Microsoft unveils new Surface tablet

Marketplace Contributor Jun 19, 2012
HTML EMBED:
COPY

Microsoft unveils new Surface tablet

Marketplace Contributor Jun 19, 2012
HTML EMBED:
COPY

Jeremy Hobson: There’s a new tablet in town. It’s called the Surface, and it’s Microsoft’s answer to the iPad. The black, shiny, iPad look-alike was unveiled yesterday. It has a keyboard, and it runs Windows.

Marketplace’s Heidi Moore has the details.


Heidi Moore: Microsoft wants to think different from Apple but also be the same. At least in terms of the iPad’s enormous sales.

It’s not surprising that Steve Ballmer, Microsoft’s CEO, gave an Apple-flavored presentation to introduce Microsoft’s new table, the Surface.

Steve Ballmer: From personal productivity applications to technical applications to business software and literally millions of other applications that are written for Windows and work perfectly on Windows 8.

As part of its effort to channel Apple, Microsoft is building its own tablet computer. But that’s sure offend some of the key companies who buy Microsoft’s Windows software — and then install it on their own tablet computers.

Roger Kay: If I were waking up this morning as Dell and H-P and Acer and Lenovo, I’d be asking, “what the heck? I mean, we were just about to come out with these sorts of products, and here’s Microsoft doing it essentially in competition with us.”

That’s consultant Roger Kay with Endpoint Technology. He concludes that Microsoft is playing with fire.

Kay: There will be blood.

But Microsoft may be willing to take the risk. It’s better, after all, than being obsolete.

In New York, I’m Heidi Moore for Marketplace.

There’s a lot happening in the world.  Through it all, Marketplace is here for you. 

You rely on Marketplace to break down the world’s events and tell you how it affects you in a fact-based, approachable way. We rely on your financial support to keep making that possible. 

Your donation today powers the independent journalism that you rely on. For just $5/month, you can help sustain Marketplace so we can keep reporting on the things that matter to you.