Gary Whitta
Member
The entry-level desktop Mac is $599, entry-level laptop $999. Doesn't seem steep to me for you what you get, considering they have the highest customer satisfaction and resale ratings of any computer product.
Microsoft Surface Tablet announced
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interesting. are these old macbooks or something? i thought the Airs were the cheapest OSX machines, guess not.
edit: oh, desktop.
Gary Whitta
Member
$599 does not include monitor, keyboard, and mouse. Granted you can get all 3 for $150, but the SFF desktop market is a niche in itself as most people would rather get a computer with all that stuff built in, called a notebook. Given that the ASP of an OS X machine is almost $1300, the mini is a non-factor.
Sure, but iOS will never have mouse/trackpad support, which will always be a disadvantage when you're trying to get work done.
I've been on a few flights recently, and on a coach flight on United from LAX to EWR, there were outlets under every seat.
Continental/United now . Haven't had a problem . Mabye its the age of the air craft ?
The ones i've been on have 2 sets of seats in each row with the asile going down the middl. Its 3 seats on each side and 2 of the seats have outlets on the bottom of the chair
Gary Whitta
Member
You said entry price, the entry price of an OSX notebook is $999, and that comes with the best customer rating on the market. Yes, you can save money if you're not as concerned with quality, performance, support etc. I don't think that $999 is steep for what you get with the MacBook Air and seemingly neither do many others as it's the clear leader in its category, but I guess it's all relative.
Gary Whitta
Member
Or just fly Virgin America. The best!
I also think it's $999 is not steep for what you get with the Air, but for every person who chooses the air, 10 other people choose a Windows PC for the average price of $491. Saving $500 will make someone overlook the many flaws of such machines. It's simple economics, far more people prefer not to spend that much money for a laptop, or they simply don't have that much money to spend on a laptop.
Gary Whitta
Member
While I don't disagree, I guess this means the Surface Pro will also be stuck as a niche product because there is little chance of it being priced below $999.
Not only that, it's got features that the average consumer won't care about and won't want to spend money on.
Thank god there is the Surface RT then
As I said before, it's a better buy for 95% of the people out there compared to the pro.
How many people will find it a better buy than the iPad is still questionable.
The longer Win 8 in all its forms is out the more attractive the Surface RT will become. Apps will hit parity quickly when you have the installed base of phone/tablet/laptop/pc market .
Based on the reactions to Metro on Windows 8 for PC's and how most people don't want anything to do with it on the desktop, I doubt there will be many metro app sales to the desktop PC market, or at least not enough to catch up to the iPad "quickly".
saltywalrus
Member
Most people != tech enthusiasts. Most people have never heard of Windows 8 or Metro. I'm sure MS will launch a massive advertising campaign in the fall.
According to MS, 75% of Windows users run all of their programs fullscreen. They might enjoy using Metro.
DukeTogo1300
Member
This is fantastic. I've been stressing over moving from iPad 1 to iPad 3 for a while, but this addresses all the things I was considering waiting for and then some.
Day 1.
Day 1.
Marty Chinn
Member
And deal with the crappy boot times that come with that?
Shogmaster
Member
12 second boot time with Ultrabooks! Intel told me so.
Windows 8/RT actually boots very fast. Here's a good video, but not sure how legit it is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIJ6V32_w8g
its legit.
here is another cold boot http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QhmSi9WOtY&feature=player_embedded
my pc (SSD) boots under 10 seconds.
And that's from a cold boot as well. Most people I know - including myself - boot from sleep mode.
Quite steep:
Apple happens to reap 90% all computer sales above $999 according to NPD (2009).
Let's switch the focus on that chart a bit: I actually would look at that average number for Windows PC's and get immensely sad. The figure is arguably that low for Windows PC's because of netbooks. Surface Pro is just in no way going to be able to fit within the average price range most Windows users expect their devices to cost. That figure also means Windows has an entire generation of users who use it on horribly underpowered computers: Consoles ain't killing PC gaming, it's PC's killing PC gaming.
ClosingADoor
Member
I guess about 90% of the people buying cheaper PC's aren't interested in gaming anyway. I don't see the problem. And if the device does what the user want, why pay more?
