TechCrunch
Threadflip Brings Its Fashion Marketplace To iPad
Online and mobile marketplace Threadflip, which lets you clean out your closet and shop those from others, is today publicly debuting its updated mobile application, now available for the first time on iPad. The company had previously said this spring that some 40 percent of its daily uploads from people selling items on the site were coming from mobile, and 20 percent of its transactions were as well, making the move to iPad a natural next step for the company.
Threadflip’s iOS app was first launched over a year ago, but it was only in early 2013 that the mobile numbers really started to grow. In May, the startup moved to take advantage of this trend, revamping its app with improved features designed to attract more mobile sellers, as well as a universal shopping cart that allowed buyers to purchase items from multiple sellers’ shops in one transaction.
Now the company has not only rebuilt the app for iOS 7 (of course), but has also released an update which makes the previously smartphone-only app a universal app that works on the iPad too. The new app offers larger, high-fidelity photographs to work with the iPad’s larger screen size, a move which Threadflip hopes will make it easier for customers making decisions on what to buy. Because Threadflip’s focus is in secondhand clothing and accessories, it can sometimes be difficult to really scrutinize products on smartphone screens for minute signs of wear that could influence buying decisions.
Also new is a “Sale of the Day” feature, letting users shop deals and items that are up to 80 percent off, as well as tools to filter and shop by categories, and recent reductions, and more.
The iPad app was a top request among users, and the Threadflip says today that roughly 20 percent of its overall traffic comes from the iPad, and that number has been growing since January. iPad users, as is often the case, tend to spend more time on site than regular users – spending two times longer than the average web user, in fact. They also browse 3 times more content than average users, and spend 1.5 times more.
While the company isn’t talking transaction figures and revenue right now, the app itself is in the top 150 on iOS’s Lifestyle section in the U.S. at present, per App Annie. That puts it quite a bit behind its most direct competitor, Poshmark, which is #40. Poshmark also announced yesterday that it now has 250,000 women with active personal “boutiques” and has sold over a million items.
Threadflip for iPad is available for download here.
DogVacay, The ‘Airbnb For Pets', Debuts Its Native iOS App For Booking Dog Sitters
DogVacay has been assigned a tagline by the press that sounds a little ridiculous when you hear it — “the Airbnb for pets” — but the business itself is actually a very practical one. The Los Angeles-based startup runs a marketplace to let pet owners easily find and book local pet sitters to take care of their dogs when they go out of town.
Today, DogVacay is launching its first ever mobile app that lets you book a dog-sitting stay with an offering for the iPhone and iPod touch. It’s a pretty straightforward launch that brings all the functionality of DogVacay’s website down to the iOS form factor, but DogVacay CEO Aaron Hirschhorn told me in an interview that he expects the mobile launch to have a significant impact on how both owners and sitters use the service.
“Our business has always been around providing peace of mind to dog owners, with things like our vetting process and insurance, so this is the next level of that,” Hirschhorn said. “Now when you’re on vacation and your dog is on his own ‘vacation’, you can message with the sitter and really easily get photos.”
The mobile app also lets dog owners search for sitters and book reservations while on the go. “It’s a fully functioning app that does everything the website does,” Hirschhorn said. He added that the company plans to roll out an Android version in the future as well.
DogVacay, which has 42 full-time staff, has raised some $7 million in VC funding since it was founded last year and launched out of the L.A. incubator Science. Its most comparable rival startup is Rover, which is also aiming to become the kennel alternative of choice for the peer-to-peer generation.
I stopped by DogVacay’s headquarters in Santa Monica earlier this summer to check out the company’s dog-friendly digs in person. To see Hirschhorn talk about DogVacay’s growth so far and vision for the future, watch the video embedded below:
Microsoft Surface 2 And Surface Pro 2 Pre-Orders Start Tomorrow Ahead Of October 22 Launch
So now that Microsoft has finally let its next-generation Surface and Surface Pro tablets out of the bag, there’s only one thing left to dig into — when can people buy them?
Microsoft just confirmed that pre-orders for both tablets will begin tomorrow, and added that the devices would ultimately be available in 21 markets on October 22.
Haven’t been keeping up on this morning’s Surface frenzy? Here’s a quick rundown.
Microsoft tried to improve on the original Surface Pro formula with the Surface Pro 2, and Microsoft VP Panos Panay spent a considerable amount of time talking up its myriad improvements. This new pro-grade tablet Pro 2 now sports one of Intel’s Haswell chips (though Panay didn’t confirm which), and features up to 8GB RAM, a combination that Panay says makes the Pro 2 “literally faster than 95% of all laptops in market today.” Of course, none of that would amount to a hill of beans if battery life wasn’t up to snuff, so the Surface team built the Pro 2 to operate cooler, quieter, which made for a whopping 75% improvement in battery.
Of course, none of that would amount to a hill of beans if battery life wasn’t up to snuff, so the Surface team built the Pro 2 to operate cooler, quieter, which made for a whopping 75% improvement in battery. Not too shabby for a device that can apparently playback and edit 6K video pulled from a RED Dragon camera. Prices for the Surface Pro start at $899, if you’re swooning at the thought.
Meanwhile, Microsoft has also bestowed some crucial updates to its new Windows RT-powered Surface, including a much snappier (and oft-rumored) the NVIDIA Tegra 4 chip, a pair of improved cameras that work better in low-light situations, as well as bundled support for a whole host of Microsoft services — think a free year of international calls thanks to Skype and 200GB of cloud storage in SkyDrive.
