Microsoft Surface 2 May Ditch The ‘RT’ Label

[beman39]

interesting article about the Surface 2 tablets coming out soon


We’ve heard a lot of rumors over the past few months that Microsoft is working on the next generation Surface tablets. The company’s tablet hasn’t exactly won over the market, in fact Microsoft took a $900 million hit because of it. They’ve slashed prices and offered them to schools at a fraction of the original price, but all of that hasn’t translated into success for the tablet. Perhaps Microsoft will have better luck with the next generation Surface tablets. Rumor has it that Surface 2 might drop the “RT” for good.

AdDuplex claims to have spotted new Surface tablets accessing its Windows ad network regularly. The devices that appear are named “Microsoft Corporation Surface 2″ and “Microsoft Corporation Surface with Windows 8.1 Pro.” The first one will be running Windows RT like the current Surface RT does. Nothing has been confirmed right now though, this is merely an observation. The difference between RT and Pro Surface tablets isn’t limited to the OS, Pro comes with much better hardware and subsequently costs much more. Would it make any difference at all if Microsoft decided not to attach the “RT” label to its entry level next generation Surface tablet? After all, it doesn’t really have any relation to the tablet’s performance and design, the two key factors upon which its success is going to be determined.

original article link here:
Microsoft Surface 2 May Ditch The ?RT? Label | Ubergizmo

 

[beman39]

I think this would NOT be a good idea to do, already we've seen that people were not happy about the RT because there was already confusion about what could be run/installed on the RT when it first came out, imagine all the confusion if they would drop the "RT" on its devices that do not run full win 8.1 not to be rude but there is enough "dumb folks" out there that can't differentiate between a full windows 8 and RT which just added to bad rep that the Surface tablet got! also all the iCrapple and android fanboys saying lies about how slow the device is and how it can't do this or that. anyways that's just my opinion what do you guys think?

 

[machistmo]

Microsoft Surface naming debacle about to get worse | Microsoft windows - InfoWorld

 

[demandarin]

A smart consumer does his/her research before committing to a purchase like this. Not worried. As long as I know the differences I'm good..lol

 

[oion]

I can't read into this in great detail since I'm at work, but it sounds like Microsoft intends to (rumored, maybe) stick with just "Surface" for the WinRT version and "Surface Pro" for the Win8 version?

There was nothing wrong with the original naming scheme, IMO; it was marketing and lack of middleman training (the floor reps at retailers) that screwed everything up. They should stick with RT/Pro labels as differentiators because those did differentiate, it's just that everything else on top of dumb consumers did not help in the least. By changing the labels, it breaks consistency and, in a way, admits that the crappy reviews were right and the product itself (SurRT) was bad. Which it isn't; it just wasn't for everyone. Meh.

I smell another marketing failure. Those people should've been fired from MS back in 2012.

A smart consumer does his/her research before committing to a purchase like this. Not worried. As long as I know the differences I'm good..lol

This didn't work the first time for the simple reasons that MS's own marketing sucked AND the initial reviewers didn't know how to review either Surface AND all the various haters/fanboys muddied the signal with false commentary. In this case, I'd say a smart consumer is someone with the patience to dig through all the crap but is someone unwedded to branding and with enough technical background to separate noise from signal. That is not, unfortunately, even the average "smart" consumer. So much potential lost, man.

 

[pallentx]

I still say sales has nothing to do with naming. I devices, Android phones, Google products all have terrible naming, yet consumers manage to figure it all out most of the time.

Its pretty simple. RT hasn't sold because it only run store apps and the store is not very robust compared to the competition. You can rename it, you make it faster, you can do everything all the "analysts" say, but if it doesn't have the apps, its not going to compete head to head with the iPad in sales despite being a far superior platform otherwise.

 

[demandarin]

I don't get the deal with all this lack of apps talk. Just a few months ago the win8 store surpassed 100,000 apps. It actually grew, app wise, at a faster pace than android or apple ever did. How many apps do people want? Lol you only can load or use so many at a time. Although android and apple have large app ecosystem, a good amount of those apps are crap. You have to know how to sift through to get to the good stuff.

Regardless, RT platform will take more hold. I'm just happy to hear they not giving up so easily, despite sales. People will come around. The masses still stuck on ipads and straight consumption devices. MS is in the tablet game to move it to a new direction. Which I'm very glad to see.

 

[beman39]

I don't get the deal with all this lack of apps talk. Just a few months ago the win8 store surpassed 100,000 apps. It actually grew, app wise, at a faster pace than android or apple ever did. How many apps do people want? Lol you only can load or use so many at a time. Although android and apple have large app ecosystem, a good amount of those apps are crap. You have to know how to sift through to get to the good stuff.

