Microsoft Wants You To Trade Your MacBook Air In For a Surface Pro 3 365
mpicpp writes with news about a new Microsoft trade-in program to encourage sales of the new Surface Pro 3. Microsoft is offering a limited time Surface Pro 3 promotion via which users can get up to $650 in store credit for trading in certain Apple MacBook Air models. The new promotion, running June 20 to July 31, 2014 -- "or while supplies last" -- requires users to bring MacBook Airs into select Microsoft retail stores in the U.S., Puerto Rico and Canada. (The trade-in isn't valid online.)...To get the maximum ($650) value, users have to apply the store credit toward the purchase of a Surface Pro 3, the most recent model of the company's Intel-based Surface tablets.
Not likely. (Score:5, Informative)
The MBA and MBP are both fine machines. My wife get's a computer that works most of the time. I get a computer with a bash shell on which I can do my thing. Neither have shown any tendency to falls apart, unlike every Asus, Lenovo, Toshiba and HP we've had.
Re:Not likely. (Score:4, Insightful)
The MBA and MBP are both fine machines. My wife get's a computer that works most of the time. I get a computer with a bash shell on which I can do my thing. Neither have shown any tendency to falls apart, unlike every Asus, Lenovo, Toshiba and HP we've had.
Absolutely, And you have to give up the smooth and functional OSX interface for the freaked out Metro disaster, and the unintuitive controls.
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The Macbooks run MacOS, not IOS.
Re:Not likely. (Score:5, Interesting)
So the magic mouse swipe gestures aren't obvious to people used to regular mice, I was very resistant, but I now love and miss them.
But I otherwise agree, I don't find anything about OSX to be "intuitive" to people used to using windows or linux. OSX is a fine windowing system, but it's a little rough around the hedges when it comes to usability for the portion of the world that simply cannot become Apple converts.
Hardware wise though, I have not found anything that comes close to an MBP. Windows or OSX, it beats the unholy snot out of its competition.
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The UI is just another UI. I couldn't give a crap about the UI.
But its unix underneath, the 2560x1600 resolution is excellent. The keyboard is acceptable.
I can type into bash shells as if it were Linux. I can ssh and scp as if it were linux. I can write and compile code on it as if it were linux.
The python Point of Sale front end that I wrote for my wife's store, that runs on Linux, also ran first time on the macbook.
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My current job uses OSX, and it was the first time I had ever used it after a long history of unix and some windows. I found it very easy to pick up. The touch pad stuff when I use it is great, and easy to learn (the configuration settings came with little videos of what the various settings did which made it easy to pick up). Though I usually use a normal mouse rather than use it as a laptop. But there is nothing in OSX day-to-day that is that unusual to a long time X windows or Windows user, except ma
Re:Not likely. (Score:4, Funny)
Yeah, vomiting, for instance. That's both intuitive and awful. ;-)
Therefore, Surface is like vomiting. :-P
(Cheap humor only folks, I've never actually even seen one.)
Re: Not likely. (Score:3, Interesting)
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The thing that looks right about the construction of the current Mac books is that the monolithic aluminium case doesn't have any flappy bits to fall off. Why other manufacturers do not do something similar is beyond me.
I forgot to mention a Sony laptop. That also failed. The bottom panel came off, the disk failed and the CD drive failed. So I can't install linux on it because the CD isn't working and it won't boot linux from a flash drive, presumably because of something stupid Sony did. So it's dead and I
My Dell (Score:2)
Inspirion 1720 is going strong after 7 years of non stop usage and it runs flawlessly with Linux Mint 14/Mate. Only thing I replaced was to put in a SSD and I spilt a full glass of beer on the KB which eventually need to be replaced. So does that make Dell's as good as your Mac's?
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Did you pay as much for them as you did your Apple laptops?
My experience is that sub-1k laptops are crap no matter who assembles them. I've got a similar story to GP - bought an Inspiron 1520 back in 2007 and it's still going strong. I replaced the harddrive with an SSD and it's now my primary work machine that I carry to the office and on travel.
Re:Not likely. (Score:5, Informative)
What he means, I think, is that most computer companies make "consumer grade" machines and "commercial grade" machines. I've not has an Asus or Lenovo, but I've had Toshiba, HP, and Dell. With respect to Dell, I've had both consumer and commercial grade machines, built to higher specifications. Most recently I purchased a Dell Latitude 5000 series laptop--in Dell's explanation of this computer in comparison to the 7000 series, it gave the 5000 series a build quality of 3 out of 4 stars, it gave the 3000 series 2 out of 4 stars (still Latitude--which implies the consumer grade stuff is 1 out of 4 stars for build quality). The consumer grade machines seem to be designed to last about 2 years or less. The commercial grade machines are designed to last more like 4 years.