Considering how much derision has been piled on Windows RT lately — there was that massive Microsoft writedown because of unsold Surface RTs, and some prominent OEMs have dropped RT completely — it’ll be interesting to see how the masses react to yet another RT tablet. Granted, Microsoft’s considerable marketing heft means we’re likely to see another ad blitz geared toward getting tablet owners of all stripes to switch, but only time will tell if everything goes according to t
Our own Alex Wilhelm got to spend some hands-on time with the new Surfaces and you can read his impressions here — in the meantime, we’re going to play with these things and get them on video. Stay tuned.
How AngelList Hacked Its $24M Round
AngelList, the mailing list that turned into one of the Valley’s most powerful fundraising channels for early-stage startups, just picked up $24 million of its own.
Like we reported nine months ago, Google Ventures participated. They are one of the leads along with Atlas Ventures, a firm that’s supported AngelList through its early years. On top of that, there are another 100 or so investors involved. While not confirmed by the company, we hear the valuation was about $150 million as we previously reported.
What started out as a curated mailing list of high-quality angels has since grown into a potent force for seed-stage funding. Co-founders Naval Ravikant and Babak Nivi were longtime critics of the way venture funding has been traditionally done in the Valley — especially for its lack of transparency.
But now, they’ve gradually changed it from the inside, insinuating their platform into several major deals of the last few years like Uber’s initial financing.
The company estimates that it has facilitated around $200 million in investments, with $186 million through introductions and $14 million through a new, more direct “invest online” product. They have about 21,000 investors on the platform and 1,300 companies have successfully raised funding on it.
So how did the company pioneering the way early-stage fundraising is done in the Valley construct its own round? Through following some of their own advice, naturally.
They didn’t give up board control to an outside venture firm, for fear that it would create a perception that they were biased or passing on better deal flow to specific investors.
“We were able to do it in a ‘no strings attached’ way,” Ravikant said. “This allows us to maintain control and stay neutral.”
AngelList wanted an angel on its board to represent the community, but not any person associated with a venture firm. Notably, many of the Valley’s top-tier firms aren’t on AngelList’s very long list of investors. Ravikant wouldn’t comment on specifics, except to say that many firms couldn’t budge on asking for board seats and taking a certain percentage of the company.
Then on top of Google Ventures, The Kauffman Foundation and Atlas Ventures, the company took another on another 100 or so investors. There were bigger venture firms like Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Kleiner Perkins, then earlier-stage firms like SV Angel, CrunchFund, 500 Startups and Floodgate.
Then there is a long list of angels like DST’s Yuri Milner, Mitch Kapor, YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley, Yammer co-founder David Sacks, Paypal co-founder Max Levchin, Bebo co-founder Michael Birch, WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg, former Twitter CEO Evan Williams, Quora co-founder Charlie Cheever, Friendster’s Jonathan Abrams, Delicious’ Joshua Schachter and Google’s Brian McClendon.
In total, there were 116 investors in the found, 70 percent of which invested purely online through a product AngelList announced earlier this year. It lets accredited investors put in as little as $1,000 in startups on the platform. Most of AngelList’s individual angels were longtime friends of the company.
Unfortunately, because of general solicitation laws, which have prevented companies for openly or publicly asking for money until today, they couldn’t widen out their ask beyond specific accredited investors.
“We ended up inviting people that we knew because there’s a liability issue,” Ravikant said. “Otherwise, people could turn around and say that we abused our platform. We were only able to do a limited distribution and we could not go out to our entire investor base.”
With the round, AngelList is also building out its revenue model. With the “Invest Online” product, they’re taking a 10 percent carry fee off every deal. This comes on top of many other product releases happening today.
With these new revenue streams, here’s the bet from an investor’s point of view. If AngelList’s now massive funnel of early-stage companies ends up helping at least one of them become a once-in-a-decade Google or Facebook-style home run, then their carry could seal their own return for investors.
On The Record With Microsoft's Surface Bosses Panos Panay And Brian Hall
TechCrunch flew to Microsoft’s Redmond campus ahead of today’s launch of the Surface 2 and Surface Pro 2. I spoke with Brian Hall and Panos Panay, the two leaders of the Surface team, about their new hardware, the OEM market, Microsoft’s larger device strategy, and a few other topics.
Between jokes and ordering sparkling water, we covered quite a bit of ground. What follows are excerpts of our discussion. Questions have been rewritten for clarity, preserving initial intent. Brian’s and Panos’s responses have occasionally been lightly edited for clarity (speech to written word is often a bit choppy), but any real insertion or change is marked in brackets. For fairness, the list of questions and answers mirrors our discussion temporally.
Margins
TechCrunch: Steven Sinofsky, when he was the head of the Surface team, specifically told reporters that the hardware was “a real business.” Is Microsoft preserving that same margin level with the new hardware?
Hall: ”We are running this as a business. But we also are running it as a long-term business. Which means that there are different priorities at different times.
Take dropping the price of [the first-generation Surface RT] to $349. That was to primarily to get it into more people’s hands. That’s because we knew that the most strategic thing is more Surface users. People that used it loved it and became good advocates. And we had to get that seed planted, watered, and fertilized.
We want to have a great portfolio. We recognize that people start from price points in their head. And I think that they will see that each of these at its price point is an amazing value. If there is someone who wants a tablet that can really be productive.”
Analysis: So, Microsoft is likely taking different margin points at each of the Surface lineup’s device marks. The $349 Surface RT probably isn’t very profitable, and the higher-end Surface Pro 2 likely is. However, the company appears willing to bear that mix of net margins to ensure that it can sell devices from low dollar amounts to the upper-crust of mobile hardware rates. If Microsoft can’t find a large customer base by straddling this broad of a device demographic, its bet on a productive tablet will have been defeated by market demand. We’ll know in six months how the gambit performed.