Regardless, RT platform will take more hold. I'm just happy to hear they not giving up so easily, despite sales. People will come around. The masses still stuck on ipads and straight consumption devices. MS is in the tablet game to move it to a new direction. Which I'm very glad to see.

absolutely right, and its funny tho besides the morons who thought the RT was a full computer and thought they can install legacy apps, I think if they would have stuck it out they would have ended up liking it, everyone I know who got an RT who DONE the research luv the RT, jeez even my wife who isn't into the tablets LUVS her RT and uses it all the time, which her other 2 tablets before she wasn't crazy about lol

 

[pallentx]

I don't get the deal with all this lack of apps talk. Just a few months ago the win8 store surpassed 100,000 apps. It actually grew, app wise, at a faster pace than android or apple ever did. How many apps do people want? Lol you only can load or use so many at a time. Although android and apple have large app ecosystem, a good amount of those apps are crap. You have to know how to sift through to get to the good stuff.

Regardless, RT platform will take more hold. I'm just happy to hear they not giving up so easily, despite sales. People will come around. The masses still stuck on ipads and straight consumption devices. MS is in the tablet game to move it to a new direction. Which I'm very glad to see.

The app situation is real. Yes, its improving, and as new Windows 8 computers get out into people's hands, it will continue to improve - hopefully dramatically. Still, the fact is that the Surface doesn't have number or quality of available apps its competitor has. It has a lot. It has plenty for me, but its still way short of what you can find for the iPad. I left an iPad for the Surface and I'm very happy about that decision, but there is no question that there was more quality and quantity of apps available in the iOS world.

When the Surface launched, it was much worse. You had a Windows tablet that could only run new apps and the app selection was very weak. That killed RT sales right out of the gate. It wasn't performance, it wasn't the name. It wasn't confused customers. I think the platform has enormous potential. The OS, the hardware, the experience out-of-the box is superior to anything else out there right now. They are just going to need time to get the apps. In the meantime, sales will lag.

 

[oion]

The app situation is real. Yes, its improving, and as new Windows 8 computers get out into people's hands, it will continue to improve - hopefully dramatically. Still, the fact is that the Surface doesn't have number or quality of available apps its competitor has. It has a lot. It has plenty for me, but its still way short of what you can find for the iPad. I left an iPad for the Surface and I'm very happy about that decision, but there is no question that there was more quality and quantity of apps available in the iOS world.

When the Surface launched, it was much worse. You had a Windows tablet that could only run new apps and the app selection was very weak. That killed RT sales right out of the gate. It wasn't performance, it wasn't the name. It wasn't confused customers. I think the platform has enormous potential. The OS, the hardware, the experience out-of-the box is superior to anything else out there right now. They are just going to need time to get the apps. In the meantime, sales will lag.

People who are more concerned about the number of apps they will never use and compare the pure-toddler-entertainment functionality of the iPad versus either Surface are not exactly smart consumers. And they're really not the target audience for either Surface, either.

Seriously, who actually uses those thousands. Or even hundreds.

And how many of the apps are redundant and with simply fewer functions than the full website, like Facebook? Or Youtube?

All that aside. Microsoft Office is the $140 killer app. Most reviews just kind of gloss over this fact, and even though the RT version is missing certain features (thank the gods Outlook RT is coming so maybe businesses with existing umbrella Office licenses will finally take a look at it), you just can't beat it for actual productivity unless you get a full OS tablet.

I wasted $$ on a stupid "compatible with Word!" iOS app and it didn't even support: nested lists, tables, paragraph formatting, text colors. For me, the Surface RT had no potential to meet because it already met it. I was able to sit down (after patching, obviously ) and start editing a 40-page paper using Track Changes and crunch some data in Excel and make a graph. And streaming Amazon Prime videos and logging into Facebook, etc. in multiple tabs--no problem. Who needs that app icon clutter, anyway. And with those windows either snapped or, my preference, 50/50 split on the desktop view (which is why I stick with the desktop, but I hear 8.1 will allow more flexibility with the metro side), I can get a whole lot done.

Microsoft failed in not heavily marketing the thing to students (hello!), and one of the current commercials is still comparing it to iPads, but they're really completely different device types. I realize that's necessary on some level since most consumers are retarded when they're only concerned about app store numbers, but for pete's sake, there are so many strengths and differences that should have been touted from the beginning. Gah.

 

[Nick M]

>All that aside. Microsoft Office is the $140 killer app. Most reviews just kind of gloss over this fact, and even though the RT version is missing certain features (thank the gods Outlook RT is coming so maybe businesses with existing umbrella Office licenses will finally take a look at it), you just can't beat it for actual productivity unless you get a full OS tablet. <

Outlook RT works just like Outlook and handles my work email requirements just fine. The rest of the RT Office suite meets my needs just as if I were running a full blown laptop but in a smaller, light form factor. I bought into the original iPad when first released and have owned the second version and presently own the iPad 3, all worked for me in a fashion but not totally seamless like the RT.

I'm not a big gamer nor participate in social media to any great extent so those apps are not first tier for my needs. In its present form, SRT pretty much duplicates my laptop in form, fit and function.

Regards,

Nick

 

[demandarin]

There's some good discussion in here. I would hope at least someone from MS is taking a look.