Microsoft Posts Its Worst-Ever Quarterly Surface Loss

DPI said:
Well they did it before. I had my whole company on Windows Mobile devices (Moto Q, etc) because I believed in MS, in an environment where I had fought a lot of resistance and execs that had wanted Palms and BB's. And then MS got a decent level of marketshare, became complacent and stopped innovating and effectively abandoned it.

So naively believe MS won't "abandon" it, but been there/done that/never again for me.
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Ain't nothing naïve about that at all. The Windows Phone is part of a complete structure including Xbox one, Surface Tablets, Windows 8 and cloud devices / integration. To dump one is to dump them all. Oh, and what they once had is not what they have now. (Different leadership.)

Oh wait, this is DPI, nevermind.
 
Unknown-One said:
The company I work for is considering ordering a fleet of Surface Pro 3's for our sales staff to replace the iPad's they use now. Money-be-damned, they LOVE the functionality they offer and the fact that signatures actually come out picture-perfect every time.

Their one reservation? They need LTE support... and Microsoft has continually failed to provide a Surface Pro with 3G / LTE functionality. That one missing feature is losing them some BIG contracts.
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Seriously? If a company has the words "price be damned" in their institutional vocabulary, I'm sure they're already paying for phones that could be set up to tether....
 
Kueller said:
Seriously? If a company has the words "price be damned" in their institutional vocabulary, I'm sure they're already paying for phones that could be set up to tether....
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Yup, we have a fleet of company iPhones, nd tethering can be added very easily to their plans.

Problem is, the battery life is exceedingly poor while using them for tethering. The phone dies and then the salesperson is double-screwed with no phone and no internet access.
 
ManofGod said:
Not naïve, I think think Android is crap. Google hooks you on their "free" stuff and they have you. :rolleyes:
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If that were true "free stuff" like Linux would be a monopoly on the OS front by now. Never had a problem with my Android phones either...of course my opinion doesn't count because I'm a hater right?
 
Unknown-One said:
Yup, we have a fleet of company iPhones, nd tethering can be added very easily to their plans.

Problem is, the battery life is exceedingly poor while using them for tethering. The phone dies and then the salesperson is double-screwed with no phone and no internet access.
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If only a non-replaceable battery had caused similar reservations when choosing a phone to deploy... :p
 
Kueller said:
If only a non-replaceable battery had caused similar reservations when choosing a phone to deploy... :p
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I'm trying to convince them to try some Lumia's as replacements right now ;)

MUCH better exchange / sharepoint integration, VPN support, and the most-recent update to the OS adds Bluetooth tethering support.

Handy feature. It allows you tablet to tell your phone, over bluetooth, exactly when it needs wifi tethering. Saves a LOT of battery life on your phone, especially if you forget to disable tethering after you put your tablet away.
 
Maybe that's because windows still is mediocre on tablets, argue with me all you want, numbers don't lie. Nexus 7 (or whatever apple fanboys use these days) > surface/dell venue/lenovo for tablet purposes. Laptop > all for laptop purposes.
 
The problem with the surface is that for $800 you get a crappy I3 with 64GB of storage. A good laptop for $800 will get you an i7 with 1TB of storage and an Nvidia or AMD dedicated GPU. Why in gods name would you buy a Surface Pro? For drawing?
 
I heard a rumor that the Surface 3 is very light weight.
 
Taco said:
For what it's worth, I have a Lenovo Yoga, which I love. You can get an I7, 8GB memory, 256GB drive and a significantly higher resolution screen for $1,100.

Surface alternative? Same specs (except lower res screen) $1,720.

Stupid.
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This. It's not that the Surfaces are bad devices, it's that their competitors do it better and for cheaper. I looked at the SP3 and would most likely go with a Yoga or another brand because you get so much more.

The fact (last I checked) they haven't brought out a keyboard that has a battery in it is also a clue that they're not paying attention. That's where my TF101 excelled and still gets use today .. 3 years later?
 
They need to expand into laptops. One expensive tablet will not sell well.

Most people with iPads are happy with them. They were too late to market.

Once in a while I need a mouse to navigate webpages but my iPad can do everything else.
 
tazeat said:
Maybe that's because windows still is mediocre on tablets, argue with me all you want, numbers don't lie. Nexus 7 (or whatever apple fanboys use these days) > surface/dell venue/lenovo for tablet purposes. Laptop > all for laptop purposes.
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The big problem for Windows tablets is the relative lack of touch first apps compared to Android and iOS.
 
Spidey329 said:
This. It's not that the Surfaces are bad devices, it's that their competitors do it better and for cheaper. I looked at the SP3 and would most likely go with a Yoga or another brand because you get so much more.

The fact (last I checked) they haven't brought out a keyboard that has a battery in it is also a clue that they're not paying attention. That's where my TF101 excelled and still gets use today .. 3 years later?
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http://www.microsoft.com/surface/en-us/accessories/power-cover
 
VladDracule said:
Also for the record, i have yet to see a single Negative review of windows phone 8 or windows phone 8.1. Which proves that their lack of sales are in no reason due to quality. Its because people are so sold on crappy software like android (which is disgustingly slow being flash based) and do not want to change.
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In one post you criticized us for being "clueless little shills" -- and on a tech forum of all places!

Then you claim Android is slow because it's "Flash-based".

So I'm just going to throw my hands up in the air on this one.
 
Surface RT tablets that didn't even include the snap on keyboard/ case that cost you a month's salary and the soul of you first born might have a a bit to do with that since the really can't defer the loss any longer.
Windows 8 being an epic fail on desktops and laptops without touch screens helped everyone with "good enough" hardware decide NOT to upgrade to a newer computer as well.
The Xbox Onehelluvamistake launching with no games and the kinect required probably was the straw that broke the camel's back.
 
