I expected to click through and have my belief that Microsoft just doesn't "get it" reinforced, but I have to say, that is a really appealing device to me.
My biggest gripe with my (school issued) iPad is that text entry is awful and I can't get serious multi-tasking work done. This looks like it's specifically trying to address those concerns.
That said, that ad sucked imho. If Microsoft has ever not "gotten" something, it's establishing an awesome brand (sans Xbox and Word, perhaps). I have no idea how they can improve this, but I really hope Microsoft's surface line is a huge success so Apple and Google have some more competition.
Microsoft's brand problems stand in stark regard to Apple's success with branding - lack of a coherent overall product strategy, releasing too many products, releasing too soon, changing tone and strategy too often - failing to make up their mind and focus. In response they seem often to try and compensate by racheting up the enthusiasm levels, with limited success. It's hard to trust a company pushing their newest product on you with maniacal enthusiasm - the emotional environment that attitude creates makes it virtually impossible to really enjoy a product, to feel comfortable and relaxed and as if the product truly belongs to you. This is something Apple has been really successful with, and it's absolutely crucial if Microsoft is to host a truly creative user community which can match Apple's.
The big problem as I see it is it's a situation which naturally leads to desperation for a quick solution. But desperation and rushing are actually what Microsoft needs to avoid. And I'm not convinced in the slightest that Microsoft has recognised or addressed these issues, because they seem to be moving so fast and hoping for such rapid responses with their current efforts. Unfortunately the costs for trying too hard/too fast are pretty high - you taint the brand image indefinitely, as it's pretty hard to change that initial impression - certainly hard to even try without seeming like a company that has no self-identity but . With the amount of resources and innovation they're putting into their current efforts, it'd be a shame to see them blow it. I think they would have done better taking their time and letting momentum build slower.
I'm reminded of the story of how the Lotus guys (the car company) managed to convince the James Bond franchise managers to place a Lotus in a Bond film. At the time the Bond guys were being bombarded with requests from car companies, because being featured in their films was so lucrative. The Lotus guys went the other way - they took the car they wanted to push, stripped off all the signage which indicated it was a Lotus, and left it outside of the Bond franchise HQ. As they hoped, the Bond guys came out, saw the car, thought it looked amazing, but because they couldn't work out what car it was, they became obsessed with it and determined to find out. Lotus used quietness and confidence to rise above the fray of car manufacturers all trying to out-shout each other.
The true proof of confidence is relaxation. Without it, a company is always on the defensive.
Did you watch the Surface Ads - they look pretty damn confident of their product. Their strategy for the last 18 months has also been consistent, "Tablets are great for portability, but the iPad is not a knowledge workers tool, it's a media-consumption devices for most people - the Surface gives you the portability, and the knowledge worker flexibility"
Sorry, but trying to say that Microsoft satisfies the consistency criteria because of its behaviour over the last 18 months is absurd. 18 months is nothing - the timespans that matter in this game are more like 18 years.
Microsoft over the last 13 years has flopped around from one idea to another. Their attitude has been build first, worry about identity second. They've rushed around, trying something, failing, rushing into another thing. Even within the space of one push they lack consistency. The Surface ads might be well-made but they're completely all over the place in tone, attitude and feature emphasis. Think about it: there was the liquid metal one, then the dancing clicking one, then this one. The first was hardcore/intense, the second one was exuberant/dizzying, the third was calm/productive. What's the common link? Where's the consistency in their messaging?
Think about Apple's strategy in contrast. Their product strategy, company image, attitude and presentation has basically been one smooth progression from the iPod to the iPhone 5S. The image they've presented has been the epitome of stability and consistency. It's not that they don't make mistakes or make strategy shifts - it's just that Apple astutely realises that it's best to make these changes subtly.
It's only techy people like us who notice shifts in emphasis (specs don't matter > A7 64-bit processor). Everyone else loves it. They're not saying the same things over and over again - their messages and emphasis changes over time, but the change is gradual and smooth. Each product, each launch, each ad builds on top of the last.
