Microsoft Surface for the business/mobile worker

Wednesday, July 18th, 2012 Chris Witeck, Director Product Marketing

Yesterday on the iPass blog we gathered some outside opinions on the new Microsoft Surface tablet, which is a Microsoft produced tablet to compete with the iPad and other Android based tablets. What we highlighted are the positive and negative statements being made about this new tablet. