I just realized MS lied to us all!

[goodintentions]

I'm currently using my new sp3 in bed while watching Netflix. I've moved the angle of the kickstand several times in the last few minutes. Windows 8.1 is as touch-friendly as I've ever known with this device. And I've used iOS and android before.

Then it occurred to me. Anyone here remember the original surface tabletop from 2007? Sure, it was in a few coffee shops, but overall it was a non-event.

MS lied to us in that they said the sp3 is 2 years in the making. It's not. This form factor, the way that people can use this device, etc. have been part of MS's plan all along. They just needed for the right technology to come along. That's why after they came out of the tabletop surface, they realized that it wasn't what they envisioned, so they renamed it and started working on something else.

You know how you've envisioned something, built it, and realized it didn't come out like you wanted? I think the original tabletop surface was like that and they'd been working on the surface and windows 8 ever since.

 

[sharpuser]

I think they've been working on not working on the Tabletop Surface for two years.

 

[mtalinm]

OP is right. The Surface Pro is the realization of the "Tablet PC" started 15 years ago or so. I had a Toshiba Portege from 2001.

what's amazing to me that is MSFT marketing ahs managed to avoid pretty much any use of the phrase "Tablet PC", even among the macolyte media.

 

[goodintentions]

OP is right. The Surface Pro is the realization of the "Tablet PC" started 15 years ago or so. I had a Toshiba Portege from 2001.

what's amazing to me that is MSFT marketing ahs managed to avoid pretty much any use of the phrase "Tablet PC", even among the macolyte media.

I mean, think about it this way. MS has previously come up with devices and ideas. But they never actually committed any serious resources behind them. And now, they're committing not millions, not tens of millions, not hundreds of millions, but billions to what every tech media and analyst is saying as a flop and should be abandoned.

The surface line, particularly the sp3, has to be part of something that they've been planning for many years and is bigger than what most people are realizing.

 

[malberttoo]

what's amazing to me that is MSFT marketing ahs managed to avoid pretty much any use of the phrase "Tablet PC"...

You make an excellent point. I've been on a Tablet PC for the last 12 years or so. It has never dawned on me that they've been able to not call the Surfaces that.

 

[Nitric]

Lying might not be the right qord for it. The '2 years in making' is just maybe the time they used to convert a vision to a product.

The vision to create a hybrid laptop/tablet could be there since years ago but there are other factors to be considered too.

 

[leeshor]

Microsoft has a very long history with tablet PCs, (I owned a Samsung Ultra Mobile PC, a long time ago) but this is the first with their name on it. I think they were waiting for just the right time to do it right. The first big hit, Project Origami, which was the UMPC, was something Microsoft spent a lot of money advertising, but it was somewhat of a flop.

 

[ctitanic]

I always say that the biggest difference between the SP3 and most of the rest of the market is that the SP3 is a Tablet PC. And MS has been working in this concept for more than 15 years. They went from TabletPC to Ultramobilepc and now to "Tablet".

 

[ctitanic]

Microsoft has a very long history with tablet PCs, (I owned a Samsung Ultra Mobile PC, a long time ago) but this is the first with their name on it. I think they were waiting for just the right time to do it right. The first big hit, Project Origami, which was the UMPC, was something Microsoft spent a lot of money advertising, but it was somewhat of a flop.

Partially because they did not do what now was done. No just present a concept but to build from that concept the best Tablet PC ever built. They should have done that when they presented the Ultramobile PC. The good bring is that they learned from that experience.

 

[double07]

MS, Apple, and pretty much many other company have good R&D lab that works on many new technologies. What to do with those technologies and how to make it practical to consumer that is different story. Often time, to make it affordable and practical they will have to wait for the right time and surrounding technology to come alone. I think the 2 years of making SP3 you mentioned, is probably more like redefining form factor, cost, etc... I don't think it's the technology itself. Apple actually worked on iPad alike before they released iPhone where iPad came out much later after iPhone. Surface technology is sure help pave the road for Surface tablet.

 

[markusbeutel]

I'm currently using my new sp3 in bed while watching Netflix. I've moved the angle of the kickstand several times in the last few minutes. Windows 8.1 is as touch-friendly as I've ever known with this device. And I've used iOS and android before.

Then it occurred to me. Anyone here remember the original surface tabletop from 2007? Sure, it was in a few coffee shops, but overall it was a non-event.

MS lied to us in that they said the sp3 is 2 years in the making. It's not. This form factor, the way that people can use this device, etc. have been part of MS's plan all along. They just needed for the right technology to come along. That's why after they came out of the tabletop surface, they realized that it wasn't what they envisioned, so they renamed it and started working on something else.

You know how you've envisioned something, built it, and realized it didn't come out like you wanted? I think the original tabletop surface was like that and they'd been working on the surface and windows 8 ever since.

Completely wrong. You have no idea how many iterations of various tablet devices MS has been working on. And the Surface table? How do you connect the dots with that to the Surface pro tablet? It's a completely different genre of design...

Here's an example of one of MS's tablet prototypes that the majority of users on this site probably haven't even heard about. If anything, this was moreover one of the precursors to the Surface tablet as we know it - and there's probably dozens hidden away in a warehouse somewhere that played a role as well. "Surface" is just a name MS liked and stuck with, nothing more nothing less.

 

[jnjroach]

Trivia - Panos Panay was the Lead Engineer on the original Surface Project (the tabletop versions), when he put the Surface Tablet team together he brought his core team over from the Original Surface Team which included the hardware, firmware and software teams and he also raided the Microsoft Garage Team that created the Courier Prototype and that started the development of the Surface line of Tablets....