Our Deputy Editor was at the event and he described it as the most "controlled demo experience"[1] he's ever had -- and Chris has been at this since the late 1990s. That didn't surprise me at all because any time you spend most of your presentation talking about the engineering of the Touch Cover (which does look incredible) and not the apps, the battery life or the timeline, it's not ready.
I think this has potential -- especially at the Surface running Windows Pro level -- but it was curious to see them announce it SO early, when it's clear the device isn't ready in any way.
My gut tells me that the RT version will start at $500 and the Pro version will start at $1000. Knowing Microsoft, I've got to think they are aggressively aiming for a November release date for the first version and a February or March for the Pro. I don't think it's likely it will appear before then.
My bigger question is what specific APIs are they going to unveil to Windows 8 developers that take advantage of the Surface devices -- and will there be Surface-specific apps that won't work with the other Windows 8 tablets. As I wrote late last night, I expect that within a year of this thing's release, we won't see any other consumer-facing Windows 8 tablets on the market.
That to me is actually the most interesting part of this whole thing. Microsoft has taken Apple's approach to fully integrating the hardware (I don't think this is their version of the Nexus line of devices...I think they've created what they want to be THE Windows 8 tablet experience, not simply a flagship example).
[1]: http://mashable.com/2012/06/18/hands-on-with-microsofts-tabl...
I don't have the answer to that.
As for APIs, it doesn't seem impossible to think that there might be apps that take advantage of the Pen technology in the Intel version of Surface or the Touch Cover and Type Covers and that those APIs might only apply to the Surface devices. I really don't know. That's my point.
And optimizing a tablet around landscape mode (thanks to using the tv standard 16:9 aspect ratio, which is awkward in portrait) is a blunder . It's one of those Apple advantages that sits in plain sight and Apple barely acknowledges, while they happily watch their competitors miss the point entirely. That 4:3 aspect ratio gives the iPhone it's killer app - it makes every website feel like a magazine. I think it's part of why Android tablets are largely failing - landscape is unappealing on a small screen.
These factors combined with its late release date (probably in the shadow of a new iPhone) and lack of Retina display, I don't see this being successful with consumers.
No--but I do see people wanting to lean back with their laptops on the couch. At which point, they pull off the keyboard, close the kickstand, and treat it, temporarily, like a tablet.
It's not ready. At all. That's fine, I understand why they had to announce this now (even if it was a bit earlier than would be ideal), but Microsoft knows when it's releasing Windows 8 and the lack of a hard release date for Surface is totally unrelated.
With that in mind, how do you know they don't know when Surface will be released? Just because they didn't announce it?
In some aspects, this announcement was strikingly similar to RIM's Playbook announcement: reviewers were unable to play with it, price was an open question, and it was still months away from market.