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Microsoft, Dell Aim To Sell Surfaces To Businesses
jfruh writes: Microsoft became an OS and PC behemoth in part by relentless focus on business sales, and is partnering with old friend Dell to try to recreate that success, trying to woo companies into buying Surface Pros loaded with Windows 10. It may seem topsy-turvey that Dell would be selling someone else's hardware, but Dell is offering ancillary services, including warranties, on the Microsoft hardware.
I look forward to my new Dell cup holder!
I remember seeing a lot of private label printers and monitors in the Dell catalog over the years. They also have a history of selling Microsoft products. I recall significant catalog space for the Zune, for instance.
You can pry my desktop, keyboard, mouse, and triple monitor setup from my dead cold hands.
I don't think that the Surface is rugged enough. People are not terribly kind to business equipment that they are provided with, and consumer-spec tablets do not seem to be up to snuff.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
What with Windows 10 telemetry and the backporting of same to Windows 8/7, my firm considers this to be the straw that broke the camel's back, and we are moving from Windows on the desktop to Linux and Macs, and FreebSD on the servers. We are a very small shop, only a handful of users, so this should be quick. To be honest, we have been looking for an excuse to do this.
At work we keep getting Surface-only issues:
-Surface-Specific updates that won't stick
-BT-gadget not connecting on Surface
-Apps that works well except on Surface.
This both Surface 2 and Surface 3. WTF MS! This is supposed to be your flagship device!
I was sitting on the fence on getting one myself because they look well built until the Snoop-dates. That was the last straw for me.
At home, I'm moving on to Mint or something else.
Obama's legacy: (N)othing (S)ecure (A)nywhere and (T)error (S)imulation (A)dministration
Dump your Dell shares while there is still time.
Sent from my ASR33 using ASCII
A few weeks ago we heard from our Desktop folks that the Surface Pro is coming and will probably replace all laptop deployments in the future. I guess that will hinge on the deployment/success of WinDoze 10 (we're currently on WinDoze 7...)
Still can't push them eh....
>> in part by relentless focus on business sales
"in part"...vs...."relentless focus" - which is it?
Translation: Microsoft hopes that Dell can move the piles of unsold Surface inventory that is collecting dust.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
Sounds like a lot of incompetence where you work. We have 100 deployed and the only issue is users not understanding the space constraints. Get a real IT team.
Went laptop shopping recently. Surface Pro had an end-isle display. Walked right round, right round it without much conscious thought, other than, "no" (literally, but actually much shorter than that -- just n-).
Dude, you got a ... HP. And I "hate" HP for destroying Compaq, and killing things faster than Google, and the Clarence-killing dentist, does.
Sounds like a lot of incompetence where you work. We have 100 deployed and the only issue is users not understanding the space constraints. Get a real IT team.
Microsoft sockpuppet alert!
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
Issues with Surface 2 and Surface 3? Or issues with Surface Pro 2 and Surface Pro 3? Huge difference. The Pros are full laptop replacements, running standard Windows (x86 based, runs Win32 apps); while the non-Pros are glorified phones (ARM based, runs only WinRT apps).
I have similar problems with updates from windows update on my surface pro (1). I've had to reset the thing back to factory defaults in order to remove updates more than once. It's not you.
I was waiting for a basher as this is Slashdot and only SystemD gets more hate :-)
Surface is fine. Your IT got hit with the bad update for Windows 8.1 that was revoked. Use this troubleshooter. Your team should test more before deployment
http://saveie6.com/
Dear /., please just suspend all user accounts and hire Ashley Madison devs to write some chick bots to fill the comments section. Maybe then I can get through 2 minutes of an MS related article without the obligatory "I was going to get until they did . Well that was the last straw for me. I'm headed over to for good now!"
The Surface 3 (non-Pro) is NOT an ARM/WinRT device, it is an x86 device. It does, however, benchmark slower than the ARM based iPad Air 2.
"Good things don't end with eum, they end with mania or teria." - H. Simpson
...I take my Surface with me. On my desk...
Keyboard? Check
Mouse? Check
Surface dock? Check.
Triple monitors via Displayport hub? Checkaroonie.
I used to respect Dell. They could design, and assemble computers in the United States, and make a small profit. Their customer service used to suck. Now, they're selling someone elses' product and providing customer service. How the mighty have fallen.
Some of my coworkers got Surfaces for work recently. They are awesome when away from your desk or working somewhere where a traditional laptop would take up too much bench space. Traditional tablets are useless for serious engineering type work, but the surfaces have been great.
But... our Fortune 500 company, worried about people buying these "toys", began requiring CFO approval to purchase one. That level of approval is typically reserved for stuff over something like 10 million dollars. Needless to say unless one has some serious connections there won't be any more Surfaces showing up
Ah thanks for the clarification. I stopped following the evolution of the non-Pro line since it was decidedly not interesting to me in its WinRT form.
So they're now asking HP and Dell to sell their pathetic surface POS? Good luck with that. It's a mission with only one outcome - failure.
Then you probably should disable all the tracking telemetry bullshit and also disable automatic updates.
I think that's smashing news. Microsoft branded hardware with Microsoft software, and on top of all that you get Dell quality service. What an age we live in. Now excuse me, I have to go turn the gas on so it's ready for dinner in 4 hours.
Did they ask NEC how tablets for business worked out back in 2003?
I have a Surface Pro 3 for about a year now. It's a fantastic little device which I like a lot. But that said it does have a couple of issues unbecoming of a flagship product. A few bugs that I've noticed:
- The pen every so often goes to max sensitivity registering touches before even touching down on the screen. Remove and reinsert the battery fixes it.
- Windows gets confused with the keyboard state leading to situations where you can't log in because the keyboard is folded back but it's not displaying the on-screen keyboard. Likewise this locks the screen rotation at sometimes inopp
But the biggest and most stupid bug of them all:
- Microsoft's graphics driver for the GPU exhibits extreme banding and the screen flickers while on battery. This is fixed by forcefully installing the driver from Intel's website, but every few months Windows Update reinstalls the Microsoft driver.
In my opinion if Microsoft want to start being taken seriously as an integrated hardware/software vendor they need to start owning and fixing the bugs on their flagship product.
No, they became a dominant player with an abusive contract which said everybody had to pay Microsoft.
Yes, they focused heavily on business, and still see the world as Office and Outlook ... but let's not start pretending they got where they are by selling a product in any other way than consumers not having much of a choice.
People had to go to court for the right to buy a computer without paying Microsoft. It's easier to rake in huge piles of cash when your product is contractually obligated as part of the sale.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
I work in an IT dept supporting end-users of all types. We have 40 different models we support with some a vintage age 8 years that are running just fine. Surfaces, although, have taken the PHBs by storm. They have constituted more RMAs, support issues, causes for reimaging, and general nuisances for all IT more than all other devices combined in 15 years, even though the constitute less than 1 percent of the fleet in the last 2 years.
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