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Will Microsoft's Surface Windows Pro Miss the Mark? By Jennifer LeClaire January 22, 2013 11:33AM     According to NPD Group, touchscreen laptops account for only 4.5 percent of Windows 8 sales. NPD also reports that the consumer electronics market in general is in a downward cycle, which does not help Microsoft's chances with its Surface line-up or Windows 8. Microsoft has publicly stated that it has sold 60 million Windows 8 licenses to date.   Related Topics Surface Windows RT Windows 8 Pro Microsoft Tablet Top Tech News Latest News Oculus VR Gets Huge Funding Boost Huawei Phone Is a Quarter-Inch Thin Yahoo, Apple Disclose Data Requests Free Video Messaging Comes to Skype Prism's Secret: Bigger Data Seizure Microsoft has not seen the results it hoped for with its Windows RT Surface tablets or its Windows 8 operating system. Will consumer reception of its latest Surface PCs be any better? Microsoft on Tuesday announced its Surface family of PCs is growing. Dubbed Surface Windows 8 Pro, the newest model hits store shelves next month in Microsoft's U.S. and Canada stores, MicrosoftStore.com, Staples and Best Buy, among other locations. Despite the lackluster sales, the official line out of Redmond is optimistic. Panos Panay, general manager for Microsoft Surface, said "the response to Surface has been exciting to see." An $800 PC -Like Tablet The Surface Windows 8 Pro is powered by an Intel Core i5 processor. That gives it the power and performance of a laptop in a tablet package. Microsoft is positioning the new product as suitable for home, office and the road because of its size and ability to run Windows 8 applications, as well as current Windows 7 desktop applications. The Surface Windows 8 Pro comes in at $800 and is available in 64 GB and 128 GB models. A Surface pen with Palm Block technology, designed to work with Surface to let customers edit, collaborate and get things done, is included with Surface Windows 8 Pro. Microsoft also announced it would soon make the Surface Windows RT model available in 13 additional markets. That's more than double the number of markets in which Surface is currently available. What's more, the company said, new Surface accessories will soon be available to allow customers to personalize their experience. But is that enough to turn consumer's heads? Who Wants a Surface? According to NPD Group, touchscreen laptops account for only 4.5 percent of Windows 8 sales. NPD also reports that the consumer electronics market in general is in a downward cycle, which doesn't help Microsoft's chances at stellar success with its Surface line-up or Windows 8. Microsoft has publicly stated that it has sold 60 million Windows 8 licenses to date. Roger Kay, principal analyst at Endpoint Technologies Associates, said the Surface RT tablets have not been a big hit nor have the desktops with the Windows 8 operating system. Will the new Surface Windows 8 Pro break that trend? "My sense is that businesses will buy only a few, since the use case has yet to be established, and businesses are quite conservative. Several I've talked with have said that they expect to experiment with touch-enabled Windows platforms, but that doesn't sound like a whole lot of volume," Kay told us. "If RT was appealing to anyone, it would be consumers. Windows 8 Pro gives Surface a shot at some business volume, but I still think it will be modest. Businesses are slow adopters of anything."   Tell Us What You Think Comment: Name: Dave C: Posted: 2013-01-23 @ 7:56am PT actually it depends on what you are doing. we are going to deploy 14 to a sales force, which will allow for getting them down from a laptop and a ipad to one device. if all works well we will mate with a windows phone 8 as well. If the users were using autocad, then I would say it would not work, but for mainly email and crm it should be fine. The RT which I tried and am using to write this simply does not fit the bill. Lala: Posted: 2013-01-22 @ 11:33pm PT Not really, these are seriously gimped i5 variety, stripped downed and undervolted to make them semi portable. me: Posted: 2013-01-22 @ 8:23pm PT Gosh, you could buy an iPad and a MacBook for twice the bucks and and carry them both around to have the same functionality as a surface pro Asok Asus: Posted: 2013-01-22 @ 11:58am PT Gosh! For that kind of bucks, you could buy a REAL laptop, like a very loaded Dell E5530 i7 business-class Latitude running a REAL operating system like Window 7 Pro 64bit! Also Visit: iPad Info Center Billions of Bytes Mobile Device Now Apple Info Center TopTechWire.com

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Enterprise Hardware Spotlight

Samsung Offers Tiny, Superfast PCIe SSDs for Ultrabooks Solid-state drives are continuing their march forward. On Monday, Samsung Electronics announced it has started to mass produce the first PCI-Express 3.0 SSDs for the new wave of Ultrabooks.   Amazon.com Joins 3D Printer Craze, Enabling Wide Availability Commercially available 3D printers have recently moved from being expensive hobbyist devices to being pricey but accessible consumer and manufacturing machines. And now, Amazon.com will sell 3D printers & supplies online.   New Facebook Data Center Uses All Home-Grown Servers Facebook has opened its new data center in Lulea, Sweden. The data center is a first in two ways: the first in Europe and the first to be equipped with all Facebook-designed, Open Compute servers.

Mobile Enterprise Spotlight

Why Google's Project Loon is Smart Business Google is once again proving that it's much more than a search engine or even a mobile-device company, with Project Loon. The initiative aims to bring "balloon-powered Internet" to isolated areas of the world.   Authorities Want Smartphone 'Kill Switch' To Fight Thefts Law enforcement authorities are calling on the smartphone industry to adopt "kill switch" technologies that would deter theft by squeezing the market for selling stolen devices, which would be worthless if "bricked."   Small Business Gets Boost from Mobile Marketing Aside from the requisite e-commerce tricks, small businesses are turning their attention to the mobile arena to engage social media-savvy customers, as mobile marketing tools offer more channels.

Enterprise Technology Spotlight

New Facebook Data Center Uses All Home-Grown Servers Facebook has opened its new data center in Lulea, Sweden. The data center is a first in two ways: the first in Europe and the first to be equipped with all Facebook-designed, Open Compute servers.   Cisco Telecom Router Ready for Internet Traffic Flood The Carrier Routing System-X unveiled by Cisco for the telecommunications industry is a 400 Gbps per slot system that can be expanded to nearly 1 petabit per second, enough to deal with the coming flood in demand.   HP's IT in a Box Targets SMBs by Using Google Apps Hewlett-Packard is partnering with Google on HP SMB IT in a Box, which it bills as a "one-stop shop" solution for small and medium business customers. The move is likely to ruffle Microsoft's feathers.

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