The war for supremacy in the field of tablets has taken a new twist. A player - a suave player has emerged. A player with pockets as deep as Apple, a player with ability to deliver technology as good as Apple and one player who has always be Apple's rival in the truest sense - Microsoft.
Now before all of you start complaining that Microsoft was already in the tablet business, here a thought for you, Microsoft was in the business by association with OEMs (Hardware by OEM + Software by Microsoft). Now they have chucked out the OEMs and have jumped in completely on their own with Microsoft Surface.
History behind Microsoft Surface
A traditional grouse against Microsoft has been the lack of tight hardware and software integration. Inspite of Microsoft having successes in the form of its bestselling X-Box Games console, the company is still considered as a software behemoth, rather than a good cutting edge device company like Apple which has a far tighter integration between its hardware and software compared to the former.
Microsoft has traditionally relied on the OEMs like Dell, Lenovo, HP to endorse their flagship Windows product line and have been quite successful in getting a very good market share in the desktop segment. The company enjoys a dominating position in the desktop segments and has been undisputed for quite a long time -- that is until recently when Apple launched its iPad.
Apple changed the entire game when it came out with iPad. More along the lines of a compact notebook or laptop, Apple soon had a dominant position in the segment which it created. There were a lot of wannabes with RIM launching Playbook and Samsung coming out with its own Galaxy Tab range with Android OS. But it wasn't enough. Apple went from strength to strength with the iPads becoming a roaring success. Slowly but steadily in the last couple of years, Apple's iPad had started encroaching on the laptop segments, first with the people opting for iPads in place of ultrabooks/netbooks and then into the laptop segment.
I guess thats when Microsoft started feeling the heat. It soon released a couple of hastily put together tablets with its premiere OEM vendors like Dell (Dell Streak), Samsung (Omnia) and Nokia (Lumia). It also announced that it had reached an exclusive deal with Nokia to deploy Windows Mobile on Nokia smartphones, getting Nokia to ditch its Symbian OS in the process. But these devices did not enjoy the amount of success expected by Microsoft and were not upto the par with the Apple experience for many users.
Apple meanwhile continued to establish strong backlinks within all its products through its Cloud Experience. Now you could sync your iPhone, iPad and your Macbook. It provided an unprecedented level of accesses and integration. Talks about Apple TVs integration into the existing backlink means that Apple will now be able to deliver content across its entire spectrum of products seamlessly. The going got tough for Microsoft as there was a chance that Apple could breakthrough into the hallowed ground, the Holy Grail of Microsoft - The desktop segment.
If Apple can get into that segment, then its curtains for Microsoft as 3/5 of the company revenue comes from this segment. Microsoft had to do something quick and soon.....
[To be Continued....]
Now before all of you start complaining that Microsoft was already in the tablet business, here a thought for you, Microsoft was in the business by association with OEMs (Hardware by OEM + Software by Microsoft). Now they have chucked out the OEMs and have jumped in completely on their own with Microsoft Surface.
History behind Microsoft Surface
A traditional grouse against Microsoft has been the lack of tight hardware and software integration. Inspite of Microsoft having successes in the form of its bestselling X-Box Games console, the company is still considered as a software behemoth, rather than a good cutting edge device company like Apple which has a far tighter integration between its hardware and software compared to the former.
Microsoft has traditionally relied on the OEMs like Dell, Lenovo, HP to endorse their flagship Windows product line and have been quite successful in getting a very good market share in the desktop segment. The company enjoys a dominating position in the desktop segments and has been undisputed for quite a long time -- that is until recently when Apple launched its iPad.
Apple changed the entire game when it came out with iPad. More along the lines of a compact notebook or laptop, Apple soon had a dominant position in the segment which it created. There were a lot of wannabes with RIM launching Playbook and Samsung coming out with its own Galaxy Tab range with Android OS. But it wasn't enough. Apple went from strength to strength with the iPads becoming a roaring success. Slowly but steadily in the last couple of years, Apple's iPad had started encroaching on the laptop segments, first with the people opting for iPads in place of ultrabooks/netbooks and then into the laptop segment.
I guess thats when Microsoft started feeling the heat. It soon released a couple of hastily put together tablets with its premiere OEM vendors like Dell (Dell Streak), Samsung (Omnia) and Nokia (Lumia). It also announced that it had reached an exclusive deal with Nokia to deploy Windows Mobile on Nokia smartphones, getting Nokia to ditch its Symbian OS in the process. But these devices did not enjoy the amount of success expected by Microsoft and were not upto the par with the Apple experience for many users.
Apple meanwhile continued to establish strong backlinks within all its products through its Cloud Experience. Now you could sync your iPhone, iPad and your Macbook. It provided an unprecedented level of accesses and integration. Talks about Apple TVs integration into the existing backlink means that Apple will now be able to deliver content across its entire spectrum of products seamlessly. The going got tough for Microsoft as there was a chance that Apple could breakthrough into the hallowed ground, the Holy Grail of Microsoft - The desktop segment.
If Apple can get into that segment, then its curtains for Microsoft as 3/5 of the company revenue comes from this segment. Microsoft had to do something quick and soon.....
[To be Continued....]
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