The problem is, you have to pay a premium for the commercial grade machines.
With Apple, there is no "consumer grade" and "commercial grade"--they're all made to high specifications.
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"What he means, I think, is that most computer companies make "consumer grade" machines and "commercial grade" machines. I've not has an Asus or Lenovo, but I've had Toshiba, HP, and Dell. With respect to Dell, I've had both consumer and commercial grade machines, built to higher specifications."
i have owned and used packard bell, HP, dell, compaq(before hp bought em), and a lenovo. the first computer i bought with my own income was a packardbell 80486 dx2 75mhz. that was built like a tank, and was about as
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It's remarkable how much capitalization and punctuation do for readability.
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5) Mac book air. Still working fine.
6) Mac book pro. Still working fine.
You're preachint ot the choir.
Having had a similar range of computers, I've had the same experience. Nothing is built like a Mac. Opening the case of a Mac Pro is like entering a little computerized cathedral.
But you won't ever convince people who have never owned a Mac. Or used one once, or still think they use one button mice. They think the foibles of the race to the bottom culture of Windows machines is just what computers do.
And to bring this right back to the topic, that is a big problem with
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Anecdote: "an account regarded as unreliable or hearsay"
Seems to fit your tall-tale well.
Want me to make a list of all the consumer-grade non-Apple equipment that still work perfectly after years of use and punctuate it with the litany of Apple products that I've seen die or otherwise malfunction over a short span of time?
Would that fall under anecdote or data in your mind?
But who cares? Only an idiot would try to generalize from your tiny sample size.
"up to" $650 for a macbook air trade in? (Score:5, Insightful)
In 'good' condition... they're worth more than that on Craigslist...
Re:"up to" $650 for a macbook air trade in? (Score:5, Interesting)
The funny thing is, MBA's even early models are still worth a pretty dime second hand (usually 50-80% of purchase price based on condition and age), Surface Pro's won't fetch more than 1/3 of their purchase price.
Re: "up to" $650 for a macbook air trade in? (Score:2, Insightful)
That's because people don't understand there's more than one model and if they do they don't understand how to tell them apart or what the benefits of a new model are.
This is telling (Score:5, Interesting)
What this tells me is that Microsoft has given up trying to promote the Surface as a tablet. It's a laptop that happens to have a detachable keyboard. Note that they didn't even try to offer a trade-in of ipads for the surface, which would be a more reasonable comparison if the surface was successful as a tablet. The ipad is a different use case, and Microsoft just doesn't play well in that space.
Re:This is telling (Score:5, Insightful)
'Cause THAT'S what people do with tablets...
Re:This is telling (Score:4)
No, the mere fact that Microsoft built the Surface tablets demonstrates they don't have the foggiest idea what tablets are used for.
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It's what they did with the MBAs they're trading in, and it's what people can do with a tablet that isn't just an electronic etch-a-sketch.
It's sad that people are carrying around devices with multicore CPUs, several GB ram and storage, wifi and HD screens, and they still have to say "sorry, I can't -- I didn't bring my computer"
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That's OK, I don't know what tablets are for either.
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Microsoft has given up trying to promote the Surface as a ...
... saleable machine. Rather than dumping their excess, in public view of shareholders, they are now even more willing to take a more substantial loss, so long as they can still claim X millions of units sold . Better than tossing them like with the Surface RT. Shareholders will likely complain if they try that one again.
Re:This is telling (Score:5, Interesting)
Yeah, Microsoft is now going for portable business integration. You can manage them with Active Directory - I just added one.
We are looking to go more portable at work but we don't want to have a laptop and a tablet for every user. Picked up one of the new Surface 3 devices and while it looks like it will integrate nicely for our day-to-day use at work, I don't like it enough to have one at home for personal use. It's actually got some well thought out ideas in the device.
Given that an iPad can cost $1k now (256GB storage, same as this Surface Pro 3 I'm testing) It's not too far-fetched in price in my opinion, seeing as you can do more with it and aren't constrained to the App or Play store. Doesn't mean I'd buy one for personal use, though. Once the docks are released I can see potential for it replacing some of our old workstations.