It's not to say that there aren't recurrent themes in Microsoft's messaging - but the difference between the two is night and day. And what's the result? Apple makes vast amounts of money - all without seeming to lift a finger convincing people to buy their products. They're reaping the fruits of taking the time to work out their strategy early on, and sticking to that strategy.
That's the problem for Microsoft - this is a game where it's your behaviour over years, not months, that matters most. Until they really learn and absorb that lesson they are extremely vulnerable I think.
Fair enough - I agree that Microsoft has been shifting it's messaging quite a bit - but I think a lot of that has to do with Apple being a functional organization (singular vision directed on downwards) and Microsoft is a Divisional Organization (multiple business lines). Where the single vision is communicated (Windows Everywhere) - it's not always appropriate -(Consumers care about experience, not product lines)
Sorry, but trying to say that Microsoft satisfies the consistency criteria because of its behaviour over the last 18 months is absurd. 18 months is nothing - the timespans that matter in this game are more like 18 years.
You can't compare MS to Apple regarding those products on the basis that you believe an 18 year time-span is what matters in this game. Because the ipod, the iphone, the ipad and the macbook air aren't even 10 years-old.
But I agree with you on your main point: MS is highly inconsistent regarding its branding and that's a problem for consumer identification and reliance perception.
The 18 year figure was just illustrative of the fact that I thought he was an order of magnitude off. I didn't mean that a company needs to remain consistent for 18 years exactly - but it is years of consistency that count, the more the better.
As far as Apple's performance - the iPod range is 12 years old at this point. Apple has been producing consistently branded Macbooks since 2006, this line is clearly continuous with the iBooks which go back to 1999. The iPhone range is 6 years old at this point. Consumer OS X is 12 years old - they've only just dropped the cat name motif, and Mavericks is still recognisably a progression from 10.0. Etc.
Get a type cover not touch cover. Surface Pro is an amazing device for college-goers. Onenote with stylus is a good note-taking tool. I ran SolidWorks, Matlab on it, with Mozilla going 20+ tabs at a time. Pulls serious power, and importantly it has portability. Only problematic thing sometimes can be small screen, which I solved by having an (pre-existing) external monitor. It entirely replaced ipad+laptop for me with added comfort of running legacy apps which windows has no dearth of.
Battery on the Surface Pro 1 is anywhere from 4 to 6 hours on average for me. You can squeeze out 7 with all wireless off, and using it only for typing. The Pro 2 addresses the battery life. It adds 20% more.
One of the most useful features for me, is the (pen)handwriting recognition on the Pro. I have terrible handwriting, terrible. I take a lot of notes in OneNote, and then convert them to text. This way I can share with my team, all the info I jotted down, in a "professional" manner. A few typos come up, usually upper vs lower case.
The pen is my favorite feature, I use it in Illustrator and Photoshop, daily. Running Ps and Ai, the battery will last about 4ish hours. Not bad, but not great. I usually will hook up an external monitor for Photoshop.
MSoft needs to work on communicating the pen, is not a stylus. It has pressure sensitivity, and lets you rest your hand on the screen while writing. A major difference from the iPad stylus(es).
The pen is amazing in quality. Its a full Wacom pen, with full pressure sensitivity. It counts as a totally separate input, so your "finger" and "pen" are seen completely differently.
In contrast, an iPad stylus thinks that the pen is just another finger. "Write then swipe" simply works on the Surface, for instance.
I have a Surface Pro 1 with the type cover. Great tablet, I really like it. However the type cover is only a marginal improvement over the iPad (which I also own) for typing. If you really need to type a lot, a laptop is still your best bet.
Why is the type cover only a marginal improvement? I recently tried a type cover for the first time and was able to hit my typical 100 WPM on typeracer.com. To me, it seemed like a significant improvement over both the on-screen keyboard and even the touch cover.
Maybe you had better luck with it than me. I've tried on many occasions to buckle down and use it for typing and I always give up and get a real keyboard.
