[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] e.mote:
>We have yet to see much or if any from Samsung, Sony, HP, Dell & even Lenovo for that matter yet... The touch cover/type cover idea could very well come from these OEMs as well at launch.

From TheVerge's short take w/ Ballmer:

http://www.theverge.com/2012/6/18/3...n-microsoft-surface-we-want-to-prime-the-pump

"Ballmer let us know that hardware partners were indeed made aware of this announcement in advance of the event today. Ballmer wouldn't say whether or not he thinks they'll be chafing at the thought of Microsoft in their space, though he did mention that he thought they might 'opine.'"

This to me implies that HW vendors didn't have much of an advance notice, let alone getting the details of the MS product. They were in the dark. Then, the question is whether vendors have enough time to retrofit their fall line-ups to include some of Surface's features. I think plenty of product mgrs are burning the midnight oil right now.

The conundrum about Win8 on laptops is that the pairing isn't a good fit. Despite its bolted-on desktop mode, Win8 is heavy on touch, and touching laptop screens is poor ergonomics. This applies equally to hybrids in docked mode. At the same time, tablets need a fast input device for productivity work. The keyboard cover is a good solution in bridging the tablet's productivity gap. It preserves the tablet's mobility with minimal added weight and cost. I won't say it will entirely replace hybrids, but it certainly usurps much of the hybrid's main rationale, which is to have a keyboard for productivity.

The other thing I liked about the MS tabs is that they paid attention to connectivity. 2x2 MIMO wifi antennas, DisplayPort, full-size USB 3.0, etc. For mobile, connectivity is the life blood, and I've been long annoyed at Android tabs with lousy wifi and crappy micro-USB that's not even powered. While fans are obsessing over CPU specs, the biggest bottleneck by far in Android is its abysmal I/O capability. My fav moment in the Surface presentation is when the rep did a 1GB file copy in 5 secs. That's productivity, where time = money. Good for MS to bring attention to this critical aspect. Android (and iOS) both need to up their game.

One thing I didn't like about the MS tabs is the built-in kickstand. It has only one angle of incline (22-deg from vertical), and the cams' view angle is similarly fixed to that incline. Use-cases for tablet dictate at least two incline positions, roughly at 30- and 60-deg from vertical.

BTW, at the start of the presentation, Ballmer was saying that MS made the mouse to push the use of the GUI, and now it needs to make new hardware to advance use of the touch UI. My impression is that MS wants the keyboard cover (for touch tablets) to be as ubiquitous as the mouse was for GUI. I expect them to license the design to "prime the pump" in Ballmer's words. With or without license, we should see a lot of clones, especially for the simpler tactile variety.

>Do I really want to see i5 in 10.6 display? For a Ultrabook replacement & with the power of i5.... I prefer 13in.+

Not in a tablet. Clovertrail has good batt life, but iCore is needed for productivity use. For a bigger display, you'd then use the DisplayPort.

>Don't see Windows 8 Pro as Ultrabook replacement

Tablets won't replace laptops, just as laptops didn't replace desktops. Tablets + KB cover should eclipse hybrids.

>Far, far away from reality imo. Unless they manage to squeeze a battery in there for some extra power. (really doubt it :P)

For the TF line, the extended battery is a luxury (and rationale for its $150 price), not a necessity. TF tablets' batt life is roughly 8-9 hrs, standard for tablets and sufficient for daily use. The main rationale for the dock boils down to the keyboard. If you want to make a case for an expensive dock, then built-in HDD storage would be a better line of argument. The problem of course is that Android has yet to attain sufficient computing functionality to require persistent large-scale storage.

>If only a keyboard was the key feature of the Transformer Series, they would be screwed, since there are A LOT of cool BT keyboards for tablets out there.

Neither has the hybrid form propelled tablet sales for Asus. TF101's sales were unexceptional, and we know where the TF201 stands. TF300 hasn't been a door-stormer, and taking the size of the group camping here for Infinity as a microcosm, neither is the TF700. Prime had a much bigger crowd, with much higher enthusiasm level, in the pre-sales period. For a retrospective look, simply peruse the first few pages of this sub-forum. I was there.

In short, aside from a small fan base, the hybrid form has yet to prove its sales case, at least on the Android tablet platform. From Asus' TF Book and TF tablet lines shown at Computex, I see nothing that can compete with the MS Surface models.

>But how many of them actually charge your tablet, offer another SD slot and have USB? I think that is the key.

Asus removed the USB from the tablet so give buyers more incentive to buy the dock (where margins are betters). It's a sales tactic. There's nothing that prevents the ports from being on the tablet. Case in point: the Surface tablet has a full array of full-sized, high-speed ports.