They certainly did something right, though I'm not quite sure what it was. A few years back, you couldn't step in front of an undergrad class here (Canada) without being subject to a wall of glowing bitten apples staring at you, now at least a quarter I'd estimate are those surface tablets.<p>Who knew people would take a chance on laptop that doesn't work when on your lap.
My sister has an SP3 and likes it a lot. She's a student in college and I feel like this is a good niche for the hardware. The main draw to the Surface for her was the pen because of how well it worked compared to other options. She downloads pdf or ppt presentations and can annotate and take notes in class.<p>Is there any other hardware that can do this just as well? I think maybe the ipad pro but I have never used one.
I used a surface pro 3 for a couple weeks before ultimately returning it. Windows as a dev platform couldn't cut it for me, and the ubuntu VM in Virtualbox did not survive multiple sleep cycles one puts the surface through during normal use.<p>The thing i did love about the surface is that the processor is not sitting on my lap, where as the macbook air/pro burns my legs all day long.<p>I would love for apple to make a version of the macbook that puts the processor behind the screen.
They kind of did the same thing with the xbox. Sunk a ton of money into. Instead of just pure revenue growth it is important to look at margins. The overall profitability of the product.
><i>Microsoft pulls in an impressive $1.35B in revenue for Surface line</i><p>Really? Impressive for whom? 1.3B is less than what Apple made with the iWatch -- and that's after decades of MS losing money and trying to go somewhere with their table OS and then tablet offerings.
My wife switched to a SP3 from a macbook, because it looked like a very compelling device.<p>It lost all bluetooth and wifi - 4 months out of warranty (hardware issue). From googling - this was not a completely uncommon occurrence.<p>Yes - we should have gotten the extended warranty, but this was an expensive device, and we expected quality hardware that would last.<p>From a usability perspective, it is a device that is in-between. It is not a stellar tablet nor a stellar laptop.
One thing I want to know from Surface Book owners is whether the keyboard can be configured for smoother productivity.<p>Naviagational (Home/PgUp/PgDown/End) and volume keys are on by default meaning that you have to press the Fn-Alt-Function Key if you want to use Alt-Function. The problem with that is that an independent Fn press will lock out the function key, toggling the behaviour so that Function Keys are now the default.<p>I would like it if LAlt-FunctionKey was different behaviour from RAlt-FunctionKey. LAlt-F4 would close a program while RAlt-Function Key would change the volume. The requirement to use the Fn Key and the fact that the Fn can be locked (and easily and accidentally unlocked/locked again) is a serious usability issue.<p>Actually I'd prefer a full real keyboard... nevertheless the Surface Book and the SP4 keyboards are massive improvements.<p>Moreover, does anyone know if the undocking button next to the Delete key can be locked out, say, requiring a key combination instead?
This is impressive in general, but particularly so in light of where they came from: <a href="http://www.zdnet.com/article/microsofts-900-million-surface-rt-write-down-how-did-this-happen/" rel="nofollow">http://www.zdnet.com/article/microsofts-900-million-surface-...</a>
I wasn't really surprised by this, I've got a Surface Book (ordered after the announcement) and so far have been very pleased with the hardware, and hoping the software can catch up. For me, to replace a paper book and paper notebook you have to have a great reading experience and a great drawing experience. For me, the Surface Pro 4 has both of those.<p>That said, I'll probably end up getting the tablet version to augment the Surface Book unless they can fix detach. Way too often I try to detach and it won't because something is unable to release, and when I'm in "clipboard" mode there are <i>no</i> ports on the clipboard. I can get around that partially by using the dock which has ports but I'd really like a USB-C port and a micro-SD card slot on the display half.
"<i>Microsoft and Nokia have sold a total of 110 million Windows Phones compared to 4.5 billion iOS and Android phones in the same period. IDC recently reported that 400 million phones were sold in the recent quarter, meaning just 1.1 percent of them were Lumia Windows Phones. Microsoft does not have any compelling Lumia handsets, and the Lumia 950 and Lumia 950 XL were both disappointing flagship devices with unfinished Windows 10 Mobile software.</i>"<p><a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10993847" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10993847</a>
A general accounting question...do all companies count revenue the same way for scenarios like:<p>- Product is purchased by store.<p>- Customer actually buys product.<p>- Customer returns product.<p>- Unsold product is returned by store.<p>In other words, I don't know how to compare this to anything else because I don't know if it's counting units that didn't reach real customers, or if the announcement would be a lot different two weeks from now after some people return their Christmas presents?
even if they'll give Surfaces for free, and pay people to use it, I am afraid, more and more people will use Android and iOS. It is simply too late for MS to "own the desktop". IN december I 've seen first time in my GA account that hits from Android users prevailed over MS OS, iOS being on the 3rd place.<p>UPD: since its mostly dull corporate websites, I think I am correct.
>Microsoft pulls in an impressive $1.35B in revenue for Surface line<p>Why don't they publish the profit they made on their Surface line of products? This is a lot like the revenue they reported for Azure. Until we know what they actually made these numbers are of very little value.
If I ever get a tablet, it will be a surface. Simply because so much of the work I do resides in spreadsheets, and Surface is optimized for excel and productivity.