* Side note - this is the General Support board. For Windows/Microsoft related discussion, should there be a General Discussion board, or should I have posted this in the Win8 News board?*
Someone tell me if they agree or disagree if this is Surface's biggest issue:
"People are starting to realize how not very nice Windows computers are or outright blame Windows itself, when they are filled to the brim with manufacturer bloatware."
In my opinion these cheap net/notebooks from years past - which were 'good enough' for most casual users to get-by with but which came preloaded with this crap on them and eventually ground them down into slow messes - gave windows itself and windows netbooks/notebooks/laptops a bad reputation.
For example: Dad got a samsung win8 laptop earlier in the year, and the thing runs like absolute crap via all the pre-installed bloatware and extra system processes. Try removing certain things, and it starts nagging you that it can't find it's proprietory samsung software, or worse still it starts bugging-out, hard. It's almost as though Samsung intentionally make bad Windows devices so that people think ''well my phone is Samsung, and that is a much better user experience - it must be Windows' fault - i'll just double-down on the samsung ecosystem''. with microsoft's distrubution partners farting around with chromebooks or linx machines, it's no wonder microsoft went with the surface. a 'clean windows experience' is x1000 better, and my surface pro far out performs my dad's laptop, despite his machine having vastly superior specs inside. It's all about the presentation, and having a pleseant experience.
I just can't understand for the life of me why Microsoft have fallen at the last hurdle and priced this incredibly attractive laptop/table hybrid (SPro) so astronomically high. People wont pay the price of a Surface Pro. As it stands, those people would probably jump at a cheaper-priced Surface Pro, but they are simply picking up a Samsung Galaxy Note or Tab tablet to go alongside their already-owned Galaxy S2/3/4 phones. Case-in-point my brother recently started-in on me about his new Galaxy Tab. Asking why I haven't got a screen protector for my Surface Pro like he has for his Galaxy. I said I didn't need one. He asked how I kept the screen from being scratched. I showed him how the keyboard cover folds over the screen to protect it. So he said 'so you're telling me every time you place your surface down, you fold the screen cover over it?'. I said 'to be honest I usually just leave it like this *flips kickstand out and flash a rubbish eating grin*. He was speechless.
People go with what their friends have, whatever the new 'hot' item is, no matter how much it is limited, and may sit in a drawer after purchase. My dad and mum bought a DS each exclusively for Brain Training and Suduko. My dad has a kindle, despite any laptop or smartphone being able to read ebooks. He never uses either. These are the same 'casual' people that MS 'should' be going after with bargain-bin Surface(RT)'s, almost giving them away so that they gain traction a la Amazon's kindles. Let people have this inexpensive device so they can get used to Windows 8.1, and touch controls in general etc. And then if they do require more, like having compatability with legacy x86 apps, they can buy a Surface Pro, and all their files will be already be linked - hassell free - via their Microsoft Account syncing and SkyDrive cloud integration... but SPro's should only be something like £500 brand new... otherwise only tech geeks like me will know their true value and be willing to spend the money on them. Everyone else, the somewhat uninformed, will continue to splinter onto android devices and MS will find themselves without a customer-base.
Someone tell me if they agree or disagree if this is Surface's biggest issue:
"People are starting to realize how not very nice Windows computers are or outright blame Windows itself, when they are filled to the brim with manufacturer bloatware."
In my opinion these cheap net/notebooks from years past - which were 'good enough' for most casual users to get-by with but which came preloaded with this crap on them and eventually ground them down into slow messes - gave windows itself and windows netbooks/notebooks/laptops a bad reputation.
For example: Dad got a samsung win8 laptop earlier in the year, and the thing runs like absolute crap via all the pre-installed bloatware and extra system processes. Try removing certain things, and it starts nagging you that it can't find it's proprietory samsung software, or worse still it starts bugging-out, hard. It's almost as though Samsung intentionally make bad Windows devices so that people think ''well my phone is Samsung, and that is a much better user experience - it must be Windows' fault - i'll just double-down on the samsung ecosystem''. with microsoft's distrubution partners farting around with chromebooks or linx machines, it's no wonder microsoft went with the surface. a 'clean windows experience' is x1000 better, and my surface pro far out performs my dad's laptop, despite his machine having vastly superior specs inside. It's all about the presentation, and having a pleseant experience.
I just can't understand for the life of me why Microsoft have fallen at the last hurdle and priced this incredibly attractive laptop/table hybrid (SPro) so astronomically high. People wont pay the price of a Surface Pro. As it stands, those people would probably jump at a cheaper-priced Surface Pro, but they are simply picking up a Samsung Galaxy Note or Tab tablet to go alongside their already-owned Galaxy S2/3/4 phones. Case-in-point my brother recently started-in on me about his new Galaxy Tab. Asking why I haven't got a screen protector for my Surface Pro like he has for his Galaxy. I said I didn't need one. He asked how I kept the screen from being scratched. I showed him how the keyboard cover folds over the screen to protect it. So he said 'so you're telling me every time you place your surface down, you fold the screen cover over it?'. I said 'to be honest I usually just leave it like this *flips kickstand out and flash a rubbish eating grin*. He was speechless.
People go with what their friends have, whatever the new 'hot' item is, no matter how much it is limited, and may sit in a drawer after purchase. My dad and mum bought a DS each exclusively for Brain Training and Suduko. My dad has a kindle, despite any laptop or smartphone being able to read ebooks. He never uses either. These are the same 'casual' people that MS 'should' be going after with bargain-bin Surface(RT)'s, almost giving them away so that they gain traction a la Amazon's kindles. Let people have this inexpensive device so they can get used to Windows 8.1, and touch controls in general etc. And then if they do require more, like having compatability with legacy x86 apps, they can buy a Surface Pro, and all their files will be already be linked - hassell free - via their Microsoft Account syncing and SkyDrive cloud integration... but SPro's should only be something like £500 brand new... otherwise only tech geeks like me will know their true value and be willing to spend the money on them. Everyone else, the somewhat uninformed, will continue to splinter onto android devices and MS will find themselves without a customer-base.
