Microsoft Surface UK prices start at £400, New range of tablets priced competitively against iPad

[binary solo]

kowenicki said:

binary solo said:

kowenicki said:

binary solo said:
Good luck with that. Microsoft doesn't have as many slavish fans as Apple, and pretty much everyone else wants a device that's considerably cheaper than an iPad, like 50% cheaper, or less.

MS has a niche for the tablet market no doubt, but I'm not sure the Surface (or Win 8 tabs in general) is gonna be an iPad killah.

Windows 8 tabs will eventually outsell IPad. No question. When the other manufacturers start releasing cheap iterations they will fly. 

Is there market research evidence for this or is it the power of positive thinking? MS isn't wildly popular with a pseudo-religious following; except for a proportion of Xbox 360 fans; which isn't enough to outsell iPad. And at the low end of the market there's nothing that gives MS an advantage over Android. Not now that Andorid has an OS that's built with tablets in mind.

MS's maket advantage is at the enterprise level. Producing a tablet that integrates perfectly with Windows is very useful in business and government; if they can convince business and govt to upgrade from XP to Win 8. I'm miffed that my govt department didn't upgrade to Win 7 and I'm not really grooving on Win 8 for work purposes. I'd actually prefer our govt departments to move to Linux, like the NYSE, but MS has the govt's ear (and perhaps balls) so it's not likely to happen any time soon. But I understand the Intel Surface will be able to run Win 7 software and perhaps even XP, so with the Intel Surface enterprises still using legacy OSs might still get good integration.

Bingo.

But I also see massive retail consumer take up. 

Yeah, but that's not going to be at the cheap end of town, so your reply got me confused. I certainly agree that MS has the potential to sew up the enterprise tablet market. But you also first have to convince enterprises to get into tabs in a big way. For me personally I don't want a tablet for work. I don't see the point. Even on my upcoming work trip to Japan I'm fine with laptop and phone.