Microsoft CEO Ballmer Still Dancing Around Surface Pricing

[alextheblue]

Kevin Parrish, you do realize that WinRT will come with the latest Office preview for free, and will get a free upgrade to the full version when released? You were yammering on about having to plunk down a bunch of money for Office vs free Android AlmostOffice. But I think students and casual users interested in Surface or other Win tablet will buy the RT models. Which again, come with Office for free.

(at least until the European Commission sues for bundling Office)

The full Windows 8 devices won't come with Office. Then again x86 is a different ballgame. If you've got the money and need for a Surface Pro or similar x86 tablet, buying the latest Office probably appeals to you anyway. But on x86 you could also nab LibreOffice. I'd be interested to see if a future version of LibreOffice implements an RT version (which would run on both).[citation][nom]killerclick[/nom]Even 10 years after the failure of Tablet PC, Microsoft still doesn't understand what tablets are about. Tablets are not PCs, they're not supposed to be PCs and customers don't want them to be PCs.[/citation]Yeaah, I can already tell you don't know much about WinRT or Win8 in general. Surface isn't going to be a PC. It will be a tablet first and foremost, and functions accordingly. It just happens to have extended capabilities like better-than-average productivity capabilities.

 

[Bloob]

[citation][nom]JacekRing[/nom]Yes cause I really need to flick through 200 pages of apps just to find the one I want. Because I hate to have an organized, functional, professional feeling start menu.Trust me, windows 8 will take off like a rocket on tablets, and sink like the Titanic on desktops. The only people who would like windows 8 on a desktop are the same people who like iOS on a desktop. And quit frankly they are all already on Apple so not much room left for windows 8 to succeed.I will bet you that within a year we will get a windows 8 CV version (CV = classic version) which will ditch metro and restore the start menu for the desktop versions of win8.[/citation]

If you call yourself a techie, Win 8 shouldn't affect you or your efficiency in any way ( well, after a few days anyways ). Not saying it is perfect, but it is imo an improvement over 7. You don't have to go through 200 apps btw, just type the name.

 

[assasin32]

Price point if it hits the 700+ range isn't going to sell much I think. It's more cost effective to just buy your Ipad and a cheap laptop or a laptop. Unfortunately the tablet interfaces just plain suck at doing productivity type things like creating documents, etc. I tried to convince myself otherwise so I could buy a Asus Transformer but at the end of the day it is for media consumption.

I laugh at the mention of Quickoffice, Documents to Go, etc I have almost all of them on my smartphone I can tell you they are second rate for making documents and can't replace full blown programs such as Openoffice and Libreoffice or even the lightweight word processor Abiword. The best they can be used for is to write something which autosyncs with google drive/dropbox/etc so you can pull it up a computer an properly edit and format it later when you have time.

 

[ojas]

"I'm not paid to have doubts," he mused.

"People talk about: 'How healthy is the PC market?' There's going to be close to 400 million PCs sold in the next year, which makes it a big market. And whether it's 405 (million) or 395 (million), it's a big market" Ballmer added.

Well said, Ballmer.

 

[killerclick]

[citation][nom]alextheblue[/nom]Yeaah, I can already tell you don't know much about WinRT or Win8 in general. Surface isn't going to be a PC. It will be a tablet first and foremost, and functions accordingly. It just happens to have extended capabilities like better-than-average productivity capabilities.[/citation]

Surface isn't going to be a PC? Full keyboard, Office, full desktop OS in Surface Pro? Besides, Tablet PC was a PC even if it was in a tablet form factor, the two are not mutually exclusive, they're just a poor match in one device.