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if they tried to pull THAT, they would have a crapton of people with older ipads trading them in. They'd be buried alive. A lot of iPad2's are out of warranty, and that's about the time schools and others consider an upgrade.
They're MS... they're big, and could take the hit, but it definitely would sting.
The surface though is more of a laptop try
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> and MS isn't offering as much as the machines could get you on craigslist.
I did not know that, not being an Apple user (except for a couple G4s for Adobe products back in the day). Microsoft is so screwed.
> Trade-ins for the competition's gear are a "try to pull people off the fence onto your side" maneuver, but the problem is it's only going to attract people that have already decided they didn't like their new mac, so it won't really serve its intended purpose.
*especially* since, the Apple consu
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*especially* since, the Apple consumer is not your average consumer. Apple consumers love Apple products because (at least in part) they are Apple products. Microsoft isn't going to deter too many people from that mindset.
Another really huge part is that Apple at least so far has not tried to foist a tub of crap like Windows 8 on their customers, and had their shills call them stupid when they didn't like it. Even Mavericks, which had some birthing pains - at least people could use it coompetently from day one, and it's ended up being great.
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The Surface Pro has always been marketed as a laptop replacement, not as just a tablet. This doesn't suddenly change anything.
I think that might to a certain extent be rewriting history. How soon we forget, all of those commercials and all that marketing when the Surface first came out.
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Re:This is telling (Score:4, Funny)
>It's a laptop that happens to have a detachable keyboard.
Well, duh. Every Windows tablet is a laptop with a detachable keyboard.
Well, duh! Every observation is obvious when you're repeating it with the words "Well, duh!" in front of it. Let's face it, everybody knows that. Aren't you glad you contributed to the thread?
See even Microsoft thinks MacBook Airs rule! (Score:5, Funny)
They'll do anything to pick them up cheaply, even trade some unwanted Surface 3's for some!
Jokes aside (and please don't mod for flamebait, it's sarcasm above, downmod for a bad joke if anything) ...
I don't think will go much. You're assuming that someone values their $1000+ dollar MacBook Air at $650 and values the Surface at something worth the discount. Considering the amount of work you'd have to do to migrate (either Windows to Mac, or Mac to Windows) you have to think about 200-300 realistically for swapping costs. Makes good headlines (as we see here) but won't help much.
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You'll need $200/y for just an Office (Office365) and simple photo/music management suite (Adobe CC), which is included in every purchase of a Mac.
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You lost me where I somehow need an Adobe CC subscription...
Office 2013, non-cloud is $140-220 depending on version, and I'm pretty sure Office doesn't come with a Mac for free either.
Non-Office office suites are available for free.
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Wait, Apple's come with a perpetual Office subscription and Adobe's CC application? Damn, that is a good deal. Unless, of course, you mean Apple's free knock-offs of Office and Adobe's photo group, in which case the only advantage is that they're bundled instead of having to download one of the half-dozen free alternatives available for Windows.
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Considering the amount of work you'd have to do to migrate (either Windows to Mac, or Mac to Windows) you have to think about 200-300 realistically for swapping costs. Makes good headlines (as we see here) but won't help much.
I suspect they are targeting Mac users who have never seen the Metro interface, or whatever they are calling it these days. W8 got my wife to stop using her computer until I installed Mint on it.
Re:See even Microsoft thinks MacBook Airs rule! (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm a programmer. I've written GUI code, I've written a device driver that shipped in a commercial UNIX kernel. I've used Windows since 3.1 days (WindowsForWorkgroupsForTheWin!). I've even debugged and configured Windows Vista in Chinese even though I can't read it - I was able to get someone to translate the occasional dialog box.
I can not understand Win8. When my sister asks me to help configure something on her Win8 laptop, I struggle with the UI as if I'm some rookie coming from some stoneage tribe.
I hate hate hate hate Windows 8.
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Re:See even Microsoft thinks MacBook Airs rule! (Score:5, Insightful)
Oh good. I am not alone. I've seen some of the most arcane interfaces on this planet, some of them not seen by more than a handful of people altogether, so arcane and mysterious that its name shall not be spoken. GUIs that made you beg for a CLI, for you knew that even if you had to memorize all the commands and had no -? to aid you, it could not possibly take more than a fraction of the time you'd need to get behind the twisted logic of the GUI in front of you. I cursed them, but I mastered them all, in little time.
Metro is a mystery. It simply has no rhyme or reason to it. It fucking makes no sense AT ALL. No matter what you want to do, applying sense and logic is the wrong way to do something. Usually you find your way around by pondering "Now, what would be the LEAST intuitive way to do something?", and usually you shall be rewarded with a solution.
