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Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer: Forget the iPad, Surface Is the Tablet People Want

Posted by samzenpus on from the flame-on dept.

zacharye writes "Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer undoubtedly knows that Apple has sold more than 100 million iPad tablets at this point, but according to the outspoken executive, that's not the tablet people really want. While speaking with CNBC, Ballmer said no company has built a tablet he believes customers want. 'You can go through the products from all those guys and none of them has a product that you can really use. Not Apple. Not Google. Not Amazon. Nobody has a product that lets you work and play that can be your tablet and your PC. Not at any price point,' he says."

4 of 403 comments (clear)

  1. Re:First impressions on Surface by Idimmu+Xul · · Score: 5, Informative

    You can't do extensive photo editing or programming on an iPad either.

    I just spent 6 weeks travelling with an iPad and the only thing it was really useful for was uploading photos I'd taken to and using it as a nice display to present the images to people I met. I did manage to edit up a video in iMovie to a reasonable degree though.

    What *killed* it for me was the crappy keyboard and the limitations of IOS. I had to download an app in order to download and play freely available, legal MP3s off Soundcloud.

    For my next trip I'm going to get a Mac Air I think, hardware wise the Surface looks exactly like it's what I want to be honest, but I'd miss OS X.

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  2. Returning surface by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    I was excited to get my surface on Friday. By Sunday I decided to return it. I found it to be a compromise both as a tablet and a laptop. Many ui items are too small and I did not like the transitions from tablet ui to laptop ui and back again. I love the custom tiles of the start screen, unfortunately I found it to be all downhill from there.

  3. Re:Does it have a pressure sensitive, 200+dpi styl by Bill,+Shooter+of+Bul · · Score: 4, Informative

    Galaxy Note 10.1 It has 1,024 degrees of pressure and palm/heel rejection.

    http://www.engadget.com/2012/08/15/samsung-galaxy-note-10-1-review/

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  4. Re:First impressions on Surface by blind+biker · · Score: 4, Informative

    I've seen how apps are sideloaded on a Windows RT tablet, and it's ugly - it's just one step removed from being rooting the device. It's such a hack that it looks like MS is going to plug it ASAP.

    And, as you said yourself, even MS is saying that sideloading apps isn't possible, which signals their actual intentions on the issue.

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