SGA76 said:
Surface RT tablets that didn't even include the snap on keyboard/ case that cost you a month's salary and the soul of you first born might have a a bit to do with that since the really can't defer the loss any longer.
Windows 8 being an epic fail on desktops and laptops without touch screens helped everyone with "good enough" hardware decide NOT to upgrade to a newer computer as well.
The Xbox Onehelluvamistake launching with no games and the kinect required probably was the straw that broke the camel's back.
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I am seriously looking forward to my Surface 2 that I am getting on Thursday, it is very fast. The Xbox one I have has plenty of good games now and it being consistently updated which is working great.

Windows 8 has always been fine on the desktop but, Windows 8.1 update 1 is a great improvement. Also, my Windows Phone 8.1 phone Lumia 925 is working great and integrates well with the rest of my Microsoft hardware and software.

No fail here and no broken camels back. Just things taking longer than people would like.
 
Spidey329 said:
The fact (last I checked) they haven't brought out a keyboard that has a battery in it is also a clue that they're not paying attention. That's where my TF101 excelled and still gets use today .. 3 years later?
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Actually, they've already brought out a battery + keyboard for the Surface 2, Surface Pro, and Surface Pro 2: http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/en_US/pdp/Surface-Power-Cover/productID.298465700

A newer version for the Surface Pro 3 is in the works, without a doubt.
 
jwcalla said:
In one post you criticized us for being "clueless little shills" -- and on a tech forum of all places!

Then you claim Android is slow because it's "Flash-based".

So I'm just going to throw my hands up in the air on this one.
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Have you looked into Android Source Code? I mean spent a lot of time looking at it?

I have, and I can tell you 100% that a huge portion of their code is nearly identical to flash in both how its architected and how its implemented. Which is why 3rd party UI's are so poor on it. Samsungs Touchwiz interface they use on their tablets is laggy and unresponsive.

The core of android is linux yes, but it is not without its issues. I have yet to see a single good 3rd party UI built on top of it, and its because its resource allocation and API is poor.
 
VladDracule said:
Have you looked into Android Source Code? I mean spent a lot of time looking at it?

I have, and I can tell you 100% that a huge portion of their code is nearly identical to flash in both how its architected and how its implemented. Which is why 3rd party UI's are so poor on it. Samsungs Touchwiz interface they use on their tablets is laggy and unresponsive.

The core of android is linux yes, but it is not without its issues. I have yet to see a single good 3rd party UI built on top of it, and its because its resource allocation and API is poor.
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There is nothing related to Flash in Android.
 
jwcalla said:
There is nothing related to Flash in Android.
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maybe not directly but that doesnt change the fact that system architecture is extremely similar. Just because its not called "flash" doesn't mean the code cant be extremely similar with similar weaknesses/issues
 
VladDracule said:
maybe not directly but that doesnt change the fact that system architecture is extremely similar. Just because its not called "flash" doesn't mean the code cant be extremely similar with similar weaknesses/issues
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Android is an OS based on Linux. Flash is neither based on Linux nor is it even an OS. Flash started life as a third-party drawing application for an OS you've never heard of that has nothing to do with Linux; Flash is now still a third-party multimedia player that is most certainly not an OS.

I'm not sure how you can confuse an application with an OS.
 
I'm thinking someone who has claimed to "spent time reading through Android code" doesn't know the difference between java and flash and just sees a .jar framework file and makes the assumption its a flash file even though Sun wrote Java and Macromedia wrote flash and shockwave which Adobe bought then combined which in all honesty have NOTHING to do with each other.
Please don't spread misinformation.
 
VladDracule said:
maybe not directly but that doesnt change the fact that system architecture is extremely similar. Just because its not called "flash" doesn't mean the code cant be extremely similar with similar weaknesses/issues
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The code is not even remotely similar in even the most superficial of ways.
 
And yet nobody here is even remotely understanding what I am saying. The file type has absolutely nothing to do with software architecture, nor does the programming language. As i said it is not directly using flash but its techniques especially in rendering are extremely similar with extremely similar throughput and overall software design. Im in no way spreading misinformation im stating fact that is clearly above your heads. Spend some time looking at the source code for said systems and come back.
 
Anyone explain why 3rd party interfaces like samsung touchwiz run like shit on Android. Can anyone even begin to scratch the surface? I flat out guarantee that you cant. And it is not because those 3rd party programs are shit optimized. It is inherent to Androids API and resources. Again, im going a significantly lower level than you think, and am talking actual code design/architecture and the similarities at a lower level than the application itself.
 
VladDracule said:
And yet nobody here is even remotely understanding what I am saying. The file type has absolutely nothing to do with software architecture, nor does the programming language. As i said it is not directly using flash but its techniques especially in rendering are extremely similar with extremely similar throughput and overall software design. Im in no way spreading misinformation im stating fact that is clearly above your heads. Spend some time looking at the source code for said systems and come back.
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I understand what you're saying, but I simply do not see any similarity to Flash at all, to put it diplomatically.

I don't have high opinions of the Android programming framework but I think that its weaknesses are almost entirely hidden from the user experience.
 
Glad to see the M$ schil is still raving strong because they probably took a few basic programming corses at the local highschool's night learning annex.
If you want to get techical flash, the android api, directx, opengl and mantle are all alike too because they render images on the screen in similar ways, like with the use of hardware acceleration...
But then again, I'd expect that point to go over said schil's head....
 
You guys are feeding nutrients to a tumor.. why? Best thing is throw him into ignore-jail and move on.
 
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