Microsoft missing the boat yet again

Published on 20/06/2012 01:32

YOU could say that it’s a direct competitor to the iPad, and you’d be right. But you’d also be right to say that it’s a competitor to the MacBook Air. This is a laptop, every bit as much as it’s a tablet.

The detachable keyboard cover is slick and, if it performs as well as it looks, it’s a no-brainer to take it with you everywhere.

So if the device is nice, and has huge potential in the market, where did Microsoft go wrong? Let’s start with the fact that there’s no availability.

If there’s one thing that Microsoft could learn from Apple, it is “announce and ship”. Today we saw the Surface. When can we buy it?

The only thing we know is that it will be available in conjunction with the release of Windows 8: that is to say, “not today”.

We also don’t know the price. We have a range, but not even a solid one. The RT model will be priced in line with other ARM-based tablets, and the Pro version will hit the range of “Intel-based Ultrabooks”. To make matters worse, the device is either a Surface or a Surface Pro. The former being the Windows RT version (stripped-down, cheaper) and the latter being the Windows 8 device. Nomenclature is important – and Microsoft sorely missed the boat here.

• Brad McCarty is managing editor of The Next Web