With yesterday's (Monday's) debut of the new Microsoft Surface tablet, the company suddenly and unexpectedly took direct aim at the Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) iPad.
At the event, Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) CEO Steve Ballmer unveiled a device with a 10.6-inch widescreen display and a pressure-sensitive cover that also serves as a keyboard. As one would expect, the Surface tablet runs Microsoft's next generation operating system, Windows 8.
Oddly, Ballmer left out several key details, such as the exact date Surface will go on sale and how much it will cost.
What's clear is that Microsoft recognizes it has fallen behind in the mobile market, and that it didn't trust any of its traditional PC-building partners to produce a compelling Windows 8 tablet.
The surprise announcement of the Surface tablet, preceded by an invitation just days before that gave no details, succeeded in generating an Apple-like buzz.
"If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, the compliments from Microsoft poured down like a torrential storm on Apple last night," analyst Brian White of Topeka Capital Markets wrote in a research note today. "At the same time, this event indicates to us that Microsoft is still searching for its own identity in the post-PC era, something that has come naturally for Apple with the rise of the mobile Internet."
Make no mistake; Apple's iPad is the king of the tablets.
According to a report issued last week by research firm IDC, the iPad's markets share will actually increase in 2012 to 62.5% from 58.2% in 2011.
The Surface is just the latest contender for the title of "iPad killer." Throughout 2011, tablets based on Google Inc.'s (Nasdaq: GOOG) Android operating system tried and failed to crack the iPad's market dominance.
Some, like Hewlett-Packard Company's (NYSE: HPQ) TouchPad, were discontinued just months after they were launched. Others, like Research in Motion Limited's (Nasdaq: RIMM) PlayBook, have suffered from sluggish sales.
Now it's Microsoft's turn to take a swing at the iPad, but there are five reasons why it's more likely to whiff than make solid contact:
"Perhaps its biggest problem is that it has two separate and largely incompatible parts," writes Troy Wolverton on Phys.org. "It feels like Microsoft took a nice dress and attached it to an equally fine pantsuit and tried to pass it off as one garment. It just doesn't work."
Further muddying the picture are the different versions of Windows for traditional Intel Corp. (Nasdaq: INTC) chips and ARM Holdings plc (Nasdaq ADR: ARMH) chips.
At the All Things Digital Conference last month, Apple CEO Tim Cook criticized the Microsoft approach: "Products are about trade-offs. And you have to make tough decisions, you have to choose. The fact is, the more you look at a tablet as a PC, the more the baggage from the past affects the product."
That means no built-in demand for the Microsoft Surface tablet, and the endless comparisons to the sleek iPad won't help, either.
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About the Author
David Zeiler, Associate Editor for Money Morning at Money Map Press, has been a journalist for more than 35 years, including 18 spent at The Baltimore Sun. He has worked as a writer, editor, and page designer at different times in his career. He's interviewed a number of well-known personalities - ranging from punk rock icon Joey Ramone to Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Wozniak.
Over the course of his journalistic career, Dave has covered many diverse subjects. Since arriving at Money Morning in 2011, he has focused primarily on technology. He's an expert on both Apple and cryptocurrencies. He started writing about Apple for The Sun in the mid-1990s, and had an Apple blog on The Sun's web site from 2007-2009. Dave's been writing about Bitcoin since 2011 - long before most people had even heard of it. He even mined it for a short time.
Dave has a BA in English and Mass Communications from Loyola University Maryland.