I just gave typeracer a try and got 81wpm, so you also may just be a better typist than me.
The iPad has a Lightning connector, for which you can get an USB adapter. That way, if you absolutely must connect a wired keyboard (instead of Bluetooth), you can.
Could you expand on this please - why would anybody believe that a laptop running a 1.7 GHz Intel Core i7 with 8 GB 16000 MHz DDR3, OS X 10.8.5, and a very snappy flash based storage system wasn't a "real computer?" I think you were trying to say, "It's a real computer with great battery and portability" - right?
I continue to be intrigued by the surface pro - Apple has been slow to bring a stylus capable tablet to market - and there are times when sketching is really important - and it's painful on the "crayon stylus" that you have to use on the iPad. Also - Windows has a lot of great Games. :-)
Multitasking/task switching and lack of a real shell make the iPad a non-starter for me for getting real work done - I would never consider going on a trip with just my iPad.
I think Microsoft is onto something - I just wish they had a decent Terminal App (something better than putty) and bash (cygwin always just feels like it's been tacked on).
"it feels like real computer" was to contrast it with the surface and other devices that are supposed to replace the laptops, not to imply that macbook air is not a real laptop.
The main problem with the Surface Pro IMO, is that it has no Ethernet port... or ports in general. (just one USB3.0 port). Larger laptops are needed if you want to connect to say, your Gb-Ethernet network or whatever.
The Macbook Air may gain a USB3.0 port over the Surface Pro... but thats about it. It also fails to have an Ethernet port, and also lacks the ability to run any Windows-compatible application.
Compared to the Surface Pro, the Macbook Air's resolution is poor and restricting. Finally, a decent Surface Pro will cost you $1030 (Type Cover + Surface Pro), while a similarly specced Macbook Air costs more.
Aside from having "one more" USB3.0 port, I don't think the Macbook Air has any real advantage over the Surface Pro. A "real portable workstation" would be either a Dell Precision Pro, or something similar to those specs. (IE: DVD Drive, tons of Ports, Gigabit Ethernet).
Granted, both companies offer a solution. Surface-Dock seems rather complete for the Surface Pro, and Thunderbolt from the MacWorld does work. Nonetheless, it'd be nice to have enough features built into a laptop... extra devices / gadgets / attachments are annoying to handle.
Macbook Air is cheaper - it has a 10 Gigabit Thunderbolt port (useful for docking to a Gigabit Port, external display, etc..), Two USB 3.0 ports, and 4 GB memory for $999. A 4GB/128GB Surface Pro goes for $1128.
Pro has the touch screen, and stylus.
I think, at the end of the day, what decides this is how much you can use the stylus and want windows apps/games.
I don't have very much hope for Thunderbolt. It seems to be going the way by Firewire.
The Thunderbolt Cables cost like $40 a pop, adapters can cost more as well. Its a far cry from just being able to plug a GbE port directly into the darn thing.
As stated before, Thunderbolt is roughly comparable to the Surface Dock. You can connect an external display and Ethernet port through Thunderbolt, but you have to pay through the nose on extra wires and extra adapters. (or $200 for the Surface Dock).
BTW: Surface Pro prices are much cheaper. $1030 gets you the 128GB model now. The SurfacePro has 1080p screen. Not a single Macbook Air model has a decent resolution.
I think at the end of the day, what decides it is how much you want the 1080p screen, Stylus, Windows applications (and Windows Domain Joining for those business users), and portability.
Price-for-price, Surface Pro just gives you more than even the cheapest Macbook Air. Its just a better deal frankly.
Re: Thunderbolt - You have USB 3.0 for generic connections. Thunderbolt for VGA/Gigabit/Docking/DVDI. Thunderbolt is thankfully compatible with Display Port, so you can connect your 30" monitor at 2560x1600 over a $5 mini-display port to display port cable (as I am right now). I haven't used my Gigabit Adapter in a couple years, and this was even before 802.11ac came out. I don't know if I'll ever use one again.