Surface Pro Sales - Surface Pro 2 Sales
TechCrunch: Panos, you mentioned earlier today that the Surface Pro original edition had been among the most popular Windows 8 PCs. Can you expand on what you meant, and how it fits into the broader context of the OEM market?
Panos Panay had indicated that the Surface Pro sales had landed in their range of expectation, and that Microsoft felt “very good” about that fact given its estimations of how large the market for a computer that cost $899 might be.
Panos: “I think that we expect the trend to continue with [Surface] Pro 2. There is a whole group of people out there that are waiting for better battery life. [We continue to receive the following feedback:] ‘We hear it’s a great product but I don’t think that I can live with the battery life as it stands today.’
I get tweets on it, its part of Reddit [feedback], it’s everything that I hear socially as well as what we get in customer feedback. So I think that the market just got bigger for this product [by extending its battery life]. And the price point is not going up, and the product is getting better.”
Analysis: As reported earlier today, Microsoft’s Surface Pro 2 changes were essentially all internal. While the Surface 2 received both cosmetic and external updates, the Surface Pro 2 did not. This is another bet that we will be able to vet based on sales performance. Microsoft had the customer data and made product choices based on it. We’ll see. That said, if battery life was the only issue holding back the Surface Pro. Microsoft nailed its market friction.
Surface Pro 2 As Your Main Machine
The discussion moved to second monitor usage with the Surface Pro, and how important the new docking station might be for corporate customers.
Hall: “I would just say that in addition to the docking station, that alone signals the right message: This is a laptop replacement that can be your one machine. And a lot of people – their excitement about Surface Pro was almost [as if] they had stumbled upon that [fact].”
TechCrunch: So that was unexpected?
Hall: “For a lot of people. Like, ‘woah this is my main machine now!’ You know, they thought they were getting a high-end tablet that could run all of their Windows software, but what they realized real quickly is between the quality and performance of the device [and] the keyboard experience, it was their main machine.”
Analysis: For some, the Surface Pro becoming their daily computer was a surprise. The addition of the dock builds on that. Now, it’s simpler to have the thing be your main, daily computer, by better integrating it into your desk. Again, this is another bet on enterprise adoption.
The Dock, And Who The Surface Pro 2 Is Built For
Panos: ”The real target is businesses, and enterprises that want, ‘hey, I’m going to buy one PC, this thing can be a full power workstation, and then I can travel with it like a road warrior.’ It solves so many of those issues quickly – and the docking station kinda lets that happen.”
Hall: ”Think about it from the perspective of who this device is really built for. Like in the business environment it is mobile professionals. Anyone who doesn’t live at their desk, is working from multiple locations during any given day or week, but when they do get to a desk, heck yeah they want a big monitor, heck yeah they want to use a full-sized keyboard and Bluetooth mouse and all of that.
We’ve talked to a lot of CIOs who, for their salesforces, for instance, they look at it and they say, ‘can we get a docking station? If it had a docking station then it would be perfect.’
For people who lead salesforces in particular, tons of them don’t even have offices any more. They work around their clients, a tablet is so much better for meeting with a client than this: [Points at Alex’s Macbook Air] This is impersonal! A laptop is impersonal. Even when you share.”
Analysis: This is a description of the potential use case for the Surface Pro 2, underlining the choices that Microsoft made in its second generation; nothing cosmetic was needed – instead, it required longer battery and better workflow integration. The company appears exceptionally confident that it has hit its marks.
Growth
TechCrunch: How quickly will the Surface Pro 2 sell into corporate environments?
Hall: ”Surface is going to grow very fast. Surface is going to grow very fast. Now that we are available in commercial channels, have the docking station, have addressed of their biggest requests, both at the device and accessory level. Surface is going to grow very fast.”
TechCrunch: How important are 3rd party resellers for that growth?
Hall: “It’s important to the degree that for their customers, that’s how they buy. They are used to working with particular resellers who are their technology solution provider.
We’ve had big customers that, before we made Surface available through commercial channels who said ‘we would really love to buy a bunch of Surface Pros, can you sell them to us through [Redacted]?’”
Panos: “If you think of from gen 1 to gen 2, we come in eyes wide open launching this device, and [the reseller] channel ready for us, and to Brian’s point, this thing is going to have a very quick ramp into businesses.”
Analysis: The line is a bit drawn in the sand: Despite early missteps, Microsoft is confident in its second generation hardware. It is declaring high sales. We’ll be able to gauge its success. However, it is always pleasant to have a benchmark to measure against. If the new Surface Pro 2 does not (and they were discussing the Surface Pro 2 and not the Surface 2 in this part of our discussion) doesn’t sell more quickly than its predecessor, we’ll have a measuring stick.
Surface As Part Of A Larger Microsoft
TechCrunch: Hardware is only one of Microsoft’s larger Windows 8 and 8.1 offering. Ralf Groene of the Surface team stated that the first generation of Surface was built to make Windows 8 come alive. Is that still true for Surface 2 and Windows 8.1?
Panos: ”I think that it is important. What I would say is – and this is how the team focused on it, so perhaps its a good filter for us. Like we weren’t just building this product to bring [Windows] 8 to life, we were building this product to bring every single Microsoft property together.
And so you are optimizing this product. [...] Are you doing the right things for Power Point, and the right things for Word, [does it] have a great mouse for Excel, and [is] the input in Outlook is kickbutt yes or no? And the answer is yeah! Are the speeds and feeds on the product good enough so that this thing is seamless? The answer: Yes.
I could drop an F-bomb for you there but, truth. Dude Alex we get so into it and how important that is for us – we will not cut a corner on the product. [...]
