After playing w/ it for the last few days I am starting to think this thing is going to replace laptops for a good portion of the business world. Only hardcore development would require anything more, and even then, you can remote into a desktop w/ all the apps you could possibly need. Here are some of the reasons I think this will take off in the next year or two with businesses leading the way.
1) Access to network drives right out of the box. If you have a home or work network it is trivial to get access to the drives you have already set up for your PC.
2) Printing... works the exact same as on a laptop, add the printer and you're good to go.
3) Office... nuf said
4) FULL internet capability... who needs apps for web pages when you can just go to the web page?
5) The 'type' keyboard is like a laptop keyboard, zero issues so far and comfortable.
6) Multi tasking, you can even set it up so one program is running on 1/3rd of your screen w/ another taking up the other 2/3rds
7) USB port
With the portability of a tablet and features geared to basically plug and play into a business already set up for Microsoft, there are very few reasons NOT to migrate to the Surface as the next upgrade path for most businesses (at least the ones I've worked at). At the place I work at now everyone brings their laptop wherever they go. I see people walking w/ their laptop open now, typing emails, sending IM's, etc... and it seems to me that this tablet would be SO much easier to use for this purpose.
Just some thoughts on it since most reviews I've seen have only talked about how it's not as good as an iPad or an ultrabook, which is true depending on the scenario. But with that being said, I think this is the first tablet that can seriously enter into the business market and if even mildly successful I predict that over the next 2-3 years we'll start to see companies move to tablets running Win8 (maybe not the surface, but definitely a possibility) instead of laptops.
1) Access to network drives right out of the box. If you have a home or work network it is trivial to get access to the drives you have already set up for your PC.
2) Printing... works the exact same as on a laptop, add the printer and you're good to go.
3) Office... nuf said
4) FULL internet capability... who needs apps for web pages when you can just go to the web page?
5) The 'type' keyboard is like a laptop keyboard, zero issues so far and comfortable.
6) Multi tasking, you can even set it up so one program is running on 1/3rd of your screen w/ another taking up the other 2/3rds
7) USB port
With the portability of a tablet and features geared to basically plug and play into a business already set up for Microsoft, there are very few reasons NOT to migrate to the Surface as the next upgrade path for most businesses (at least the ones I've worked at). At the place I work at now everyone brings their laptop wherever they go. I see people walking w/ their laptop open now, typing emails, sending IM's, etc... and it seems to me that this tablet would be SO much easier to use for this purpose.
Just some thoughts on it since most reviews I've seen have only talked about how it's not as good as an iPad or an ultrabook, which is true depending on the scenario. But with that being said, I think this is the first tablet that can seriously enter into the business market and if even mildly successful I predict that over the next 2-3 years we'll start to see companies move to tablets running Win8 (maybe not the surface, but definitely a possibility) instead of laptops.