Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Microsoft Surface Drowning?

Posted by timothy on from the use-it-or-don't dept.

hcs_$reboot (1536101) writes Again, not much good news for the MS Surface. Computerworld reports a Microsoft's losses on the tablet device at $US1.7 billion so far. But, still, Microsoft is serene: "It's been exciting to see the response to the Surface Pro 3 from individuals and businesses alike. In fact, Surface Pro 3 sales are already outpacing prior versions of Surface Pro. The Surface business generated more than $2B in revenue for the fiscal year 2014 and $409 million in revenue during Q4 FY14 alone, the latter of which included just ten days of Intel Core i5 Surface Pro 3 sales in Canada and the US." Should Microsoft pull the plug on the tablet? Or maybe it's just a matter of users getting used to the Surface? Even if they're losing money on the Pro 3, Microsoft has seemingly little to be ashamed of when it comes to reviews of the hardware.

4 of 337 comments (clear)

  1. The problem of Microsoft by rolfc · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Hardware has never been their problem, their problem has always been their strategy that has led them wrong.

    By building products that are incompatible with others and refusing to open up Office files, they have implanted themself as the evil company in the mindset of those afffected. Those affected are those that realise that the world is always changing and want to be free to use any product.

    Those are also the people that end up makeing decisions about what products to use.

    Microsoft has "closed" them self out of the market.

    1. Re:The problem of Microsoft by CastrTroy · · Score: 5, Interesting

      And yet MS is coming up with new ways to license Windows that make it cheaper than ever to make sure people have proper Windows Licenses. They also have this which is what allows you to buy $99 refurbished (off lease) PCs and ensure that you get a proper Windows license. The last $99 refurb I bought came with such a license and also included an actual OS install CD.

      I think they have a ways to go in terms of people building their own machines, or upgrading old versions. But it's not like they are charging ridiculous amounts of money for their software.

      --

      Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
  2. Pull the plug on RT by msobkow · · Score: 5, Interesting

    If Microsoft thinks their big selling point is compatability with Windows applications, then by all means they should pull the plug on RT.

    As to the Surface Pro, I think it suffers from one big glaring flaw: it runs Windows applications.

    That means using menus, right clicks, and other such interface behaviours that are far from natural for a tablet/touch screen interface. What is needed for a successful tablet is an ecosystem of applications that are built just for tablet use. All the gestures in the world won't make it easy to right-click with one button (your finger), and let's face it: most of the useful functions of a Windows application interface are provided by the right-click menus.

    Even something so trivial as the toolbars and buttons/icons have to be upscaled for a touch interface, otherwise you get touches/clicks on the wrong interface widget. That which is easily clicked by an accurate device like a mouse or touchpad is notoriously hard to nail down with a fat finger.

    --
    I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
  3. It never goes away by dbIII · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The real problem is the cost of license compliance.

    I had some shakedown artist apparently "approved by Microsoft" hassle me about compliance last year (2013) and their evidence was a licence for NT4 purchased in 1998 which expired in 2000. Sorting out licencing shit from fifteen years ago is almost something to call in geologists to deal with.