Those decisions are made daily. It’s not just like a spec – it literally is “iterate iterate” until each scenarios sing. It turns out the entire ecosystem benefits from it, the ecosystem being the software, the services and the hardware, because when you are making these decisions you are optimizing for basically all Microsoft properties – you are seeing the benefits.”
Analysis: This is an interesting shift, and one that underscores the maturing of Microsoft’s services vision. Previously, Windows 8 was the key client of Surface – Surface RT was built to make Windows 8 walk on its own two feet. Now, Surface 2 has a much larger prerogative: Make Windows 8.1 rock, along with the services that are its constituent parts, from Skype to Skydrive. That is a much larger challenge.
Tying Services Into Hardware
Regarding the stapling of 200 gigabytes of SkyDrive storage to the Surface Pro 2 and Surface 2, Panos explained his strategy following questioning.
Panos: ”We are not only showing that the service is great on the device, were giving you the service with it to make sure you use it. [Laughs] And so that’s like the simplest way to say it.”
Analysis: So, by adding extended services support to its new hardware, the two are intrinsically tied at the hip. Also, once you get accustomed to Microsoft hardware and services, where will you go afterwards? Microsoft hopes that you stay on both.
Tying Software, Services, And Hardware Together
There has been a rising unity between hardware and software. Apple’s iPhone re-demonstrated the value of tying hardware and firmware closely together. Microsoft wants the same harmony, but with a third component: services. As part of a larger point of discussion, Panos explained what Microsoft is trying to do, and how he view its progress.
Panos: “I’ve given you the services as part of it, given you the hardware as part of it, and of course the software is singing right along on the device. So, I think it is that, if you were to say “what was the anchor?” That’s it. It’s super dramatic to say it, though, ‘Software services and hardware, all coming together!’
People have said it for years, but the truth is, with every aspect of what we do right now, it actually is, it actually is real now, Alex, coming together on Surface 2. 100%. I’m excited about it. You can tell I get pretty passionate about it.”
TechCrunch: Well if you couldn’t you should probably quit you job and do something else.
Analysis: There is direct unity between hardware and services in the view of Microsoft; on its devices it can best strap in and vend its services. So, by offering the two it is pushing the paradigm. Not a bad strategy, provided that consumers take to its service offerings that come with its new devices, something that hasn’t been proven yet.
Continuation Of Old Products
TechCrunch: Let’s talk about the continuing of past product lines. We have the $349 Surface RT, and then we have the now discounted-price, original Touch and Type covers. Or is it just Touch Covers?
Panos: ”Type Cover [original] goes away on the basis of we want to bring you the quieter keys immediately, we want to bring colors – people really want them. Like anything we are managing inventory. Mind you Alex we also run the mouse and keyboard business. [...]
So, we have that cadence of accessories, where, we bleed out one and keep one roll it out and so that’ll be good, but that’s just business as usual, rolling through Type Cover [inventory].
Touch Cover [original] will stay in market because we want to give people – we are able to discount Touch Cover 1 and still have a good product. We want to give people an affordable solution if they want to click in and be more productive. If they want to spend less, then we given them that option to do so, and I think that that is a great option for our customers. It gives choice, which is always a good thing.”
TechCrunch: And I’m assuming that this logic applies to the $349 Surface RT?
Panos: ”Yeah so if you are going out for a $349 Surface RT, and you don’t want to spend $119 on the new Cover because that is not your thing, you don’t need backlighting, you don’t need the faster sensor – but you can go to [to the original version] and pay significantly less and marry up with the value you are getting with the [original] Surface.”
Analysis: Microsoft has spare inventory of both the Surface RT and first generation Touch Cover. Why not sell the extra at a low price point, recover costs, and get Windows 8.1 into the market in larger scale? Also, it doesn’t hurt for Microsoft to have lower-cost units in the market to combat Chromebooks which are attacking the low-cost computing realm.
Why Keep Selling The Surface RT For $349?
TechCrunch: Where does the $349 Surface RT fit into the Surface family, and who is the product aimed at?
Panos: ”Surface RT still brings, for its value, a lot of the qualities of being productive – now keep in mind that it will upgrade to Windows 8.1, and it will take on Outlook, and it will give you the features of being a productive tablet.
It’s not as fast, but you are also not paying as much. Doesn’t have the second stop in the kickstand, it doesn’t have the better screen, but you are also, not paying as much. So it truly is a value if you want the most productive tablet from a value perspective what you are getting there, or from a cost perspective, I think that is what we are offering.”
Hall: ”We do think that we’re establishing a variant of the category. To date people have thought of tablets entirely through the iPad lens. We’re doing a variant of the tablet, which is the productive tablet. And so at the iPad level, if they come in and say do you want an iPad or a productive tablet. And we have Surface 2. It is the most productive tablet at its price point.”
Analysis: This fits into the above. More hardware at more price points leads to more sales, and Microsoft has the inventory – in my estimation – to continue to vend these devices at recovery price points.
Coming Price Cuts To Touch Covers?
The discussion landed on the cheaper priced Touch Cover, and I asked its starting price point to confirm prior notes. Allow the humorous interlude.
Panos: There are variants and discounts but $79 is the coming out price.
TechCrunch: Do you see that price declining in the next 12 months?
Hall: Don’t expect to.
Panos nods his head in the affirmative as Hall responds.
TechCrunch: Well he nodded and you said no.
Hall: Don’t expect to.
TechCrunch: Alex make note to self [that the] price will go down in next 12 months.
Panos: If I were you I would make some smart predictions.
TechCrunch: I just did.
Panos: I’m validating that making smart predictions is a good thing to do.
TechCrunch: [Gets cut off]
Hall: [To Panos] Don’t you have to go to the bathroom or something?
Panos: Yeah, I was going to get him a Coke. [To Alex] You should come with me!