I guess if you are resolution sensitive - then the Surface Pro has that going for it as well (I've never preferred the retina versus the normal resolution on Laptops - so that's kind of wasted on me)
Regarding what's a better deal - like you said, it all depends on what you want. I've got bash/terminal.app/aperture/quicksilver all in my finger memory now, so kind of stuck on OS X. And - we can't overlook the keyboard. Be interesting to see if the Surface Pro can go head to head with a laptop keyboard.
Regarding Windows Domain Joining - works fine on OS X for the last couple iterations, pretty much the same as the PC for things like accessing file shares. And, Office Productivity Apps (Excel/Office/PowerPoint) are pretty identical on the Mac (plus we get Acorn, Pixelmator, iDraw)...
You've got me intrigued though - I'll have to go into the Microsoft Store and play with one for a bit - the Stylus alone is really, really intriguing. And all those PC Games...
I have SecureCRT on my Windows systems (been a loyal users since 1998). It's somewhat better than Putty - but neither of them compare to Terminal.App/iTerm2.
It's always been unclear to me why nobody has written a great terminal application for Windows. Is it just because the majority of those who really care are already using Linux or OS X?
I find it somewhat ironic that a significant portion of the command line population has migrated to the macintosh.
Indeed, I own a 2012 MacBook Air and I'm convinced they're the best line of laptop computers on the market right now. I severely underestimated how much I would enjoy the tremendous portability.
I guess I don't need both an MBA and a Surface, considering I also have an iPhone.
Honestly now that I think about it, I think my biggest concern with the surface would be the fact that it runs windows. As a hacker who grew up on UNIX/Linux I find that really limiting, but moreover as someone who has heavily adopted the Apple ecosystem, I feel like I could never use the surface to its fullest potential.
I think what I want is a Surface which runs iOS X. (You read that correctly.)
The thing is, however, that when you actually try them out, the MB air leaves a hugely better impression.
The MB air is light, sleek, elegant, it feels good in your hands, it makes you want to use it and carry it around—and that's despite it being a notebook, not a tablet.
The Surface Pro 1, however, is exactly the opposite: it's heavy, thick, uncomfortable to hold because of the weird sharp-edged shape, and insanely hot during operation. The Surface Pro is exactly what a tablet shouldn't be. I suppose MS has all but admitted that with their strong marketing emphasis on using it with a stand and a keyboard.
I certainly hope for MS's sake that the Surface Pro 2 is better, because the SP1 was a disaster...
I used Surface Pro for my graduate thesis extensively. It left a huge impression on me. Metro side apps were all fun for me, while a swipe to desktop meant all work business. Yeah 1 kg is not a big deal for me, i taught classes with it, took notes with it, ran IBM SPSS doing ANOVA, wrote papers in LATEX and did some SolidWorks, and heavy MATLAB work on it. It is hot, yes. But then, it remained in my lap for around 5% of the time.
I find your claims ("heavy, thick, uncomfortable to hold because of the weird sharp-edged shape") to be without merit, since I used it extensively for some major work. Going forward, Surface Pro is the future for me and my household.
Comments
I expected to click through and have my belief that Microsoft just doesn't "get it" reinforced, but I have to say, that is a really appealing device to me.
My biggest gripe with my (school issued) iPad is that text entry is awful and I can't get serious multi-tasking work done. This looks like it's specifically trying to address those concerns.
That said, that ad sucked imho. If Microsoft has ever not "gotten" something, it's establishing an awesome brand (sans Xbox and Word, perhaps). I have no idea how they can improve this, but I really hope Microsoft's surface line is a huge success so Apple and Google have some more competition.
Microsoft's brand problems stand in stark regard to Apple's success with branding - lack of a coherent overall product strategy, releasing too many products, releasing too soon, changing tone and strategy too often - failing to make up their mind and focus. In response they seem often to try and compensate by racheting up the enthusiasm levels, with limited success. It's hard to trust a company pushing their newest product on you with maniacal enthusiasm - the emotional environment that attitude creates makes it virtually impossible to really enjoy a product, to feel comfortable and relaxed and as if the product truly belongs to you. This is something Apple has been really successful with, and it's absolutely crucial if Microsoft is to host a truly creative user community which can match Apple's.
