Microsoft Surface tablet announced

Microsoft have announced their Surface tablet which is a modern tablet able to run their new Windows 8 operating system. This is a good opportunity to contrast the approaches used by Apple and Microsoft.

The problem I find with Apple iPads is they tend to be walled in devices. To me they are an appliance. But when Apple announced their products they had pricing and started taking orders. That is the product was close to being ready to ship and shipped shortly after.

Microsoft on the other hand will produce what I see as a restricted device in their non-Intel tablet and a more open device, but more expensive, in the Intel based tablet. There is no pricing and no delivery schedule. This to me is really bad marketing. We saw Microsoft announce the Slate device (if I recall correctly around two and a half years ago) and nothing significant reached the market. This doesn’t endear confidence.

In addition, the media are writing this may simply be a strategy to get other equipment manufacturers to lift their game and produce better and more innovative products. In other words the implication is Microsoft’s product isn’t a long term product but just a means to an end.

Microsoft really needs to provide substance with their announcements. No product, no schedule and no pricing. As a consumer that gives me no confidence. I am interested in Windows 8 tablets, but only if they provide a better computing experience.

I find Android tablets to be flaky, Apple tablets to be too restrictive. There is no way I can currently use a tablet to replace a computer. A tablet is currently an additional device and not a replacement for a portable computer. The Microsoft Surface tablet running the full version of Windows 8 may potentially provide the tablet experience I’ve been waiting for so I can replace my ageing netbook. But only if the tablet lives up to the hype of being a more portable computer device with the same or similar functionality of notebooks and not the current crippled experience offered by existing tablets.

The only thing we can now do is wait and see what Microsoft actually delivers with the Microsoft Surface tablet.

Kelvin Eldridge
Online Connections
www.OnlineConnections.com.au