TechCrunch: Yeah, I should.
Panos: Ok I’ll be right back
TechCrunch: I was kidding about the Coke -
Panos: Yeah I’m going to get you one anyway
Ben: Get me a Green Water!
Analysis: Expect normal hardware price cycles downward in price to impact current Surface hardware in the next 12 months.
200 Free Gigabytes For Two Years
TechCrunch: What happens after the two-year period, and I have lots of information stored on SkyDrive, and my free 200 gigabytes are no longer free?
Panos: ”Here’s what I would recommend. I think that you should buy the next generation of Surface because I see the stuff that we are building to years out, and it’s pretty [rockin’]. So, at the end of the day, you need nothing more than at the end of two years, to have a reason to buy the next one, and I’m going to give that to you.”
TechCrunch: So, you are saying that the 200 gigabyte deal will continue for all future Surface devices?
Panos: ”No, no, you said all that. But I love that you led with that.”
Analysis: Microsoft appears set to continue the 200 gigabytes of free SkyDrive storage for coming devices. It didn’t want to directly confirm, but, it seems likely.
What Is Surface 2 Missing?
Panos: ”There is a book of [opportunities] that you can think about when it comes to innovation and technology products. There is always going to be that. What’s it missing? It’s not missing anything. It delivers on the promise for sure. And what you are paying for you are getting great value for sure. Opportunities to think about different sizes? Opportunities to think about different use cases? They all exist. [...] It’s got what you need.
This product for what you are getting it’s not missing anything. It’s got what you need, for sure. And when I say more sizes, I don’t know that I am reflecting only on smaller, for sure. So you have to be thinking about this product as a holistic product line for sure. But what you are getting here, in its true form, and the fact that you are getting that in gorgeous screen, thinner, lighter, USB 3.0, Dolby Digital speakers, you’re getting this full package where we didn’t have to make the tradeoffs we made on the first generation.”
Analysis: Honestly, they didn’t have much to say about what Surface 2 might be missing. The pair seemed quite confident in their device. It’s a darn fine-looking little thing, I’ll admit, but the Windows 8.1 question remains unanswered.
–
I hope that the above helps you understand the Microsoft perspective on what it is building. We can disagree, event strongly, on any single point, but I think that companies don’t often detail their thought processes to the public. Instead of taking their words, and shaping them for you, I felt it better to share what they told me, and then put it into context.
What do you think?
Raw Stats And Hands On Notes For Microsoft's New Surface 2 And Surface Pro 2
Today Microsoft announced the specifications and price points for its new Surface tablet hybrids. This post contains all pertinent statistical information regarding the Surface Pro 2 and Surface 2, as well as an initial few hands on notes regarding the devices.
The quick and dirty is that the Surface Pro 2 was spent the past year molting into a device similar to its predecessor, the Surface Pro, but with greatly extended battery life. The Surface 2 is a more holistic refresh of the Surface RT tablet, including new cameras, an updated screen, better audio, a faster processor, and longer battery life.
The Surface 2 is now a grey color, built using a new magnesium-based material that resists fingerprints. I touched it. It’s far, far, better. My Surface RT looks like something straight from the Smudge Factory, in comparison. The Surface 2, in my short experience, dodges hand-grease effectively. Now, to the raw specs.
Surface 2
The Surface 2 is Microsoft’s device built for students, parents, those who move around and want a computer that they can take with them and still accomplish lightweight work. That’s a decent chunk of the computing market, roughly tacking close to the users you might deem fit for Ultrabooks.
The Surface 2 looks and feels quite nice, even better than its mostly well-built Surface RT predecessor. If you want something more powerful, that can run more than apps from the Windows Store and Office, this device is not for you. However, Microsoft is betting that for the average PC purchaser – a large percentage of the PC OEM market – the Surface 2 is the correct blend of mobility, touch-capability, and Office.
Sales figures will bear out its wager. Here are the tablets figures, including notes from myself based on brief hands-on time with a number of Surface 2 devices last week.
- Thickness: 0.35 inches
- Weight: Under 1.5 pounds. It is only slightly lighter than the Surface RT, but the Surface 2 still feels substantial and not too heavy. If you are a hyper-light sort of person, it might be more than you like. Its weight suited me, however.
- Screen: 10.6 Inch 1080p display. Pixel count: 1920×1080. This is a much better screen than what was found in the first generation Surface RT. Not a Retina display, but a full, HD display is a nice addition.
- Processor: Tegra 4 1.7 gigahertz quad-core ARM chip. I noticed zero lag while testing the Surface 2. The processor felt more than sufficient. Microsoft told me that users can expect a roughly 60% faster CPU, and greatly improved graphical performance.
- RAM: 2 Gigabytes. I suppose that if you are running multiple Office applications and a few Metro apps, you could max this out. But that sort of power use isn’t what the Surface 2 is built for. Still, this number on paper feels short.
- Battery: Up to 10 hours “active use” battery life. Microsoft claims around a 25% improvement in the Surface 2.
- USB Support: USB 3.0 port (Also, Bluetooth 4 support is now included)
- Cameras: 3.5 megapixel front-facing camera, and a 5 megapixel rear-facing camera. The front-facing camera was built to accept more light than the rear-facing camera, allowing for improved video chatting in low-light settings. I got to play with this directly, and it seems to work as advertised.
- Kickstand changes: The built-in stand now has two lock positions of roughly 20 and 40 degrees. The added 40 degree setting allows for improved on-lap usage of the Surface. The lower position is almost infinitely better when on your lap. Also, the ‘feel’ of the stand hasn’t been deprecated by its extension, which is nice.
