<story><title>Microsoft’s shares sink by more than 10%</title><url>https://www.google.com/finance?q=NASDAQ:MSFT</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>dragontamer</author><text>SurfaceRT is a $900-million mistake right now.&lt;p&gt;There are so many ways to make SurfaceRT a compelling product. &lt;i&gt;If&lt;/i&gt; it supported Win32 API, &lt;i&gt;IF&lt;/i&gt; it had domain-joining support, &lt;i&gt;if&lt;/i&gt; it wasn&amp;#x27;t completely locked down to the Windows Store... maybe it&amp;#x27;d be a compelling buy. But as it is, it has all of the disadvantages of tablets (locked down, proprietary API), with few of the advantages of Windows.&lt;p&gt;Then you&amp;#x27;ve got XBox One mistake. So much wasted potential there...&lt;p&gt;Windows 8 has to happen though, the computing industry is evolving towards touch controls, and as primitive as Windows8 is with touch... its a step in the right direction for Microsoft. But they need to be more sensitive to their business partners.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>JonFish85</author><text>I feel like their biggest problem was confusion.  Apple does this very well: their products aren&amp;#x27;t terribly confusing.  As a consumer thinking about buying a tablet computer, you think OK there&amp;#x27;s the iPad, but what else?  Oh, Microsoft has a tablet.  Hey, it runs Windows, I know windows!  But Windows RT?  It doesn&amp;#x27;t run my existing card games?  I thought it was Windows?  Oh but if I buy the pro, it&amp;#x27;ll run my Windows stuff?  How do I install my card games?  But it&amp;#x27;s more money?  What&amp;#x27;s different about that one?&lt;p&gt;Screw it, I&amp;#x27;ll just get the iPad.</text></comment>
<story><title>Microsoft’s shares sink by more than 10%</title><url>https://www.google.com/finance?q=NASDAQ:MSFT</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>dragontamer</author><text>SurfaceRT is a $900-million mistake right now.&lt;p&gt;There are so many ways to make SurfaceRT a compelling product. &lt;i&gt;If&lt;/i&gt; it supported Win32 API, &lt;i&gt;IF&lt;/i&gt; it had domain-joining support, &lt;i&gt;if&lt;/i&gt; it wasn&amp;#x27;t completely locked down to the Windows Store... maybe it&amp;#x27;d be a compelling buy. But as it is, it has all of the disadvantages of tablets (locked down, proprietary API), with few of the advantages of Windows.&lt;p&gt;Then you&amp;#x27;ve got XBox One mistake. So much wasted potential there...&lt;p&gt;Windows 8 has to happen though, the computing industry is evolving towards touch controls, and as primitive as Windows8 is with touch... its a step in the right direction for Microsoft. But they need to be more sensitive to their business partners.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>smacktoward</author><text>The problem is that if you add all those compelling features to Surface RT, you end up with Surface Pro. Which brings you right back to the question of why Surface RT needs to exist.&lt;p&gt;(The answer: because Surface Pro is too expensive to appeal to the consumer tablet market, and because Microsoft wants to hedge its bets in case Intel can&amp;#x27;t catch up to ARM in the mobile space. But both of those are reasons why &lt;i&gt;Microsoft&lt;/i&gt; would want Surface RT to exist, not why &lt;i&gt;a customer&lt;/i&gt; would.)</text></comment>