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Doug's Mailbag: Surface Impressions

Readers share their thoughts on Microsoft's newly announced Surface tablet:

I guess I don't get it. The MS Surface to me is unexciting. When I'm doing heavy work I prefer my 15.6" Dell notebook or my XPS with its 22" monitor. When sitting here in my chair relaxing, my iPad is the perfect environment. I read my books here, listen to my albums, browse the Web and play a game or two. Not interested in Metro in any form factor, really.
-Bruce

Sell your Apple stock now.
-Anonymous

What we have in Surface is just another Ultrabook with a touchscreen. Most people that I know who own iPads use it for what it was designed for -- content consumption, not creation. All they need is a browser and some apps to make the UI simple. That's it. A full-blown Win 8 machine is probably more than what they want. I don't think that this will be an iPad killer, but an ultrabook killer. OEMs must be howling made about that.
-NOTAFANBOY

Ballmer's been reading my mail! It looks like the Surface machine is built to be a lot better for information creators than the typical flat glass tablet. That makes it much more desirable from my point of view, though I have exactly zero desire to learn and use the stupid new Metro interface. Guess I'm not really a Metrosexual! All that said, I'm afraid there are a lot more drones, oops, sorry that's 'consumers' out there than creators. That, plus the fact that neither Bill G nor Steve B will ever have a cult of personality like the
departed Mr. Jobs, and I don't know if the Surface will sell any better than the Playbook.
-Karl

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Posted by Doug Barney on 06/21/2012 at 1:19 PM


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