- Audio: The original Surface devices has terrible audio-output, which the Surface 2 attempts to rectify by adding built-in Dolby Digital sound. I did not get a chance to test this directly.
- Price: $449 and up, depending on the SKU you pick.
The Surface 2 is a greatly improved Surface RT that clings to its predecessor’s initial claim: That the Windows Store will eventually contain enough applications to make Windows 8 (and 8.1) self-sufficient. The Windows Store has grown in its first year of life, but remains nascent. The bet, however, makes far more sense this year than last.
Surface Pro 2
The Surface Pro 2 looks all but exactly like its predecessor, but sports the new Intel Haswell chips, more ram and SSD options, and the improved kickstand.
- Thickness: 0.53 inches. That is precisely as thick as the first generation Surface Pro.
- Weight: 2 pounds. Microsoft isn’t more specific than that. Also, Microsoft describes the weight of the original Surface Pro as 2 pounds, so simply expect parity. Again, the external packaging of the Surface Pro 2 isn’t what Microsoft focused on; presumably, Microsoft didn’t hear much from prospective customers regarding the look of the Surface Pro, as it left it essentially unchanged.
- Screen: 10.6 Inch 1080p display. Pixel count: 1920×1080.
- Processor: Intel Core i5 Haswell generation running at 1.6 gigahertz.
- RAM: 4 or 8 gigabytes. This is two to four times as much as the Surface 2 – Microsoft wants the Surface Pro 2 to handle whatever you care to throw at it. I don’t have pricing yet for the RAM upgrade, but dual-channel LPDDR3 RAM will be supported to preserve battery life.
- Internal storage: From 64 gigabytes to 512 gigabytes. Expect to shell out for the higher-capacity SSDs, however.
- Battery: Up to 60% better battery life in what Microsoft calls “multiple [usage] scenarios.” I don’t, and this is my fault, have a set battery life hour figure, but I suspect that it is highly variable based on what you are doing. I was told that in “some scenarios” battery life can be up twice as good as with the Surface Pro. That device had weak battery life, making this upgrade more than a quality of life fix. Microsoft told me that about half the battery life improvement comes from the Haswell processor, and the rest from various hardware, firmware, and driver improvements across the new device.
- USB Support: USB 3.0.
- Cameras: Front and read 720p cameras, as with the Surface Pro. The Surface Pro 2 does not have the low light upgrades that are part of the Surface 2, as a warning.
- Kickstand changes: See above notes, as the two share the same kickstand positions.
- Price: $899 and up, depending on how much RAM and SSD space you need.
Microsoft wanted two things in the Surface Pro 2: Longer battery life, and an improved kickstand. It’s a far shorter list than what went into the Surface 2, but it’s also a targeted list. Provided that Microsoft hit the marks that business customers demanded, Surface Pro 2 could sell better than its predecessor.
That’s the raw information and feedback as I can provide it. I’ll have a much thicker review once I get more time with the two devices.
Meet Microsoft's Surface 2 And Surface Pro 2
Today Microsoft took the wraps off its holiday hardware lineup, unveiling two new tablets, and a number of new and updated accessories. It’s a lot of information to process, so let’s go through each piece in order.
I spent time in Redmond last week with the new hardware, and the team behind the Surface project itself. Hands on notes regarding the Surface 2 and Surface Pro 2 will be published following this piece, along with an extensive interview with Brian Hall, current general manager of the Surface effort, and Panos Panay, corporate vice president at Microsoft and chief of Surface.
For now, you need an overview of what’s new. We’ll get granular shortly. Here’s the once-over.
Surface 2
The Surface 2 is the second generation of the Surface RT, though its name doesn’t take after its ancestor. In its most basic formulation, the Surface 2 is quite similar to its predecessor: It is an ARM-based tablet that supports attachable keyboards, and is built to make Windows 8(.1) sing.
That aside, Microsoft has made across-the-board improvements to the product itself. Battery life has been bettered by 25%. A new processor (the NVIDIA Tegra 4 chip) has improved speed and graphical performance. The kickstand now includes a second, deeper angle that makes using the device on your lap far simpler. It has a new look, with a silver magnesium case that resists fingerprints, and is sturdier. It has improved cameras to better support low light settings, helping you Skype with folks in darker rooms. And, it’s cheaper, starting off at $449 – Surface RT headed into the market for $499.
If you think that Windows 8.1 matures the Windows 8 platform sufficiently for daily use, and that the Windows Store has become populated enough with applications in its year of life, the Surface 2 could be a device that you enjoy. Certainly, the hardware has has improved greatly since its first generation. The question becomes how well Windows 8.1 can take advantage of those upgrades.
Frankly, the Surface 2 is a very good-looking device, and one that I would feel great using at a cafe if I ever worked in such desultory locales.
In that vein, its success is quite tied to that of Windows 8.1: The better Windows 8.1, the more the Surface 2′s upgrades can shine through. The Surface 2 (again, in my very limited hands-on time) proved a capable device. I can see students loving it, for example.
Surface Pro 2
If the upgrades to the Surface 2 were broad and various, the changes to the Surface Pro 2 are targeted and vertical: It’s all about battery life, baby. According to Microsoft – and more on this later – it received constant feedback that business customers were interested in the Surface Pro, but could not bear its underperforming battery life. The company is frank that its first generation Pro lacked in that department.
So, instead of changing the device externally a single mote, Microsoft rejiggered the guts of the unit into what it calls the Surface Pro 2, which will have around 60% better battery life, a figure that it claims can skew higher in certain use cases.
The Surface Pro 2 has been bumped up to the Haswell generation of Intel chips, can contain up to 8 gigabytes of low-power DDR RAM, and a SSD that can reach the half-terabyte mark. It also receives the new kickstand position, which Microsoft is proud of, mostly because it works.
