Microsoft CEO: 'The Surface is the tablet customers really want, not the iPad'

Microsoft's CEO Steven Ballmer has said that his company's new Surface tablet is what customers really want

By Ashleigh Allsopp, London | Wednesday, 31 October 2012

Microsoft's CEO Steven Ballmer has said that his company's new Surface tablet is what customers want, and competitors such as Apple's iPad, Google's Nexus 7 and Amazon's Kindle Fire are products that you can't really use.

"I don't think anyone has done a product that I see customers wanting," Ballmer told CNBC.
"You can go through the products from all those guys and none of them has a product that you can really use," Ballmer continued. "Not Apple. Not Google. Not Amazon. Nobody has a product that lets you work and play that can be your tablet and your PC. Not at any price point."

"We knew our partners who make computers are doing a great job. But we weren't going to let any branch of information go uncovered, so with the Microsoft Surface we have ventured out to do an innovative new design for the tablet PC, " he added.

"Windows 8 is really all about enabling new, creative, imaginative devices," Ballmer said. "PC Notebooks, PC desktops, PC laptops and now PC tablets as well, that you can touch and interact with and that are alive with information in a way, that frankly, no other device is available on the market today."

Ballmer's confident comments follow Apple CEO Tim Cook's statement that Microsoft's Surface is a "compromised" and "confusing" device.
See also:

Microsoft Windows 8 versus OS X Mountain Lion Top 10 hybrid gadgets to rival the toaster-fridge Tim Cook says Apple has 'learned not to worry' about the iPad mini's 'cannibalisation factor' Which iPad should I buy? Microsoft launches Windows Phone 8 Scott Forstall and John Browett to leave Apple

comments

Definition of Wanting
Steve B didn't necessarily express it well but he's nailed the truth for me. I have watched the hysteria around iPads with a great deal of amusement. They have been issued to many of us at work and I said not to bother getting one for me until someone could demonstrate an application that had real value. I'm still waiting. Meantime I know dozens of people who "love" their iPads, but none of the apps I have seen are gamechangers, for me at least. I am waiting for the pro version of the Surface. Full Win8 support, touchscreen, all day battery, very portable, reasonable screen size - that should do it for me. My last laptop did me well for 5 years, and of course it was well out gunned by the time it blew up. Did I buy a state of the art replacement? No. I bought a machine that was adequate for the work I do on it, and ay cheaper than the top machines. I don't feel the need to update it everytime a new CPU comes out. Apple has created a vast improvement in the User Interface, for which I'm grateful. They are making MS get their act together in that respect. And they are fantastic marketers. But they are a dreadful corporate citizen, as their factories in China testify, along with the reports that they pay almost no corporate tax on billions of dollars in profits. Taking emotion out of it, I tend to think Surface will prove to be the more rational choice. But if it's not, I won't buy it either.
Posted by Paul Molloy at 09:16 on November 6, 2012

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Where can I buy one
Anybody know where and when I can buy one in NZ?
Posted by Anonymous at 02:58 on October 31, 2012

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Definition of "wanting"?
Wow - "I don't think anyone has done a product that I see customers wanting".

How long would the first day sales queues need to be, and how many millions the uptake?

I think Steve B has a point somewhere in there but the opening salvo doesn't help with credibility, retaining the reader's attention!
Posted by Jon at 12:00 on October 31, 2012

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