It's going to be really interesting to read a good, thorough Surface Pro vs MacBook Air w/ Windows 8 comparative review once it's out. It'd be more interesting than plain Surface RT vs iPad.
Well, then one could make the argument that those PC users overlap with the same segment of people who also buy iPads/tablets. Since these people aren't buying PC's for Steam/gaming or Photoshop then Microsoft Office is the one distinctive factor left, I guess.
Microsoft’s Surface Tablet Said To Be Wi-Fi Only At First
Microsoft Surface pricing said to be $599 for Windows RT, $999 for Windows 8 Pro models
So $599 and Wi-Fi only at launch? That's not good at all if true.
Microsoft Surface pricing said to be $599 for Windows RT, $999 for Windows 8 Pro models
So $599 and Wi-Fi only at launch? That's not good at all if true.
$599 is just a ridiculous price for the 32GB RT, considering the extremely low resolution of the display compared to the 32GB iPad 3 with the same price. I can still justify buying it due to the advantages it offers over the iPad but I don't reckon the consumers will think that way.
Came to post this, 5 mins too late! GAF is always quicker
Around £640 for the Pro model... I'd buy one for that I think.
yeah, only 2 options come to mind with that price. The rumor is wrong or MS is pricing it higher to keep OEMs happy
like anything it will come down to a war of software and not just hardware, if Apple hired more software engineers I probably would have been working there years ago, but they have smaller software teams and more focused projects, where Microsoft has an army of software engineers in comparison. Microsoft has always had weaker focus on hardware but it grew with Xbox, had some growing pains with RRoD, now they are with backs against the wall because of how much Apple has tied up the supply chain and can price war the heck out of the market if they want to...but competition breeds great products!
It fails to stress the fact that 99.99999999999999% of people at Microsoft had no idea this was coming (even if it is kind of easy to guess about it from hints)
It fails to stress the fact that 99.99999999999999% of people at Microsoft had no idea this was coming (even if it is kind of easy to guess about it from hints)
opticalmace
Member
$599 for the RT (32GB?) is way too much. I think $499 is the maximum to have a chance...
Pro sounds all right though.
Pro sounds all right though.
Interfectum
Member
$999 seems fine for Pro but that $599 price for the RT is way too high.
Even at 499 I see it being a very hard sell.
Ditto. Regular people will see it at the same price as iPad and likely stick with iPad. Apple has a very secure lock on the tablet market right now, only way to cut into that is price under them.
There's no way the Surface is going to be $399. Not with 32GB of storage and that build quality.
Came to post this, 5 mins too late! GAF is always quicker
Around £640 for the Pro model... I'd buy one for that I think.
It's not going to be £640. More like £999.
anyway, they should be aiming to undercut the iPad. $399 would've been perfect.
Then the surface is a niche product
iPad does it with their build quality. Yes it's 16 gb vs 32 gb but the general regular consumer doesn't care about that, the 16 gb is the best selling iPad after all.
If you think there is a large market where people will pick windows RT over apple at the same price you are dreaming.
Google is going after the 200 range for the nexus tablet for a reason.
I'd be ok with a 16gb model. I mean, my phone only has 8gb and I don't even use most of that. I'm guessing most people have another computer that holds their media or they're using a cloud service.
They should at least offer a cheaper version, if nothing else it helps your marketing department when they can say "starting from $399".
16GB could work, particularly since there's a microSD slot.
I was surprised they didn't do a 16 gb model. Seems like a no brainer for price marketing reasons.
It absolutely does compare favorably to ipad but the 32 gig version. If they have a GOOD 1366x768 screen I don't think you will see too many complain about it next to the retina display because you will really have to squint to see pixels on either. Build quality otherwise will be as good as the ipad.
Then they see windows 8 (and more importantly office load up) and will see the difference in software imo. All they have to do is pin 2 apps side by side and that crowd will go nuts because they will think its real multitasking.
That said I still think it hits the $499 price point.
they're probably expecting component prices to depress even further. SSDs have gone down roughly 40% over the last year, for instance.
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