If you offered me the choice "Metro or..." my answer, before you are done with the sentence, is "the other one". Even if you end in "or a stone tablet".
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I can not understand Win8. When my sister asks me to help configure something on her Win8 laptop, I struggle with the UI as if I'm some rookie coming from some stoneage tribe.
I hate hate hate hate Windows 8.
When the simplest functions require you to go to the internet to find out how to do them. My virgin W8 experience wasdoing a websearch on how to shutdown, and there were lots of hits. If we have problems trying to figure how to shut the computer down, there is something drastically wrong.
Already I have told all the groups I support now that I will not support W8. They go MetroSexual, and they have to get new free help.
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This is so true. And the feedback has been like this and has been so consistent for so long... I can't understand why Microsoft hasn't already reversed course on some of this madness. I mean, are they TRYING to give Apple market share? Because it's working. I still use a PC desktop much of the time, but my new laptop is a Mac, and I really like it. I never thought I would go Mac. And when Yosemite comes out this fall, it will integrate more fully with my phone and my tablet. Now, when it comes time f
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Windows 8 takes everything you thought you knew about Windows, kills it, rapes it, buries it, digs it up, rapes it again, sets it on fire, and props up the corpse with rusty coat-hangers in the form of a rude gesture.
Strangely, I still love my Surface Pro, but it is despite Windows 8, not because of it. I think for a certain niche it's a sensible machine, but admittedly that niche is awfully narrow.
Where do I sign up? (Score:4, Insightful)
To get one of the trade in Mac Book Air (s) ??
Bring in your junk, get a tablet (Score:4, Interesting)
I am sure ebay is full of cheap damaged Macbooks which power on and don't have screen cracks or water damage. Buy for less than $650, resell Surface, profit!
Slashdot editors owe me a new keyboard. (Score:5, Funny)
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"While supplies last." That's the funniest thing I've heard all day.
That's not supplies of Surface Pro 3 which is likely infinite for all intents and purposes, but supplies of "goodwill" from the "benevolent corporate ruler" Microsoft. After all, it takes goodwill to buy a competitor's product - even if it is at a significant discount and even if it is only for credits towards purchase of your own product.
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Look at it this way. Now that they've found the Atari 2600 ET cartridges in a New Mexico landfill, there's plenty of room for all the Surfaces (all variants) that Microsoft can't sell.
It's amusing watching the mighty Redmond Emperor with his clothes off; a whole product line and who knows how much R&D and marketing cash dumped into it, that almost no one actually fucking wants. It's so bad that they can't even get their OEM network to build the fucking things and they have to put them under their own br
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Aren't the Zunes still waving that flag?
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So I wasn't the only one who thought that sounds like one of those home order TV shows? "But call now, supplies are limited!"
(only a billion and a half left...)
HA! (Score:4, Interesting)
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Not the only time that happened, it seems.
A local store had a "guess the product and win it" competition. They do this from time to time, with various promotions they get. It's a bit of an event every time and usually people flock to the store to stare at the blown up pics that hang out everywhere to guess the product. I sometimes go there for the kick to see what's going on and whether I can find out what it is, sometimes it's quite tricky. They usually take a pic of a corner that could be anything (ever t
Cue the crickets... (Score:3)
If anyone did take them up on the offer I'd be amazed.
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Awesome. Thanks for that.
Dear microsoft... (Score:2)
Make it 2 of your top of the line surface 3 pros and I will do it. Because you need to make it a sweet deal for me to jump to a platform known to have issues and very very low adoption rate.
Psst.. Hey buddy! (Score:5, Funny)
I'll give you $5 for your $20 bill!
I think I'm going to like this new MS CEO...
My 2 year old MBA still beats their Surfactant3 (Score:5, Interesting)
Seriously. I love the MacBook Air I got a couple of years ago. The thing works very well, and even runs the occasional VMWare Fusion image of Windows 7 I need to run occasionally off of a portable thunderbolt drive. On a whim I got one of the earlier Surface tablets when the wife and I were in Vegas and they had a Kiosk where they were practically giving them away - but for the life of me still cannot use it for anything truly productive.
Trade in a MacBook Air for a surface?! Sorry Microsoft. You've been a day late and a dollar short ever since Ballmer pissed on the idea of tablets and smartphones and Apple smoked you and ate you for breakfast. Apple would have to skullf**k a small, disabled child onstage during their next keynote to even _think_ of falling behind enough for you to catch up to relevancy.