The big problem as I see it is it's a situation which naturally leads to desperation for a quick solution. But desperation and rushing are actually what Microsoft needs to avoid. And I'm not convinced in the slightest that Microsoft has recognised or addressed these issues, because they seem to be moving so fast and hoping for such rapid responses with their current efforts. Unfortunately the costs for trying too hard/too fast are pretty high - you taint the brand image indefinitely, as it's pretty hard to change that initial impression - certainly hard to even try without seeming like a company that has no self-identity but . With the amount of resources and innovation they're putting into their current efforts, it'd be a shame to see them blow it. I think they would have done better taking their time and letting momentum build slower.
I'm reminded of the story of how the Lotus guys (the car company) managed to convince the James Bond franchise managers to place a Lotus in a Bond film. At the time the Bond guys were being bombarded with requests from car companies, because being featured in their films was so lucrative. The Lotus guys went the other way - they took the car they wanted to push, stripped off all the signage which indicated it was a Lotus, and left it outside of the Bond franchise HQ. As they hoped, the Bond guys came out, saw the car, thought it looked amazing, but because they couldn't work out what car it was, they became obsessed with it and determined to find out. Lotus used quietness and confidence to rise above the fray of car manufacturers all trying to out-shout each other.
The true proof of confidence is relaxation. Without it, a company is always on the defensive.
Did you watch the Surface Ads - they look pretty damn confident of their product. Their strategy for the last 18 months has also been consistent, "Tablets are great for portability, but the iPad is not a knowledge workers tool, it's a media-consumption devices for most people - the Surface gives you the portability, and the knowledge worker flexibility"
Great Ads.
Sorry, but trying to say that Microsoft satisfies the consistency criteria because of its behaviour over the last 18 months is absurd. 18 months is nothing - the timespans that matter in this game are more like 18 years.
Microsoft over the last 13 years has flopped around from one idea to another. Their attitude has been build first, worry about identity second. They've rushed around, trying something, failing, rushing into another thing. Even within the space of one push they lack consistency. The Surface ads might be well-made but they're completely all over the place in tone, attitude and feature emphasis. Think about it: there was the liquid metal one, then the dancing clicking one, then this one. The first was hardcore/intense, the second one was exuberant/dizzying, the third was calm/productive. What's the common link? Where's the consistency in their messaging?
Think about Apple's strategy in contrast. Their product strategy, company image, attitude and presentation has basically been one smooth progression from the iPod to the iPhone 5S. The image they've presented has been the epitome of stability and consistency. It's not that they don't make mistakes or make strategy shifts - it's just that Apple astutely realises that it's best to make these changes subtly. It's only techy people like us who notice shifts in emphasis (specs don't matter > A7 64-bit processor). Everyone else loves it. They're not saying the same things over and over again - their messages and emphasis changes over time, but the change is gradual and smooth. Each product, each launch, each ad builds on top of the last.
It's not to say that there aren't recurrent themes in Microsoft's messaging - but the difference between the two is night and day. And what's the result? Apple makes vast amounts of money - all without seeming to lift a finger convincing people to buy their products. They're reaping the fruits of taking the time to work out their strategy early on, and sticking to that strategy.
That's the problem for Microsoft - this is a game where it's your behaviour over years, not months, that matters most. Until they really learn and absorb that lesson they are extremely vulnerable I think.
