Dang, Mitch, don't you ever give up? You continually slam the SP for it's form factor yet you bought one. You continually bash MS for not having/announcing a new SP2 just months after the SP came out. You come on the forum and make a prediction that an SP2 will never happen. Then you double down saying MS will for sure not produce an SP2. Then an SP2 is announced. You bash the SP form factor saying no one is copying it. Then now we have Sony copying it.
At what point do you give up? At one point your posts were relevant and insightful. Now, while we still respect your viewpoint, it's really getting old. I mean, calling the SP2 a turd before it even comes out. Is that necessary?
Don't you people pay any attention at all?
A 72 Pinto is a great car if your only alternative is walking, but it's a turd compared to a Porsche. I bought the Surface Pro at the time (as I have mentioned countless times) because it was the best hybrid with a pen available at the time. However, this does not mean I ever loved or do love this machine. Apparently considering it was a sales disaster of Biblical proportions, I was and am correct in my analysis.
MS never should have done the Surface Pro 2 but since they were determined to, they should have done a complete redesign. The 10.6 form factor does not work for most business users (hence the terrible sales). The lack of a backlit keyboard and additional ports without using a bulky dock is also a fail for business users. The inability to store the pen internally another huge fail. NONE of these issue were addressed in the SP2.
What did we get? The SAME SHAPE, THE SAME SCREEN, THE SAME PORTS, THE SAME NON-BACKLIT KEYBOARD, a CPU refresh, more ram and a 2 stage kickstand. That's it? And they hope to compete for business dollars with bigger and better screens, backlit keyboards, longer battery life and more ports?
The SP2 does not show MS's commitment to the brand, actually exactly the opposite. If they were committed they would have redesigned it completely but they could do this "refresh" with almost no additional R & D and using most of the same hardware. This isn't an SP2, it's an SP1.5. MS chose the cheapest way to not wave the white flag and admit SP1 failed.
Surface 2 looks quite promising (unless MS overprices it) but the SP2 my friends is a turd and will sell about as well. I'm sorry if I bruised your fanboy sensitivities but I am nonetheless correct.
** P.S., I was actually wrong about one thing. I assumed MS wouldn't be dumb enough to create a Surface Pro 2 and so said there would not be one. For that I apologize. Never assume MS is too smart to do something dumb.
One more small point. Just because you personally like your Surface Pro does not mean it is a good design for commercial success. When I say the SP2 is a turd I am speaking to the fact that it will fail with it's broader target audience. I mean, there were even some people who loved the Zune.
** The device I was going to move to as a SP replacement vaporwared due to some patent and copyright issues (or so I read) so I'll just be waiting until the holidays when all the really cool stuff comes out to step up. Would I consider the SP2 (considering I am MS's target audience pretty much exactly)? Nope. I would need to buy the SP2, the battery cover and the dock just to do less than pretty much any new hybrid does.
