Why the new Surface tablet means so much for Microsoft
Jun 19, 2012, 9:03 AM | Updated: Oct 11, 2024, 1:30 pm
Geekwire’s Todd |
There’s been plenty of talk about the specs Microsoft’s
new Surface tablet the company unveiled Monday and how it
stacks up to the iPad. But longtime Windows watchers say
it’s about way more than that, the company making a major
move into hardware like rival Apple.
“It’s a big step and it’s a big risk for the company,”
Todd Bishop, tech analyst with Geekwire.com told 97.3 KIRO
FM’s Ross and Burbank after attending the unveiling Monday
in Los Angeles.
“It’s a big risk because a huge portion of its business is
based on its relationship with those hardware partners,
the Dell’s and Toshiba’s and Sony’s of the world, to make
Windows PC’s. And now with this tablet, Microsoft is
really
becoming a competitor to them at the same time it’s
attempting to partner with them,” Bishop said.
Microsoft has had several high profile hardware failures
over the years including its Windows XP Tablet PC, Pocket
PC, and Zune media player. But Bishop says the success of
the Xbox gives the company solid ground to stand on as an
integrator of hardware and software. And he says it’s
critical for the company going forward.
“If your end goal is to make the best product
possible, you’ve got to make both the hardware and the
software. That’s what a good computing experience feels
like when you sit down and you feel like somebody has
taken care of me here end to end and I’m not worried about
this driver screwing up this particular part of the
operating system because they’ve figured it out,” Bishop
said about past problems and complaints with Microsoft
products running on a variety of others computers and
devices.
Despite the widespread comparisons to the iPad, Bishop
says it’s far too soon to talk about Surface as a
legitimate competitor, especially since the company didn’t
even announce pricing or let reporters actually take the
new tablet for a test drive. But he calls it a good start
and says in terms of the hardware itself it’s “an
impressive little machine.”
Microsoft tablet challenges iPad with
productivity angle