The Surface Pro 2 looks like its predecessor, is the same size and weight, but lasts longer, and goes harder and faster if you kit it properly. It starts at the same price point as its forefather: $899.
Free Digital Goodies
Microsoft is stapling two things to each new Surface that you buy: 200 gigabytes of SkyDrive storage for two years, and a year of Skype service that includes international calling. The play here is simple: Buy a Microsoft device, and the company’s services come along with it. Microsoft, as you certainly recall, is pursuing a “devices and services” model – this is the fusion of the two.
If you were to buy 100 gigabytes of SkyDrive storage for a year, it would set you back $50. You currently can’t buy 200 gigabytes at a time. So, the SkyDrive perk is worth $200 – theoretically – by itself. Microsoft is essentially buying your digital storage custom with the deal.
The loser? Other storage companies that do not match that scale, such as Box.
New Touch Cover
The old Touch Cover was a neat piece of hardware that I, and perhaps you as well, never really mastered. It was never quite where it needed to be for me to fully trust it. Microsoft, in the past year, has built a new Touch Cover that contains 14 times as many sensors, along with firmware upgrades.
In practice, better software and a boatload of new on-keyboard sensing technology make the new Touch Cover a far superior typing experience. Would I replace my mechanical keyboard with the new Touch Cover? No, but it would make typing on an airplane a far simpler if I lived with a Surface device.
The new Touch Cover is thinner and lighter than its predecessor, and is backlit.
Most interesting in the new Touch Cover are gestures: Slide two fingers across the number key line, and the Touch Cover will highlight text. Release, and the selected text will be deleted. A spacebar gesture talks to Windows 8.1′s word recommendation system. There are others input methods which are worth learning. I had some trouble finding my sea legs in quick testing, but would have been able to master the set in a day, I think.
The original Touch Cover was perhaps the most innovative part of the Surface lineup. Microsoft has taken its initial product, and greatly improved it.
What’s the downside? A high price point of $119 per new Touch Cover. That’s equivalent to the price of the original Touch Cover, released last year.
Keeping The Old
The above are the most important parts of the new hardware announced today, so this is the proper moment to take an interlude and discuss what Microsoft is keeping from last year’s line of devices. The Surface RT, for $349, and the original Touch Cover, for $79, will remain on sale for the foreseeable future.
Microsoft likely has quite a number of extra units of both that it would love to get rid off, and having the cheaper set of hardware in the market allows it to, in a way, combat both the iPad Mini and Chromebooks, devices that are absorbing chunks of the lower-end PC market.
However, keep in mind that the key marketing point of the Surface line is that it is a tablet that let’s you get shit done, roughly. But you can’t really do much in terms of productivity with a Surface without a keyboard, and that means that the lowest Windows 8.1 tablet-to-get-stuff-done point remains north of $400 when you factor in its keyboard accessory. Microsoft could release a bundle of Surface RT and Touch Cover for $400, but the company told me that it has moved away from bundling its hardware, so don’t expect it.
Here’s the funny part: Microsoft Office 2013 Professional, for a single user on a single PC, currently costs $400 on Amazon. That’s nearly as much as a Surface RT and Touch Cover that come with the basic Office suite. We’re seeing hardware price declines clip the top end of software costs. It’s a market trend to keep in mind.
Power Cover
Microsoft has produced a new, third keyboard variety for its Surface tablets: The Power Cover. It’s thicker version of the Type Cover, essentially, that can greatly add to the amount of juice your tablet can drink from.
I was told that a Surface Pro 2 with a fully charged Power Cover can last roughly 2.5 times as long as a Surface Pro with a Type Cover. Snap a Power Cover on your current Surface Pro, and you’ll get around 60% more battery life.
So, if you have a long flight ahead, this Cover could be the one for you. I don’t have pricing details at this point, but expect the Power Cover to cost between $150 to $200.
One neat trick about the Power Cover is that so long as it has energy, it will dump it into the Surface. So, if you have a 90% charged Surface Pro 2 attached to a Power Cover with any battery at all, it will upload that power into the tablet itself, even while stashed in a briefcase. Not a cheap solution, but an option for those who need it and aren’t price sensitive.
New Type Cover
Along with the new Touch and Power Covers, Microsoft has remade its Type Covers to include quieter keys, backlighting, and different colors. So, if you want to have a keyboard that includes moving keys for your Surface, you can get it in magenta, or blue. Whatever strikes your fancy.
Previously, while Touch Covers came in a number of colors, the Type Cover was stuck in a Fordian black, befitting its more business focus. Well, it would appear that folks wanted their typing to be a bit more stylish.
Dock
The dock. This leaked ages past, but it’s worth discussing here briefly. The Surface dock is a move by Microsoft to better integrate its Surface Pro 2 device into the workplace.
It has USB 3.0 and 2.0 ports, an ethernet jack, a Mini Display port, and two audio jacks. If you use all four USB ports, Microsoft confirmed to TechCrunch that the dock can support them all at full power.
The dock works in the following way: You place your Surface Pro 2 device (keyboard can stay attacked) in between the twin arms of the dock, which you then press into the unit, with one port on either side of the device used to hold it in place.
From there, you have wired Internet, peripherals as you need, and, of course, simple multi-monitor support. You can also yank the Touch Cover and use a larger keyboard if you want.
Other Bits And Pieces
What else is out today? A wireless adapter for Touch and Type Covers that turns them wireless, so you can type back from your screens. I’m not sure how popular the doodad will be, but if you can use a Touch Cover on a non-Surface device, that could boost the popularity of the pair.
Finally, Microsoft has created a mouse-variant called the Touch Mouse Surface Edition. It’s designed to work with the Surface devices. I honestly don’t have much on it, but if I get my hands on one, will review it for you.
