Reactions to Microsoft Surface

I used Storify to collect a number of the reactions that have been ricocheting around the web in response to Microsoft’s announcement of the all new Surface tablet. I am puzzled by their pre-announcement, happy to see more competition in this space, and really hope they succeed in shipping.

Welcome to @Microsoft #Surface. Coming Soon. http://www.Surface.com https://pic.twitter.com/rLYDtge7 Windows

It’s been fascinating to see the story of the “all new” Microsoft Surface evolve since yesterday afternoon. I posted a short link blog this morning.

Boris Mann’s Link Blog Awesome. This is MSFT stepping up to the plate. There are many (many, many, many) questionable / weird things about the launch, the marke…

Kevin Tofel / GigaOm: “Spec sheets, press releases, videos and a product demo do not a successful product make. The experience of using Windows 8 on the Surface devices is far more important. And that’s the big unknown right now. What is known, however, is that Monday will likely be considered a huge turning point in the history of Microsoft. For three decades, it was content to deliver software for a price to any hardware maker willing to pay. Now it seems that no price is enough for Microsoft to fully trust its future to computer makers.”

(emphasis mine)

Microsoft Surface: A new tablet and a bold strategy Microsoft did Monday what many would consider unthinkable: It introduced Surface, a new 10.6-inch tablet with two different models design…

Mark Hachman / RWW: “Apple’s iPad evokes a feeling of luxury, while top-of-the-line Android tablets like the Galaxy Tab feel fast and efficient, but not overly polished. The Surface feels like a Cadillac: powerful, luxurious… solid. There’s nothing flimsy about it.”

Hands On with Microsoft’s New Surface Tablet: A few minutes spent actually handling a prototype of Microsoft’s new Surface tablet reveals a solid device, combining a slightly bulky ch…

Steve Ballmer, quoted in the AllThingsD article: “If you look at the bulk of the 375 million machines that get sold (next year), they probably aren’t going to be Surfaces,” Ballmer told AllThingsD. “On the other hand, we could have a sizeable business.”

Scratching the Surface With Windows Chief Steven Sinofsky: Windows chief Steven Sinofsky said Monday that Microsoft certainly had a tablet like the Surface in mind when it started doing Windows 8….

Evidence MS is only half-serious about Surface. Steve saying "prime the pump" and MS Store/online only. This is about leading, not winning. Charlie Kindel

I think everyone is excited that Microsoft is stepping up to the plate. Long time mobile expert Brian Fling:

I wouldn’t call the Microsoft Surface a slam dunk but it is a solid tablet entry from Redmond Brian Fling

Ethan is not so optimistic. I agree with this stance - until you ship, and you ship with some sort of ecosystem, the prettiness of the hardware won’t mean much. Although, I think the lack of combined hardware / software excellence is what forced Microsoft to do this device themselves.

Reminder: no apps, no price, no date, no app ecosystem. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves in the rush to get ahead of others. Ethan Kaplan

A world changing device! Release date, specs, price are tbd. So is the “world changing” Ethan Kaplan

Best part of http://surface.com - "Images are design renderings and not photographs." No wonder it’s called Vapor Mg.Ken Schafer

so why was MS in such a hurry to show that? could’ve shown it closer to WinRT launch. announcing way ahead of availability is ALWAYS bad. Chris Ziegler

Brad puts it even more succinctly - it’s not the hardware:

It’s not about the device. #MicrosoftSurfaceTablet http://post.ly/7qcs3 Brad Ovenell-Carter

Some think you can’t succeed in the tablet market unless you own the OS.

There’s now a velvet rope around the tablet market. If you own an OS, you’re in. If you don’t, enjoy the view. Lessien

The spec sheet makes it clear that while there are two “versions”, they really are very different. The WinRT / ARM version is the consumer version. The Windows 8 / Intel version is the pro, enterprise version. Must Microsoft’s licensing strategy infect everything?

It just dawned on me that Windows RT could be a huge failure due to consumer confusion, and cause massive collateral damage across PCs… Russell Beattie

Brian has interesting thoughts on how the mobile web fits into such a new launch. Windows 8, with it’s focus on web technologies, is going to be very interesting.

A new form factor AND two processor architectures. Thank web we have media queries. xnoɹǝʃ uɐıɹq

Also note: Windows 8 runs NodeJS. Google IO should prove interesting. Facebook is in over their heads. They need a browser and a phone. xnoɹǝʃ uɐıɹq