Microsoft - As long as I can virtualize your OS, take a snapshot and rollback when your OS takes a dive and run it all on a machine that, you know, _works_ I won't buy another piece of hardware branded by you. Ever.
And as another poster mentioned, "While supplies last." Really? Wow, even with Steve "Developers Developers Developers" Ballmer gone, you _still_ have a great sense of humor.
They Multiply... (Score:5, Funny)
Here recently I run by the store on the way home to pick up some milk. Was in a rush and left my Surface Pro on the front seat, in plain view.
When I came out, I discovered someone had broken into my car and left three more Surface Pro's :(
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Oooh... If I hadn't posted already you'd have had a mod point!
Re:They Multiply... (Score:4, Funny)
That's consistent with the observation that people litter where they notice others have littered before.
Microsoft targeting Apple users? (Score:4, Insightful)
Microsoft wants Apple users to trade their laptops for Microsoft tablets. How thick are they?
Next up: Microsoft wants you to trade your Playstation 4 in for an Xbox One and only offers you a 200$ rebate for for it, too.
um... no (Score:2)
I can see why this would work (Score:4, Interesting)
Gosh, why not? I can see someone looking at their MBA saying, "It works perfectly, has a great OS, awesome battery life, and does everything I could ask for and does it fast. I need to dump this for a barely functional device with an actively antagonistic OS sold by a company unable to secure a wet paper bag or make software that works acceptably. All this for far less battery life and far more money. I wish I had 2 MBAs to trade in!",
Back to the real world....
Did I mention that the day after the S3's release I was at a press event on a bus full of journalists. Anand has his S3 and in less than 24 hours it broke. The entire bus full of tech journos all concluded it was better that way.
That said, some people do like it. Microsoft traded in an absolute monopoly lock on the desktop to cater to 10% of their base. Clever that MS management, clever.
-Charlie
OK, MS... let's try this... (Score:3)
Love my Surface Pro2 with Ubuntu (Score:2)
I currently have a Surface Pro2 with Ubuntu running. It is my first non-Apple computer in more than 10 years. Which I bought reluctantly when my previous MacBook died and did not like any of the current out-dated models.
For the most part, everything in Ubuntu runs great on the Surface Pro2, except Wi-Fi which is flaky due to sucky proprietary Marvell drivers.
In any case, it is now my primary work computer, and I am very happy with it, although I do really like the newer Surface Pro3 with larger screen and
Dear Microsoft (Score:2)
You would need to give me an equivalent tables plus at least 100 dollar so I can rebuy apps.
The idiots are going after the wrong consumers... (Score:2)
The non-RT surface was never a tablet competitor.
Virtually all the software people run on x86 is primarily designed for desktop use, and the gap between it and tablet universe's UI and software base progress is widening, not shrinking.
Apple killed them for two reasons - Apple understood the fundamental difference between how consumers use tablets and computers and catered to each market appropriately (rather than a half-assed worst-of-both-worlds one-size-fits-all attempt at both)... and (with the relativel
Analogies, Analogies, Analogies, Analogies... (Score:3)
Think of it as trading your new hope for a phantom menace.
In other news... (Score:5, Funny)
...Ford is offering a rebate on a new Fiesta (with power locks and windows!) for anybody willing to trade in their Tesla Model S.
The commercials say a lot. (Score:5, Funny)
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From what I can tell from the commercials, Surface users repeatedly take the keyboard off and put it back on in order to make cool snapping sounds.
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Er really?
Maybe visit a sysadmin or software dev conference. Macbook Air's are pretty common and for a good reason.
Calm your nerd rage down a bit.
reverse it & you'll see M$ is desperate (Score:5, Insightful)
Microsoft is desperate.
How can you tell?
Let's reverse this...can you imagine if Apple gave a similar $$ discount on Macbook Air & iPads in trade for a Microsoft Surface?
bummed out x-mas gift recipients would line up around the corner!
Re:reverse it & you'll see M$ is desperate (Score:5, Funny)
Microsoft is desperate. How can you tell?
I think the explanation is obvious: Microsoft employees want those nice shiny MBAs, but because they don't have the money anymore, they want to barter for them with those SPs lying in their warehouses. ;-)
Re:reverse it & you'll see M$ is desperate (Score:5, Interesting)
Last time I was in their neighborhood, MS employees were hauling MBPs around as their primary laptops. I never understood how they could get away with that, but "research" was in their job title...
