Published via F: 2013-05-07 20:52:30
Bill Gates took a shot at the iPad while explaining Microsoft's rationale for the Surface this morning on CNBC. The Surface, he says, brings the "portability of the tablet but the richness of the PC." He then said of people using iPad-like devices, "A lot of those users are frustrated, they can't type, they can't create documents, they don't have Office there." "They can't type, they can't create documents, they don't have Office there."
My Two Cents
Bill Gates continues to fight the power that is Apple. What’s slightly confusing for a mere mortal like myself is how Big Bill can say that the Tablet (really meaning the iPad) is frustrating Users b/c they can’t type, can’t create doc’s, and they don’t have Office. To some degree that would be true if we wanted the PC experience out of our Tablet. But the iPad is not a PC and only the Surface is a Windows 8 based machine that can seamlessly run productivity SW App’s like Office. But for all other Tablets (especially the iPad with an other-worldly sized market share, the only gating item should be SW. Easily solved by MSFT. Right? Would seem so. It would seem that most companies would jump at the chance to deliver an App for a market as large as the iPad. Business Insider quotes Gartner on last quarter numbers: Apple sold 19.5 mm iPads and the world’s largest PC mfr sold 11.7 mm PC’s. How many Surface were sold? No mention.
On the surface (pun intended), to me this means Big Bill should win either way (but it’s more complicated than that): (1) All MSFT has to do is to continue to deliver great SW (i.e. Office) to Tablet devices to get rid of frustration of the 100+ mm of the total iPad and other Tablets total user base (except that Users want free Productivity SW (not expensive over-priced Office on our Tablet) AND/OR (2) MSFT dents the Tablet market share (owned currently by Apple) with Surface where Office runs seamlessly leveraging Windows 8. If either or both happen, then this is a win-win for Big Bill and MSFT. If they (the Tablet Users) are really that frustrated, then MSFT can help them get Office on the Tablet (as a paid for piece of SW (which is a risky proposition). Alternatively, if MSFT with Surface can dent Apple’s Tablet market share (not so easy b/c they are fighting LG/Samsung/HTC/Amazon also), then they own the HW and SW on the device used by the customer. Something that Big Bill has always strived to do.
Game On Big Bill! This is going to be an interesting fight to watch. Pretty sure that Big Bill Gates will never retire and won’t ever, ever stop poking at Apple products (and I’m not an Apple fanboy at all).
