Hi everyone,
This is Ian Tan and I'm the Surface consumer lead for Microsoft Singapore. Popped by here to see the conversation midway through the Comex period and I'm glad to see the enthusiasm for SP3, and a big thanks to Vijay for sharing your views to provide more context.
Just to share some thoughts:
- The Surface Pro 3 is a laptop first. Yes, it is a hybrid model with a detachable Type Cover, but it's a laptop packed with an Intel processor and being able to run any modern Windows program or app very ably. A lot of people who purchased SP3 at Comex told me that they're buying it to replace their heavy laptops and that's exactly what we intended.
- The lack of LTE is a common feedback and we do hear you. A SIM card can place additional drain on the battery and reduce usage time. And as mentioned elsewhere in this thread, most other PCs do not include a SIM card slot as well. The challenge we have is that once you think of SP3 as a tablet first (and not laptop first), then you'll quickly compare it to the iPad or Android tablets which have LTE functionality but much lower-powered processors.
- The Type Cover costs $183 and I do spend a lot time explaining that it's not to be compared to conventional keyboards because it's really thin while packing in backlighting and a fully functional trackpad. That's a lot of engineering in the Type Cover and like the SP3, it's not made from generic components. We sell it separately as it comes in different colors and customers should have a choice in which color they want.
- There are people saying that SP3 would fail for a variety of reasons, but I'm glad to share that we've seen unprecedented demand in SG and other countries, and if you didn't pre-order or hit Comex early, you would probably have to reserve stocks for some of the more popular models by now.
I'll be busy with Comex the rest of the weekend and will try to pop back in here if I have time. If you have any burning questions, feel free to email me at
iantan@microsoft.com and I'll try to answer when I can.
Cheers,
Ian