Fair enough - I agree that Microsoft has been shifting it's messaging quite a bit - but I think a lot of that has to do with Apple being a functional organization (singular vision directed on downwards) and Microsoft is a Divisional Organization (multiple business lines). Where the single vision is communicated (Windows Everywhere) - it's not always appropriate -(Consumers care about experience, not product lines)
Here is the last few years of Apple Ads.
o http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfv6Ah_MVJU (PC Ad)
o http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQw3mVWXncg (iPod Ad)
o http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMcrw8WTWSs (Genius Ad)
They have been hitting their stride recently:
o http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoVW62mwSQQ (iPhone Camera)
o http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iu1jHtf_oUc (iPhone Facetime)
o http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDUKt_XgfJ4 (iPhone Music)
Interesting, one of the supposedly "Worst reviewed" ads really spoke to me
o http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=170fh2mvog0 (Designed in California)
I hope we see more like the last one. That's the sort of thing that I think a company should aspire to.
When Microsoft was confident, many years ago: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EcLdwYqwko
You can't compare MS to Apple regarding those products on the basis that you believe an 18 year time-span is what matters in this game. Because the ipod, the iphone, the ipad and the macbook air aren't even 10 years-old.
But I agree with you on your main point: MS is highly inconsistent regarding its branding and that's a problem for consumer identification and reliance perception.
The 18 year figure was just illustrative of the fact that I thought he was an order of magnitude off. I didn't mean that a company needs to remain consistent for 18 years exactly - but it is years of consistency that count, the more the better.
As far as Apple's performance - the iPod range is 12 years old at this point. Apple has been producing consistently branded Macbooks since 2006, this line is clearly continuous with the iBooks which go back to 1999. The iPhone range is 6 years old at this point. Consumer OS X is 12 years old - they've only just dropped the cat name motif, and Mavericks is still recognisably a progression from 10.0. Etc.
Get a type cover not touch cover. Surface Pro is an amazing device for college-goers. Onenote with stylus is a good note-taking tool. I ran SolidWorks, Matlab on it, with Mozilla going 20+ tabs at a time. Pulls serious power, and importantly it has portability. Only problematic thing sometimes can be small screen, which I solved by having an (pre-existing) external monitor. It entirely replaced ipad+laptop for me with added comfort of running legacy apps which windows has no dearth of.
What was battery like under that kind of work load?
Battery on the Surface Pro 1 is anywhere from 4 to 6 hours on average for me. You can squeeze out 7 with all wireless off, and using it only for typing. The Pro 2 addresses the battery life. It adds 20% more.
One of the most useful features for me, is the (pen)handwriting recognition on the Pro. I have terrible handwriting, terrible. I take a lot of notes in OneNote, and then convert them to text. This way I can share with my team, all the info I jotted down, in a "professional" manner. A few typos come up, usually upper vs lower case.
The pen is my favorite feature, I use it in Illustrator and Photoshop, daily. Running Ps and Ai, the battery will last about 4ish hours. Not bad, but not great. I usually will hook up an external monitor for Photoshop.
MSoft needs to work on communicating the pen, is not a stylus. It has pressure sensitivity, and lets you rest your hand on the screen while writing. A major difference from the iPad stylus(es).
The pen is amazing in quality. Its a full Wacom pen, with full pressure sensitivity. It counts as a totally separate input, so your "finger" and "pen" are seen completely differently.
In contrast, an iPad stylus thinks that the pen is just another finger. "Write then swipe" simply works on the Surface, for instance.
I have a Surface Pro 1 with the type cover. Great tablet, I really like it. However the type cover is only a marginal improvement over the iPad (which I also own) for typing. If you really need to type a lot, a laptop is still your best bet.
Why is the type cover only a marginal improvement? I recently tried a type cover for the first time and was able to hit my typical 100 WPM on typeracer.com. To me, it seemed like a significant improvement over both the on-screen keyboard and even the touch cover.
Maybe you had better luck with it than me. I've tried on many occasions to buckle down and use it for typing and I always give up and get a real keyboard.
I just gave typeracer a try and got 81wpm, so you also may just be a better typist than me.
81 is quite good. Can you get anything close 81wpm on an iPad? Maybe I'm just bad at on-screen iPad keyboards.
Does iPad have an USB port you can plug any external keyboard into?
