Attention consumers! Those of you who have been buying the upwards of 100 million iPads sold since its launch, or the numerous Kindle Fire and Nexus 7 devices, you have bought those by mistake! You didn’t really want any of those. Microsoft CEO says you really wanted the Microsoft Surface. Yeah, the Surface.
“I don’t think anybody has done a product that is the product that I see customers wanting,” Ballmer told CNBC during a recent interview. “You can go through the products from all those guys … and none of them has a product that you can really use. 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.”
Ballmer continued, saying the Surface is a “first-class tablet that people can enjoy and appreciate, it’s a PC; it’s a tablet. It’s for play; it’s for work. It’s a got a great price. That product doesn’t exist today.”
Admittedly, the Surface is unique in the market its attempting to play in. It’s a PC, it’s a tablet. But, does it do either of those particularly well?
Ballmer, the ultimate Microsoft pitchman, say Surface is NOT a compromise, it’s a reimagining of the PC, of Windows, and yes; of Microsoft itself as a “devices and services company.”
The move into the tablet market with such a product as this is a big risk. Just ask Blackberry or HP. Which is probably why Microsoft is pushing Surface and Windows 8 with an estimated $1.5 billion marketing campaign.
Is Ballmer right? Is this a case of Microsoft knowing what its customers want before they want it? Maybe a whole gang of buyers has been sitting out there quietly, just waiting for a product like the Surface to come along. Time will tell.
Meanwhile, Apple has sold 100 million iPads over the last two years, and the new, smaller iPad mini seems to be moving pretty well too…
