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Microsoft reportedly working on $400 Surface tablets to compete with the iPad
Microsoft is working on a new line of budget Surface tablets to better compete with Apple's low-cost iPad options, according to a report from Bloomberg.
According to the report, the new Surface tablets won't just be smaller, cheaper Surface Pros. Rather, Microsoft is said to be completely redesigning the devices, with 10-inch screens instead of the 12-inch size currently found on the Surface Pro, rounded corners that more resemble an iPad than the more rectangular Surface design, and USB-C for charging. Most importantly, priced at $400, they will be more in line with Apple's cheaper tablets, too.
Google also recently introduced an education-oriented ChromeOS tablet to compete with Apple's iPad.
Also at Laptop Magazine.
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(Score: 2) by Immerman on Friday May 18 2018, @03:12PM
Oh, I have no problem adding more ports - especially with things going USB-C where the same port can be used for anything from charging, to a printer, to an HDMI screen. By all means lets have two or three of them on the phone - when I read "break out" I read "none of them on the phone, all migrated to an external device over a custom cable - as you would with a break-out box on the Pi. USB hubs are already a thing.
Modularity would be nice - but really if they just had it for the three main parts: SOC, screen/case/circuit board, and storage, I think we'd have an 80% solution. And no need for anything general-purpose for any of those, just make them a bit more possible to upgrade. I.e. socket the SOC instead of soldering it in place, and add software support for using SD cards or similar as "first class" storage instead of artificially restricting it. Seems like a whole lot of software currently has issues running off expansion cards on many/most phones.
A standardized accessory module socket or two for cameras or whatnot would just dial that up to 11, and there's no good reason for them to add any real complexity - you already have a USB bus, all you need is a physical interface that would let you bolt on one or two such modules. Probably one for most phones, then they can skip the camera entirely on a budget phone, you can add it if you like. And if you want a camera that costs 3x as much as the rest of the phone, go nuts. You can migrate it across your next several phones. I mean really, cameras are popular, and a lot of people have to compromise between the phone they want, and the phone that has the camera they want - that'd justify a *simple* module standard to me. And maybe someone will come up with something else to tack onto a phone that would be similarly popular, it'd be nice to at least have a standardized interface to let them try.