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Microsoft Now Has the Best Device Lineup in the Industry (char.gd)
An anonymous reader shares commentary on the new devices Microsoft unveiled Tuesday: At a low-key event held in a New York City warehouse, Microsoft unveiled its next iterations in the Surface lineup. Sitting in the audience, I saw the most coherent device strategy in the industry, from a company that's slowly built a hardware business from the ground up. The company took just an hour to unveil sweeping updates to its existing hardware, and what's clear after the dust has settled is that Microsoft's hardware division is a force to be reckoned with. Apple's dominance on the high-end laptop space looks shakier than ever, because Microsoft's story is incredibly compelling. Rather than building out a confusing, incompatible array of devices, Microsoft has taken the time to build a consistent, clear portfolio that has something to fit everyone across the board.
[...] What's interesting about this is the Surface hardware is now incredibly consistent across the board, making it dead simple for consumers to choose a device they like. Each device offers high quality industrial design, with consistent input methods regardless of form factor, and a tight software story to boot. That matters. Every single one of these machines has a touchscreen, supports a high-quality stylus, and current generation chipsets. The only question is which device fits your lifestyle, and whether or not you want the faster model. The peripherals work across every machine, and Microsoft has clearly gone to lengths with Timeline and Your Phone to make the software as seamless as you'd expect in 2018. Microsoft, it seems, has removed all of the barriers to remaining in your 'flow.' Surface is designed to adapt to the mode you want to be in, and just let you do it well. Getting shit done doesn't require switching device or changing mode, you can just pull off the keyboard, or grab your pen and the very same machine adapts to you. It took years to get here, but Microsoft has nailed it. By comparison, the competition is flailing around arguing about whether or not touchscreens have a place on laptops. The answer? Just let people choose.
[...] What's interesting about this is the Surface hardware is now incredibly consistent across the board, making it dead simple for consumers to choose a device they like. Each device offers high quality industrial design, with consistent input methods regardless of form factor, and a tight software story to boot. That matters. Every single one of these machines has a touchscreen, supports a high-quality stylus, and current generation chipsets. The only question is which device fits your lifestyle, and whether or not you want the faster model. The peripherals work across every machine, and Microsoft has clearly gone to lengths with Timeline and Your Phone to make the software as seamless as you'd expect in 2018. Microsoft, it seems, has removed all of the barriers to remaining in your 'flow.' Surface is designed to adapt to the mode you want to be in, and just let you do it well. Getting shit done doesn't require switching device or changing mode, you can just pull off the keyboard, or grab your pen and the very same machine adapts to you. It took years to get here, but Microsoft has nailed it. By comparison, the competition is flailing around arguing about whether or not touchscreens have a place on laptops. The answer? Just let people choose.
Does not seem legit.
What a hilarious headline. Microsoft isn't selling any of the Surface stuff. They are shipping it, but it isn't selling. They keep coming out with new model lines and price points, but it isn't working. How desperate are they to convince us? Really pathetic.
Define "best" -- it's hardly the most rugged, repairable, or upgradeable hardware. It's designed to become e-waste when the glued-in internal battery dies, while I'm typing this on a 6 year old laptop that's modular.
Stop using weight as an argument -- you're talking maybe 0.5lb difference between a glued-shut Surface with keyboard and a relative modular Thinkpad or Dell ultralight.
...kind of marketing drivel is this?
My wife's Surface Pro has a weird screen ghosting issue that is apparently hardware-related and M$ has written off everyone with this issue. Give them 5 more years in the hardware industry (and a couple products that are actually bug-free) before giving them your money.
I am not in their target audience, and I'll say why.
First, the layout of windows 10 / windows server 12 (and newer) is, IMHO, a total disjointed eye-gouging mess. It borders on unusable. The interface consistently gets in my way when I want to do things that were very simple in earlier versions of windows (for example starting a command prompt). The default color scheme is so awful it could well be a violation of the Geneva Convention.
Second, their obsession with touchscreens is great for people who don't actually do any real work. Oddly enough I do actual work with my computers, and I find touchscreens to be maddening devices. Why do I want fingerprint smears all over my screen? On top of that a touchscreen is more an impediment to actual work than a tool for it; this mirrors well with my observations that when people are using touchscreens on a laptop they almost without exception are goofing off; they go back to an actual pointing device for actual work.
Third, touchpads are garbage. The Apple touchpad is almost a valid pointing device but only just. Microsoft doesn't want to sell anything with a useful pointing device; users respond by buying mice to use with their Microsoft laptops and tablets.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
Don't all of these devices run Windows?
Unless I have some sort of weird sole-source agreement from a vendor, if the various devices all run the same operating system, why does it really matter which vendor the hardware comes from? Wasn't that in large part why Windows became such a domineering player in the personal computer market in the first place?
If Microsoft or any other commodity-OS vendor had some sort of peripheral expansion system that was unique and cross-compatible across the entire line but incompatible with other manufacturers then I could possibly see having such a wide lineup being useful, but we appear to be well past the era of ubiquitous proprietary docking stations or port/peripheral expansion modules. Even when we were in that era though, it's not like a given vendor had all of their devices use that dock, usually only a fairly small subset in a given series used a particular dock, so different laptop lines would have different docks even with one vendor.
I've seen the headaches associated with repairing particular models of Lenovo like the Thinkpad Helix lineup, no way would I go with a single hardware vendor as a lock-in beyond the particular model for a particular contract. Especially when apparently the Surface series are now even worse than those Helixes are to repair.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
It's turning into a real MS fanboi site.
Regardless of how well put together the line up is, I refuse to surrender to Windows 10 - I don't like how Microsoft is moving everything to a monthly pay model and I'm very uncomfortable with them having access to my systems.
Mimetics Inc. Twitter
Obvious paid ad aside, the writeup is self-contradictory.
"Every single one of these machines has a touchscreen..."
"By comparison, the competition is flailing around arguing about whether or not touchscreens have a place on laptops. The answer? Just let people choose."
So with the Slashdot/Microsoft laptops, do I get to choose whether I want a touchscreen? Sure sounds like I don't.
This isn't anonymous. This is transparently scarcely-rewrapped ad copy. It's even loaded with buzzwords and talking points. Won't interrupt your "flow", whatever it is, touch screen or mouse? Competition is flailing around. "Compelling", etc.
Just as Microsoft did to IBM, so it has been having done to it by Apple and Google. It is still fat, relying on market dominance in Windows to play me too in all the latest hit products like smart phones.
People want touch screens for surfing at home and starting Netflix, and a keyboard and mouse for business use. Which doesn't need a touch screen for surfing and starting Netflix.
Hence the confused ad copy in the posting.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
Even if you limit yourself to Windows, these are not the best devices.
We've got a number of users in our department who have purchased Microsoft devices - Surfaces, Surface Books, etc. The recent ones do look sleek, I'll give them that - but they seem to frequently run into lots of nagging problems.
#DeleteChrome
I checked "disable ads", and yet this article still appears. /vertisement
If they were smart...all the major hardware vendors would get together and form a common group, to pic one distro of Linux and custom comform it to be user friendly and work on their hardware in a very common way.
They could bypass the MS tax and all have this as the alternative OS, and make sales on hardware...cheaper machines since the OS costs them basically nothing, and still make good profits compared to what they sell with MS pre-installed.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
It's just one web sites opinion, nothing more. The conclusions aren't supported by the article. When it talks about Microsoft havng the best strategy in the industry I can only conclude that "the industry" means Windows 10 based touch screen tablet/laptop hybrids. It basically just says that they have smaller and larger versions available, same as any PC maker.