>Microsoft is trying to target a demographic that doesn't exist
Well it does exists, its just a small niche for now and the price does play a huge role into it. I am one of the target because I travel a lot and can't be bothered to carry my 9.5pound laptop with me. Waiting at the airport? Just connect to the nearest Wifi, turn on VPN, start up your regular work environment (x86 apps - VM/Vagrant,VS etc) and get that work completed. When it gets too much, switch to the start screen (tablet mode) and play some video, angry birds or 2048 or whatever silly thing. Once I get back home, its automatically syncs the changes to my regular laptop (using BitSync) and I can continue where I left off. Its the convenience I payed the price for. I am still on my Surface Pro 1 and its going good, although it does irk me to see two new versions even before my original warranty is over.
Had the Surface Pro been sold for < $399, it be easily become a top selling tabletPC. Well why not its a full fledged i7 PC capable of dual booting to other OS (secure boot can be turned off) and it runs all your favorite x86 apps. However, the processor itself its too expensive to make that happen. Although I am crossing fingers for AMD's skybridge that mashes up both x86 and ARM in one CPU.[1]
Well it does exists, its just a small niche for now and the price does play a huge role into it. I am one of the target because I travel a lot and can't be bothered to carry my 9.5pound laptop with me. Waiting at the airport? Just connect to the nearest Wifi, turn on VPN, start up your regular work environment (x86 apps - VM/Vagrant,VS etc) and get that work completed. When it gets too much, switch to the start screen (tablet mode) and play some video, angry birds or 2048 or whatever silly thing. Once I get back home, its automatically syncs the changes to my regular laptop (using BitSync) and I can continue where I left off. Its the convenience I payed the price for. I am still on my Surface Pro 1 and its going good, although it does irk me to see two new versions even before my original warranty is over.
Had the Surface Pro been sold for < $399, it be easily become a top selling tabletPC. Well why not its a full fledged i7 PC capable of dual booting to other OS (secure boot can be turned off) and it runs all your favorite x86 apps. However, the processor itself its too expensive to make that happen. Although I am crossing fingers for AMD's skybridge that mashes up both x86 and ARM in one CPU.[1]
[1] http://www.anandtech.com/show/7989/amd-announces-project-sky...