The iPad has a Lightning connector, for which you can get an USB adapter. That way, if you absolutely must connect a wired keyboard (instead of Bluetooth), you can.
http://www.theipadguide.com/faq/can-i-use-usb-keyboard-ipad
I would say apple addressed that problem with macbook air. it feels like real computer, yet it has amazing battery and portability.
what I am seeing is that people use air for the more serious jobs when sitting somewhare and their smartphone for the rest.
" it feels like real computer,"
Could you expand on this please - why would anybody believe that a laptop running a 1.7 GHz Intel Core i7 with 8 GB 16000 MHz DDR3, OS X 10.8.5, and a very snappy flash based storage system wasn't a "real computer?" I think you were trying to say, "It's a real computer with great battery and portability" - right?
I continue to be intrigued by the surface pro - Apple has been slow to bring a stylus capable tablet to market - and there are times when sketching is really important - and it's painful on the "crayon stylus" that you have to use on the iPad. Also - Windows has a lot of great Games. :-)
Multitasking/task switching and lack of a real shell make the iPad a non-starter for me for getting real work done - I would never consider going on a trip with just my iPad.
I think Microsoft is onto something - I just wish they had a decent Terminal App (something better than putty) and bash (cygwin always just feels like it's been tacked on).
"it feels like real computer" was to contrast it with the surface and other devices that are supposed to replace the laptops, not to imply that macbook air is not a real laptop.
Really?
The main problem with the Surface Pro IMO, is that it has no Ethernet port... or ports in general. (just one USB3.0 port). Larger laptops are needed if you want to connect to say, your Gb-Ethernet network or whatever.
The Macbook Air may gain a USB3.0 port over the Surface Pro... but thats about it. It also fails to have an Ethernet port, and also lacks the ability to run any Windows-compatible application.
Compared to the Surface Pro, the Macbook Air's resolution is poor and restricting. Finally, a decent Surface Pro will cost you $1030 (Type Cover + Surface Pro), while a similarly specced Macbook Air costs more.
Aside from having "one more" USB3.0 port, I don't think the Macbook Air has any real advantage over the Surface Pro. A "real portable workstation" would be either a Dell Precision Pro, or something similar to those specs. (IE: DVD Drive, tons of Ports, Gigabit Ethernet).
Granted, both companies offer a solution. Surface-Dock seems rather complete for the Surface Pro, and Thunderbolt from the MacWorld does work. Nonetheless, it'd be nice to have enough features built into a laptop... extra devices / gadgets / attachments are annoying to handle.
Macbook Air is cheaper - it has a 10 Gigabit Thunderbolt port (useful for docking to a Gigabit Port, external display, etc..), Two USB 3.0 ports, and 4 GB memory for $999. A 4GB/128GB Surface Pro goes for $1128.
Pro has the touch screen, and stylus.
I think, at the end of the day, what decides this is how much you can use the stylus and want windows apps/games.
I don't have very much hope for Thunderbolt. It seems to be going the way by Firewire.
The Thunderbolt Cables cost like $40 a pop, adapters can cost more as well. Its a far cry from just being able to plug a GbE port directly into the darn thing.
As stated before, Thunderbolt is roughly comparable to the Surface Dock. You can connect an external display and Ethernet port through Thunderbolt, but you have to pay through the nose on extra wires and extra adapters. (or $200 for the Surface Dock).
BTW: Surface Pro prices are much cheaper. $1030 gets you the 128GB model now. The SurfacePro has 1080p screen. Not a single Macbook Air model has a decent resolution.
I think at the end of the day, what decides it is how much you want the 1080p screen, Stylus, Windows applications (and Windows Domain Joining for those business users), and portability.
Price-for-price, Surface Pro just gives you more than even the cheapest Macbook Air. Its just a better deal frankly.
