Why Microsoft Wants to Be Apple

People expected Windows tablets to be also-rans. Surface for Windows RT and Surface for Windows Pro may change that.

MICROSOFT MAY HAVE a serious case of Apple envy. What else could you con­clude after the tech giant, known for its operating systems and related software, recently announced two homemade tablets built specifically for Windows 8?  Microsoft has been around for 37 years, and on occasion it has even built hardware items, from the Xbox to keyboards. But this is the first time that the company has ever created its very own Windows hardware.

If the strategy sounds familiar, that's because it is: Apple has fattened its cor­porate wallet by releasing hardware/ operating system pairings that delight users precisely because those products are designed as an integrated unit. No third parties are mucking around in the silicon and creating computers that don’t offer the carefully calibrated user experience Apple envisions.

Microsoft, on the other hand, has taken a different tack, inviting anyone with a business license and a pair of pliers to create PCs that run Windows and the gazillion applications it supports. That approach has kept prices low and ad­vanced innovation. It has also produced uneven products that work in different and inconsistent ways.

Surface turns the tables, embracing a strategy that Steve Jobs himself would have loved. By controlling both the hard­ware and the operating system, Micro­soft can assure users that the Surface tablets work as promised. A beautifully designed bit of industrial engineering, Surface provides a blueprint for hard­ware manufacturers looking to succeed in the coming Windows 8 tablet market Microsoft's co-opting of Apple's gameplan doesn’t stop there. Consider the ecosystem Apple has created around the iPad and iPhone: 25 billion-plus downloads from the App Store. 

With its own Windows Store, Microsoft will at­tempt to out-Apple Apple, offering a one-stop shop for Metro-syle apps that will run on Windows 8, Surface tablets, and Windows 8 phones. That would be the equivalent of buying an iPhone app and running it on your MacBook, a trick Apple has not yet been able to pull off.

You can chalk up Microsoft's about- face to brilliance or desperation. Keep in mind that until the company revealed Surface, few people were taking the prospects of Windows 8 tablets seri­ously. Apple essentially owns the tablet market, and although we have bushels of Android tablets, none has emerged to challenge the iPad. Windows 8 tab­lets, due out later this year, were ex­pected to be so much digital roadkill, crushed by the Apple steamroller.

Surface, though, Looks like a legiti­mate tablet contender. I admire many Microsoft products and use them every day. Yet in all my years of covering the PC industry, this was the first time I heard details of an upcoming Microsoft product and thought, "I can hardly wait for that." Think of it as real technolust— the kind of visceral response that Apple fans so often report.

Hmmm. Maybe there is something to this hardware/operating system inte­gration thing after all. •different tack, inviting anyone with a business license and a pair of pliers to create PCs that run Windows and the gazillion applications it supports. That approach has kept prices low and ad­vanced innovation. It has also produced uneven products that work in different and inconsistent ways.

Surface turns the tables, embracing a strategy that Steve Jobs himself would have loved. By controlling both the hard­ware and the operating system, Micro­soft can assure users that the Surface tablets work as promised. A beautifully designed bit of industrial engineering, Surface provides a blueprint for hard­ware manufacturers looking to succeed in the coming Windows 8 tablet market Microsoft's co-opting of Apple's game plan doesn’t stop there. Consider the ecosystem Apple has created around the iPad and iPhone: 25 billion-plus downloads from the App Store. With its own Windows Store, Microsoft will at­tempt to out-Apple Apple, offering a one-stop shop for Metro-syle apps that will run on Windows 8, Surface tablets, and Windows 8 phones. That would be the equivalent of buying an iPhone app and running it on your MacBook, a trick Apple has not yet been able to pull off.

You can chalk up Microsoft's about- face to brilliance or desperation. Keep in mind that until the company revealed Surface, few people were taking the prospects of Windows 8 tablets seri­ously. Apple essentially owns the tablet market, and although we have bushels of Android tablets, none has emerged to challenge the iPad. Windows 8 tab­lets, due out later this year, were ex­pected to be so much digital roadkill, crushed by the Apple steamroller.

Surface, though, Looks like a legit

i­mate tablet contender. I admire many Microsoft products and use them every day. Yet in all my years of covering the PC industry, this was the first time I heard details of an upcoming Microsoft product and thought, "I can hardly wait for that." Think of it as real technolust— the kind of visceral response that Apple fans so often report.

Hmmm. Maybe there is something to this hardware/operating system inte­gration thing after all. •