “cool”thing to do is to $hit all over it just because.
Sure you have an iPad... or you just haven't bothered to learn how to use it. I have absolutely no problem putting the cursor into a word right where I want and I have very large hand. Teach your iPad your email name... Simple. And lock your rotation when your reading. And what are you filing???
What the heck is an iPad 4gs, any way. There is no such product.
That was to avoid an antitrust suit, and was as nonvoting stock. They also paid an undisclosed amount to Apple for theft, and promised to continue Office on the Mac for 5 years.
This was the very nefarious method of killing off competition. Announce that you would be releasing a like product and the It guys would always hold of for the compatible version, the other product would go broke and sell for a song to none other than M$.
That is NOT TRUE! Microsoft bought $150 million in non-voting, preferred Apple Stock as part of a patent and copyright infringement lawsuit settlement with Apple which essentially Microsoft lost! In addition to PAYING Apple the $150 million for infringing Apple's intellectual property in the past (which Steve Jobs allowed them to save face by purchasing a piece of paper), MS also agreed to license the patents and copyrights they had infringed for five years for an undisclosed future payment schedule (now estimated at over $2 billion), license TO Apple in perpetuity, for the life of certain undisclosed those copyrights and patents TO Apple at NO COST, and continue development and marketing Microsoft Office for Macintosh for a period of five years! On Apple's part, they merely had to agree to accept the $150 million in exchange for a 25¢ piece of paper, license the disputed software for lots of royalty money, and agree to bundle MS Internet Explorer along with Netscape Navigator as a supported browser with all new Macs!
You know, bigtoona, I do get tired of shooting down this myth; I've posted these facts dozens of times on FR in the past. The three interlocking agreements that outline what just told you are available on the Internet. It's common knowledge. It was NOT a bailout. Apple was not near bankruptcy. Apple had over $2 billion in liquid assets and was in the black with two quarters of profits at the time of the cash infusion from the preferred stock purchase
I've heard that. Strangely, it's never interfered with my using one.
Why would you expect a mouse to work when there is no pointer to move? There is a different paradigm! Your FINGER is the pointer, not a pointer metaphor for your finger! What exactly on a touch screen device are you going to move with your mouse? The screen? Uh, uh. There is no cursor to move.
> Why would you expect a mouse to work when there is no pointer to move? There is a different paradigm! Your FINGER is the pointer, not a pointer metaphor for your finger! What exactly on a touch screen device are you going to move with your mouse? The screen? Uh, uh. There is no cursor to move.
Now that right there is funny!
I did the same damn thing as P.B. after I got my iPad -- I tried every BlueTooth thingie I had around, to see which ones would work. It took me quite a while to give up on the mouse, and when I realized exactly what you said (Swordmaker) I just started laughing and laughing at myself... even the cats were amused and it takes a lot to amuse these cats.
Nope. To give flexibility, they've added complexity. Jobs realized a simple truth: A bazillion years of evolution (or God's design, if you wish) have us trusting our fingers as our primary method to interact with our environment. Nothing is more direct and intuitive. Nothing. Jobs, in ultimate simplicity, removed everything between the finger and what you're interacting with, and optimized the UI for that finger interaction. That was the reason for success.
Not only that it is designed to work seamlessly with a Windows 8 desktop, laptop, HTPC, or Xbox.
Nothing works more seamlessly together than Apple products. Microsoft is getting better though.
I could either choose that or something running a mobile phone OS that you can plug only stuff into it that uses a proprietary jack instead of USB
Actually, it's the desktop OS customized for the mobile environment. Question: Does a USB jack carry audio line out and audio line in? Does it carry composite and component video out? Does it carry Firewire (and if you don't care about the datarates, Firewire carries a lot more power). The dock connector even has a couple multi-function pins to deal with various accessories. Oh yeah, and it carries USB.
So, no, the USB connector isn't the answer to everything. If you want to carry video on a non-Apple device, you need to add yet another port to your device (that you're trying to make as slim and inexpensive to produce as possible) or try to find some way of sending it over USB. Apple, you just make a dongle that puts the right wires in the right place for those times that you do need video. If you have a dock or hands-free unit, you don't need to plug in the audio to the mic jack and the power to the USB jack.
You just plug it in. It just works. The magic of Apple, brought to you by simplicity.
Probably because you own none of the above?
This was all in my imagination.
But the iPad will not work with the Magic Mouse out of the box, simply because the UI isn't designed for it -- no mouse cursor for example. However, somebody did hack the cursor feature into a jailbroken iPad, and the Magic Mouse works.
That was non-voting stock purchased as a settlement because Microsoft was on the losing-end of a lawsuit. Apple had far more money than that in the bank at the time.
That's not to say Apple hasn't made any mistakes, even under Jobs.
Or, even better, go to Settings, General, “Use Side Switch to:” and set it to Lock Rotation instead of Mute. Then slide the switch whenever you want to lock it. Unlock, rotate, lock again to lock in another mode.
The lock option is no longer in the slide trick Pikachu mentioned, but you can use that for mute instead of the hardware slider when you set it to lock rotation.
Press over the text, hold, you will get a magnifying glass, and move your finger to finely position the cursor. Doing this will also auto-bracket text you might want to copy. You can hold and drag the blue dots to change the selected text. It will ask you what you want to do when you let up.
And a file system, how about a file system?
Even Microsoft realized the hierarchical user presentation of file systems was outdated years ago. Unfortunately, their effort to overhaul it on the desktop kind of fizzled. With all modern tablets and phones, the file system has been abstracted differently. You now just concentrate on your documents. The good-old file system is still there though, you just don't see it in the old hierarchical presentation.
Exactly. I think some folks like to hate Apple just because. I know that Jobs and his approach mad some feel uncomfortable so they use an inferior product line just for spite. I laugh because I use Apple precisely because it is the product that lasts and lasts. It is the true example of value-—price is not indicate of overall cost.
Poor Apple - can’t they ever do anything right? ;-)
For what, a paper weight?
This is a knife.
This is a novelty toy.
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