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Today I got accused of bias in my reporting of the Apple iPad mini yesterday and ‘told off’ for not mentioning Microsoft’s Surface tablet. Firstly, anyone reading HotViews expecting a balanced view is in the wrong place. The hint about what we do here at TechMarketView is in the word ‘view’. Secondly, I’ve mentioned the Surface no less than eight times since its launch in June 12. The announcement from Microsoft yesterday was nothing more than a launch date (26th Oct) and a price list with the lowest priced 32GB without touchcover costing £399. I’m afraid that is rather above my present limit for my 7 year old godson.
But that is the rub. The Surface, in my view, is aimed firmly at the enterprise market. The iPad is a consumption device and I love it. But I still do my ‘real’ work – like writing this article or doing TMVs accounts – on something with a keyboard using Microsoft Office. The more expensive Surfaces come with a rather neat combined keyboard and cover. On top of that it will run Microsoft Office and has a USB port. If you add everything up you could easily get to £1K. But maybe, just maybe, I will be able to do real work on it?
If Microsoft can crack the ‘I can now dump my PC/laptop and do everything on my tablet’ it might well have a real winner on its hands. Although that might just accelerate the death of its PC ‘cashcow’ revenue stream.
Hope that will satisfy my critics although, as I said earlier, I never promised you balanced articles.