Re:reverse it & you'll see M$ is desperate (Score:5, Insightful)
Now many companies have an "eat your own dogfood" policy. But when your product is less desirable than actual dogfood then employees figure out a way around the policy.
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I have two complaints about Parallels. First, they don't support fooli
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Actually, it would be an AWESOME PR stunt by Apple if they just went ahead and did that.
I dare say that it would be one of the bigger PR blunders for MS in the past decade.
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fanboy slapfight in 3-2-1....
Correction (Score:2)
Trade in a real computer for "store credit" towards an overpriced model of a POS tablet no one wants...
224 miles round trip (Score:2)
Trade in a real computer for a POS tablet no one wants...
...and drive hundreds of miles to do so.
If Microsoft wants any uptake on promotions like this, Microsoft needs to get more aggressive about opening retail stores. The closest Microsoft Store is 112 miles away from where I live according to Bing Maps. But then Apple isn't a lot better, with a 90 mile drive to its nearest corporate retail store (as opposed to a local franchised dealer in town).
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lol, looks like that is one way for me. Good luck with that one MS.
Re:224 miles round trip (Score:5, Insightful)
If Microsoft wants any uptake on these promotions it needs to find religion and begin praying for a miracle, because the group of people you can almost guarantee are the least likely to switch to Microsoft products are Apple owners.
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Re:Great deal! (Score:5, Funny)
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Heh. And for folks who have a Microsoft store nearby, stop in and ask if they have any used MBAs for sale ;)
Re:Great deal! (Score:5, Insightful)
Surface Pros can do things that no other tablet can. Your jealousy is showing.
That's nice and all, but your lack of useful and relevant examples is rather glaring.
I don't think anyone here is denying that the Surface line is trying to do something that's quite a bit different from what other tablets are doing. They're definitely targeting a different set of use cases than what the iPad, Fire, or Galaxy Tab lines are hitting, and I have no doubt that the Surface Pro can do stuff no other tablet can. But the important question isn't, "Does it do stuff no one else can?" The important question to ask is, "Are the things it can do of interest to people and executed well?" And based on sales numbers, professional reviews, and numerous firsthand accounts both here and elsewhere, the answer is a resounding, "No".
Really, when you get down to it, the Surface line is simply a fresh iteration of the same strategy Microsoft has been employing in the tablet space since the early 2000s: put Windows everywhere so that users can have the power of a "PC" in their hand. The only thing that's changed is the execution, and you don't need to look long and hard at Windows 8 reviews to know that they botched that as well. The strategy may actually work for them if it is executed properly, but the fact that the market stayed nascent for ten years until a competitor introduced a device employing an alternative strategy indicates that they didn't get it right then, and the fact that the Surface line hasn't seen any real uptake should be good indications that either the strategy is a losing one or else that they have yet to execute properly on it.
TL;DR: Just because a device can do stuff other devices can't doesn't mean it's a good idea. We don't want compact cars with truck beds, wedding cakes from Burger King, or tight-fitting exercise shorts made of designer denim. In trying to be both a tablet and laptop, the Surface ended up being good at neither.
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That is actually true. All the other tablets are too lighweight to kill a cat when you throw them at the feline.
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It's an expensive piece of hardware whose performance doesn't justify the cost and whose size makes it a terrible fucking tablet. I could buy a Nexus 7 and a tolerable decent notebook for less than a Surface 3 and have the best of both worlds.
Re:Great deal! (Score:5, Interesting)
Hold up: you're missing an important distinction.
The MacBook Air isn't just a laptop. It is a laptop. That's all it is, and it's a darn good laptop. It does laptop things really well.
By not just being a tablet, the Surface has failed to be good at being anything at all. If you pit it against laptops, it's under-specced for the price. For that sort of money, you can do a lot better elsewhere. And if you pit it against tablets, it's lacking apps and overpriced. It's in a weird space between the two that no one is interested in. I commend them for trying something different than everyone else and trying to carve out a unique niche (really, I do!), but I don't see how this particular execution of their strategy can be painted as anything other than an extended failure that has yet to turn the corner. I honestly hope it will, but it has yet to do so.
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How about a taco that craps ice cream?
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MMmMMm... dinner and dessert.
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I will take one of those used Airs off their hands.
Well, that means there will be one left.
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Hey, hey, wait. All a matter of money. If they pay enough to buy a new Macbook...
Re:Micro.Slashvert .. (Score:4, Funny)
Hey, every newspaper has its funnies section, why shouldn't /.?