Re: Thunderbolt - You have USB 3.0 for generic connections. Thunderbolt for VGA/Gigabit/Docking/DVDI. Thunderbolt is thankfully compatible with Display Port, so you can connect your 30" monitor at 2560x1600 over a $5 mini-display port to display port cable (as I am right now). I haven't used my Gigabit Adapter in a couple years, and this was even before 802.11ac came out. I don't know if I'll ever use one again.
I guess if you are resolution sensitive - then the Surface Pro has that going for it as well (I've never preferred the retina versus the normal resolution on Laptops - so that's kind of wasted on me)
Regarding what's a better deal - like you said, it all depends on what you want. I've got bash/terminal.app/aperture/quicksilver all in my finger memory now, so kind of stuck on OS X. And - we can't overlook the keyboard. Be interesting to see if the Surface Pro can go head to head with a laptop keyboard.
Regarding Windows Domain Joining - works fine on OS X for the last couple iterations, pretty much the same as the PC for things like accessing file shares. And, Office Productivity Apps (Excel/Office/PowerPoint) are pretty identical on the Mac (plus we get Acorn, Pixelmator, iDraw)...
You've got me intrigued though - I'll have to go into the Microsoft Store and play with one for a bit - the Stylus alone is really, really intriguing. And all those PC Games...
It's not cheap, but SecureCRT is a fantastic terminal app.
I have SecureCRT on my Windows systems (been a loyal users since 1998). It's somewhat better than Putty - but neither of them compare to Terminal.App/iTerm2.
It's always been unclear to me why nobody has written a great terminal application for Windows. Is it just because the majority of those who really care are already using Linux or OS X?
I find it somewhat ironic that a significant portion of the command line population has migrated to the macintosh.
Windows user here who spends a lot of the time on the command line. PuTTY is good enough.
I'm actually in the process of writing a Metro terminal app which will hopefully fill the void here.
ConEmu is probably the best terminal for Windows at the moment, but it takes some customization to get there, and it has some strange concepts.
Indeed, I own a 2012 MacBook Air and I'm convinced they're the best line of laptop computers on the market right now. I severely underestimated how much I would enjoy the tremendous portability.
I guess I don't need both an MBA and a Surface, considering I also have an iPhone.
Honestly now that I think about it, I think my biggest concern with the surface would be the fact that it runs windows. As a hacker who grew up on UNIX/Linux I find that really limiting, but moreover as someone who has heavily adopted the Apple ecosystem, I feel like I could never use the surface to its fullest potential.
I think what I want is a Surface which runs iOS X. (You read that correctly.)
You can turn off Secure Boot and install Linux to it if you really dislike Windows.
Ubuntu installs cleanly on Surface Pros. The only part that doesn't work is the WiFi driver IIRC, but people have found workarounds for that.
Touchscreen. Stylus. Tablet+Laptop. Portability. Battery. High resolution screen. All in Surface Pro.
The thing is, however, that when you actually try them out, the MB air leaves a hugely better impression.
The MB air is light, sleek, elegant, it feels good in your hands, it makes you want to use it and carry it around—and that's despite it being a notebook, not a tablet.
The Surface Pro 1, however, is exactly the opposite: it's heavy, thick, uncomfortable to hold because of the weird sharp-edged shape, and insanely hot during operation. The Surface Pro is exactly what a tablet shouldn't be. I suppose MS has all but admitted that with their strong marketing emphasis on using it with a stand and a keyboard.
I certainly hope for MS's sake that the Surface Pro 2 is better, because the SP1 was a disaster...
I used Surface Pro for my graduate thesis extensively. It left a huge impression on me. Metro side apps were all fun for me, while a swipe to desktop meant all work business. Yeah 1 kg is not a big deal for me, i taught classes with it, took notes with it, ran IBM SPSS doing ANOVA, wrote papers in LATEX and did some SolidWorks, and heavy MATLAB work on it. It is hot, yes. But then, it remained in my lap for around 5% of the time.
I find your claims ("heavy, thick, uncomfortable to hold because of the weird sharp-edged shape") to be without merit, since I used it extensively for some major work. Going forward, Surface Pro is the future for me and my household.