Microsoft Surface Tablet |
Microsofts Chief, Steven A. Ballmer shows off the Surface the company's new tablet computer. |
World's largest software company introduces "Surface" tablet computer to directly compete with Apple's top-selling iPad.
Microsoft has
unveiled its own "Surface" tablet designed to boost its new Windows 8
operating system and counter Apple's hot-selling iPad.
The product
displayed on Monday is a departure from the company's usual focus on software,
and could throw Microsoft into direct competition with its closest hardware
partners such as Samsung and Hewlett-Packard.
Microsoft chief
executive Steve Ballmer described the machine as a tablet that "works and
plays" when he showed it off at a press event in Los Angeles.
The world's
largest software company had invited media to a "major" announcement
in Los Angeles on Monday afternoon, but did not provide any details.
Seamless phones
Apple, which makes
both hardware and software for greater control over the performance of the
final product, has revolutionised mobile markets with its smooth, seamless
phones and tablets.
Rival Google may
experiment with a similar approach after buying phone maker Motorola Mobility
this year.
"Anything is
possible if they don't feel their partners are doing it right," said
Michael Silver, an analyst at tech research firm Gartner. "But it's hard
to compete with companies that sell your stuff and still have a great
relationship with them."
Other analysts
suggested an own-branded tablet may be chiefly aimed at kick-starting the
market for Windows tablets working on ARM Holdings microprocessors - a new
venture for Microsoft, which has traditionally relied on Intel chips.
Microsoft charges
hardware makers $50 or more to incorporate its software in machines and
analysts suggest that hardware makers are struggling to produce tablets at a
low enough price to challenge the iPad. By making its own tablets, Microsoft
would presumably use its software for free, bringing down the overall price.
"It suggests
to me that they've struggled to get OEMs [hardware makers] on board to bring
the prices down, so they feel they have to subsidise these products to get them
out of the door, at least in the first iteration," said Al Hilwa, an
analyst at tech research firm IDC.
Making its own
hardware for such an important product would be a departure for Microsoft, which
based its success on licensing its software to other manufacturers, stressing
the importance of "partners" and the Windows "ecosystem."
Mixed record
When it has
ventured into hardware, the Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft has a mixed
record.
Apart from
keyboards and mice, the Xbox game console was its first foray into major
manufacturing.
That is now a
successful business, but only after billions of dollars of investment and
overcoming problems with high rates of faulty units - a problem which was
nicknamed the "red ring of death" by gamers.
The company's
Microsoft-branded Zune music player, a late rival to Apple's iPod, was not a
success and its unpopular Kin phone was taken off the market shortly after
introduction.
Microsoft has
tried hard to generate the type of excitement Apple gets for its secretive
product launches, but usually disappoints.
Talk was rife at
the Consumer Electronics Show in 2010 that Microsoft would pre-empt Apple's
iPad with a slate of its own devising, but it did not materialise then.
The company killed
off a two-screen, slate-style prototype called Courier later that year, saying
the technology might emerge in another form later on.
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