Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is a tech giant in the real sense of the word. The firm has the biggest PC OS, it has a strong place in the tablet market, and it has a lead in the 2-1 category market. Microsoft has great devices – the Surface Studio, Surface Pro, and Surface Studio, Surface Book, Surface Laptop and others.
I still think something is missing in the Surface lineup – ah yes; the missing piece is a Surface Phone. Microsoft is still not in the smartphone game – whether it should be in the game or not is still a topic for serious debates. However, we know that Microsoft recently launched a Surface Laptop. Microsoft general manager for Surface, Ryan Gavin thinks the Surface Laptop and other Surface Products are proof his firm’s innovation. They’re also a small condemnation of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) lack thereof.
Microsoft is too smart to copy Apple
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) seems to have lost its innovative edge since the demise of Steve Jobs and the firm has not launched a device worthy of Jobs “Insanely great” commendation. Apple tried making the iPhone bigger, smaller, fatter, thinner – but each new iPhone is only marginally better than the last. The same humdrum product stagnation is obvious in other products that Apple launches. The HomePod is dead on arrival because it tries to copy Amazon Echo without doing half the job while it costs about six time more.
Ryan Gavin in an interview with Business Insider on Friday revealed a “clear example” of how Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) is setting the pace for Apple and other tech firms to follow. He noted that Apple and other tech firms were skeptical when his firm launched the 2-in-1 category of a Surface that could replace/double as your laptop.
In his words, “think about it, if we had been looking at [Apple] we wouldn’t have made a product like Surface Pro or Surface Book… We have been learning and perfecting our products in the 2-in-1 category for years now, [but] when Surface initially launched everyone was skeptical, including them. And then they followed, and the iPad Pro is a clear example of that.”
Here’s why the Surface Laptop will succeed
We had high hopes for the Surface Pro when Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) started the campaign hinting that the Surface Pro can replace laptops. The Surface Pro hasn’t quite replaced the laptop and Microsoft has unveiled a – wait for it—Surface Laptop. The launch of the Surface Laptop seems to be an admission of error that the Surface Pro can’t take the place of your laptop.
However, Gavin (mentioned earlier) suggests that Microsoft made the Surface Laptop because it is something that people wanted. It appears that users wanted the versatility of the Surface Pro without the “bulkiness” of the Surface Book and the Surface Laptop was born. “If you can’t take advantage of the versatility of Surface Pro or don’t need the power of [Surface] Book, then Laptop is the product for you.”
The Surface Laptop runs on Windows 10S for people who “value things such as faster load times and better battery life.” Hence, it would be a great tool in schools and workplaces. The best part is that the device is reasonably priced at $999 to give users great value for money.