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That is the rough lay of the land. TechCrunch has more breaking news and analysis on the way, so strap in.
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Smartphone-Powered Kid's Toy Ubooly Returns To Kickstarter For Version Two, International Rollout
The failures outweigh the successes on Kickstarter, but the Ubooly is one of those that have done well thanks to the crowdfunding platform. This kid’s toy, created by Colorado-based husband and wife duo Carly Gloge and Isaac Squires, used an iPhone as its core and delivered interactive child-friendly personalized content in a plush, huggable package.
The Ubooly is back for a second dip at the Kickstarter well today, with the startup looking to fund version two of its product via a new campaign. The second-generation product keep the same look as its predecessor (with some new color options), since it hopes to build Ubooly into an iconic character, but seeks to add depth to the Ubooly software and jumpstart its international expansion efforts.
Version two includes modifications to make it compatible with Android smartphones, as well as a jumbo version for the iPad mini, and there are five new languages for the Ubooly software, each complete with speech recognition and downloadable add-on education packs. The new languages include Spanish, Italian, French, German and Japanese, and each localization is spearheaded by a local team on the ground in that country to help make it happen.
“The number one thing that was a big surprise in terms of requests from the first campaign was ‘Can I get Ubooly content translated into my language,’ or ‘Can Ubooly help my kind learn a new language,” Gloge explained in an interview with TC. “Bost Isaac and I are not bilingual… so that was something that was a little outside of our realm, but we recruited a number of international teachers.”
That has led them to be able to launch in these new European markets coming up in November, if all goes well, and in Japan later this year. Part of the funding will go towards hiring voice talent to vocalize additional international language content. Building an international brand is important to Ubooly’s larger goals, since it should help them solidify the Ubooly itself as something iconic. Gloge says the team was tempted by bigger companies looking to license their software for their own characters, but believed theirs had the power to be the next Mickey Mouse.
“We were definitely approached by companies that wanted to put their character on the Ubooly technology,” she said. “To our surprise, the community really loved the Ubooly characterv[...] One of our mentors is a former VP at Disney, and I thought she’d be the one to say we can’t compete against the bigger brands, but she said ‘You guys have something here, and you need to keep building out that character.’”
Eventually, Gloge sees the startup building a whole stable of characters, and has already introduced a snail companion for Ubooly, but for now the focus is on making their first character as recognizable as possible. A big part of that has to do with providing kids with engaging and continually updated content, which is why the Ubooly time regularly delivers content packs which can be uploaded direct to the app without and update. Now, thanks to iOS 7, those updates can be served in the background, which means every time a child sits down to play with Ubooly, they could be getting a smarter toy with more depth of content.
Ubooly raised $1.5 million in seed funding following their initial Kickstarter campaign from traditional investors, and is now looking to raise another $25,000 via this new crowdfunding effort. Pre-orders of the V2 Ubooly begin at the $30 backer level, and even $10 pledges earn contributors a Ubooly vinyl toy. The team says its new speech recognition software is even more intelligent than before, so the potential for this startup, which was already high, is likely higher still.
Mobincube, An App Builder That's Spawned 18K Apps, Raises $946K For U.S., Int'l Push
Spanish startup Mobincube has closed a €700,000/$946,000 seed round for its drag and drop, web-based app builder which lets non-developers build their own mobile apps using a series of templates. The round was led by early stage VC firm Inveready. Others investors include the VC arm of Spanish commercial bank, bankinter – which has previously invested in PayPal, one of the third party services Mobincube integrates into its offering – and angel crowdfunding platform The Crowd Angel.
The startup said it plans to use the funding to “accelerate” its efforts in the U.S., with plans to open an office in Silicon Valley this year, and also to step up its competitiveness worldwide. The app builder space is a relatively crowded one, but with mobile users’ insatiable appetite for apps there’s plenty of room for multiple players to try their hand at making it really easy for non-techies to get technical. Rival app builders include TapCanvas, Yapp and ShoutEm, to name three.
The Valencia-based startup mainly targets its tools at non-developers. Users choose from a variety of template elements to create an app — from basic stuff like navigation bars and forms, to comms elements like calls and SMS, to content like Google Maps. Drop-down menus then allow the creator to specify additional functionality for each app element.
App builder elements Mobincube lists on its website as coming soon are social network integration; embedded audio and video; and augmented reality.
Despite a marketing focus on folk who can’t code, the startup also claims its tools can help developers increase their work rate by speeding up the time it takes them to build apps (albeit, the relatively quality of the apps you can churn out using a ‘cookie-cutter template’ method are unlikely to match the polish of an innovative app lovingly crafted in native code by a skilled developer).
Another flagship feature of Mobincube’s software is the ability for builders to publish their app across multiple platforms, with the software automatically generating the code for the desired platform so it can be submitted to multiple app stores. Supported platforms are iOS, Android, Blackberry and Windows Phone. Mobincube can also be used to create HTML5 Web Apps.
The startup has been around for several years and said today it has 115,000 users who have published more than 18,000 apps. It pegged its monthly growth rate at 30%, and added that it is generating more than one million new downloads per month. Its business model is a mix of advertising (taking a 30% cut of revenue from in-app ads) for users of its free offering, and a choice of two paid-for publishing offerings for “premium” customers.
In terms of its international spread, Mobincube said the majority (65%) of the apps published using its tools are developed in English, with around a third (30%) of its customers based in its home market of Spain.
Commenting on the funding round in a statement, Ignacio Fonts, Managing Partner of Inveready said: “Mobincube fits perfectly our strategy of investing in companies with growth plans based on fast internationalization.”
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