Watching the Surface Pro 3 event yesterday, I wryly smiled as Panos Panay finally revealed Microsoft’s vision for the future of mobile computing: The stylus. Snap-in keyboards, friction hinges, and high-resolution displays are still there, of course, but it is the humble stylus that will elevate Microsoft from tablet also-ran to mobile computing greatness. Apparently.
If you haven’t been following Microsoft for as long as I have, let me remind you that the company has been trying to push pen computing since the 1992 release of Windows 3.1 for Pen Computing. Then, in 2000, when Bill Gates was still considered a visionary by the tech press, the company unveiled the Tablet PC — a prototype device that never made it to market, but did set the stage for the Windows XP Tablet PCs released in 2003. A long lull followed after that, punctuated by rumors of the fabled stylus-oriented Courier tablet, and the eventual release (and massive success) of the iPad in 2010. Microsoft provided a stylus with the original Surface Pro and Pro 2, but they were never key, product-defining features. Yesterday, more than half of the 50-minute Surface Pro 3 presentation was dedicated to the stylus and pen computing.
It would seem, after two years of trying and unanimously failing to woo us with masterfully engineered hinges and magnets and dancing school girls, Microsoft has finally got the hint that the success of the Surface Pro 3 will actually hinge on functionality, not form. No one ever argued that the Surface Pro or Pro 2 weren’t terribly impressive hardware-wise. Most reviews praised Microsoft for cramming so much tech into a form factor that small. But beautiful construction and performance were never Microsoft’s problem: The reason no one buys the Surface is because there’s no good reason to.
“This is the tablet than can replace your laptop”
Ever since the arrival of mobile computing dismantled its monopolistic grip on the computing market, Microsoft has really struggled to make its products commercially compelling. Without the Windows-Office-Server triumvirate linchpin, there is very little reason to buy a mobile product powered by Windows, rather than iOS or Android.
As you’re probably aware, Microsoft first tried to pitch the Surface line of tablets as the perfect amalgam of laptop and tablet. Microsoft correctly identified a few years ago that most tablet owners still own a laptop (for, you know, real work) — and so why not sell a single device that’s a laptop when you need to do real work, and a tablet when you want to consume content? It wasn’t a bad idea per se, but it turns out that it’s hard to make a tablet device that is small and light enough to use as a tablet, but still capable of sitting stably on your lap like a laptop.
This is the future of mobile computing?
With the Surface Pro 3 (complete tech specs), Microsoft is taking a slightly different tack. Instead of being both a laptop and a tablet, the Pro 3 is being branded as a tablet that’s so damn functional and awesome that it replaces any need for a laptop. To this end, it has a new keyboard cover that creases in a special way to provide more “lapability” (hands-on reports say it’s actually quite stable your lap), and the kickstand can now go all the way down to 150 degrees (almost flat). And, of course, the cherry on top — the feature that will ensure that you never long for a real keyboard or all-day battery life — is… a stylus.
Now, to be fair, Microsoft did show off some neat pen computing scenarios — but really, should we really be trumpeting handwriting-to-digital-text recognition in 2014? Bringing the Pro 3 out of standby and directly into OneNote using the button on the stylus was admittedly pretty cool — but really, how often are you going to casually hold an 800-gram (1.76 lbs) tablet by your side, like a pad of paper, waiting to take notes? It seems like a lot of good work has been done to reduce the parallax (distance between the stylus and the screen), the latency (which many people find to be an issue when writing or drawing), and with palm blocking — but it should be pointed out that most of those advances are thanks to N-trig’s DuoSense Active Pen technology, rather than amazing engineering on Microsoft’s part.
The MacBook Air is heavier than the Surface Pro 3. Who would’ve thought it?
Is pen computing really the future?
I mean, I’m sure the Surface Pro 3 will make a fantastic note-taking or sketching device — and it’s a lot cheaper than the equivalent Wacom Cintiq — but I think it’s a very large logical leap to go from that, to laptop killer. Samsung’s series of Note tablets have been reasonably successful, but even at a much lower price point they haven’t exactly redefined mobile computing (plus we still don’t know how many people are actually buying a Note for the stylus, rather than its larger screen).
But who knows? Maybe pen computing really is the future of mobile computing. With fast, accurate, and pleasant stylus interaction, maybe you really won’t need the dedicated keyboard and increased stability offered by a laptop’s clamshell design. Maybe, for prospective buyers trying to choose between the MacBook Air and Surface Pro 3, the latter’s ability to be used as a tablet will beat out the former’s battery life.
Personally, I just don’t see it happening. The Surface Pro 3 is better and faster and lighter than its predecessors, but it’s still predicated on a deeply flawed premise: That consumers want to compromise with a device that’s a jack of all trades, but master of none. At 12 inches, 9.1mm, and 800 grams, you are not going to use the Surface Pro 3 for hours on end as a tablet — and without a dedicated keyboard and all-day battery life, you won’t be using it as a workhorse either. In my mind, at least for the foreseeable future, the current state of the art for technology and materials science strongly favors divergent form factors that are dedicated to content consumption or content creation. While there is a 150-gram smartphone or 300-gram tablet that lets you surf the web or watch movies for 12+ hours, I simply don’t see a happy future for Microsoft’s 800-gram, twice-the-price Surface Pro 3
No comments:
Post a Comment