Tablets I/O-Wise Are a Bit of a Con?

[leeshor]

I have some customer invoices I saved from 1997 that are funny to read, now. Wasn't funny back then. Wish I had some of the ones from 1991 or earlier, they would have been a riot.

1997 examples from an actual invoice
"optional" 24x CD $125.00
Upgrade from 32MB to 64MB (yes MB) of memory $170.00
Upgrade to 128MB, $490.00
2.5 GB hard disk $325.00

 

[mohcho]

I have a 64 MB microsd card sitting on my desk at work. Pretty crazy that in the same form factor I also have a 64 GB microsd card that I bought for the SP2.

 

[CrippsCorner]

Every surface that's been released there is always someone claiming that it's over priced. So what don't buy it, simple as that.

I think everyone quickly forgets that 20 years ago prices of even the most basic PC's were £1,000+

Yes everything started coming down, but now we have a new range of 'premium' products, and I'm a firm believer in you get what you pay for!

 

[jimkraz]

I remember my son buying a Windows 95 PC with monitor and keyboard weeks after Windows 95 came out, don't remember exactly what size the monitor was but don't think it was 15", it all cost him about £1500, shortly after that he decided to up the ram, it was costing about £1.50 a meg, yes a meg, hard drives were about a £1.00 a meg, my first PC had a 20meg hard drive and Windows 3.1 all on floppy disks, about ten or twelve of them, yes it would be nice if we could buy a Surface Pro 3 for £400, but it's not going to happen.

 

[Bazzer]

I think it's a excellent design but all Surfaces 1,2 and 3 & Rt should have had at least 2 USB ports built in. so at least you could copy from Camera Sd card to USB hard drive in one action. That's not a lot to ask for.

 

[kristalsoldier]

I think it's a excellent design but all Surfaces 1,2 and 3 & Rt should have had at least 2 USB ports built in. so at least you could copy from Camera Sd card to USB hard drive in one action. That's not a lot to ask for.

With an increase in cost and (slightly) in weight...yes, of course. At the end of the day, it is a question of trade-offs.

 

[leeshor]

I think it's a excellent design but all Surfaces 1,2 and 3 & Rt should have had at least 2 USB ports built in. so at least you could copy from Camera Sd card to USB hard drive in one action. That's not a lot to ask for.

I assume you know you could do that with a USB HUB when needed.

 

[thegrinch]

I think it's a excellent design but all Surfaces 1,2 and 3 & Rt should have had at least 2 USB ports built in. so at least you could copy from Camera Sd card to USB hard drive in one action. That's not a lot to ask for.

For me, this simply isn't an issue... copying locally first and then to the next device is pretty simple. If it added weight (and cost), I hardly see the benefit. Then again, many devices don't even have USB ports so it's a worse situation (and solves the above problem by completely ignoring it, lol).

 

[drolem]

Such is the market these days. Microsoft is (reliably) rumored to be losing money on every SP2 they have sold.

Link to that rumor? Based on what cost? DM? (Direct Material) DM + shipping + advertising? Everything including R&D?

They sure lost a truckoad of money on the RT, but I haven't heard of such a fiasco with the Pro line.

 

[leeshor]

Link to that rumor? Based on what cost? DM? (Direct Material) DM + shipping + advertising? Everything including R&D?

They sure lost a truckoad of money on the RT, but I haven't heard of such a fiasco with the Pro line.

I lied, it isn't really rumor. I was sugar coating it.

Microsoft losing money on Surface tablets
Microsoft's Surface continues to lose money | PCWorld
Microsoft's money pit: Surface has lost $1.2B - Computerworld
Microsoft Surface tablet is still losing money, figures show | Technology | theguardian.com

In business it doesn't matter a whole lot where or why you are losing money if the product ultimately cost more than you make. I know because I've owned my own company since 1989. A loss is a loss.

 

[drolem]

That's for the complete line, including the ARM based tablets. I believe those were the weak sellers, and Pro line is close to breaking even.

 

[leeshor]

I can't put my finger on the article I remember reading regarding the Surface Pro specifically but as they say, close only counts in horseshoes.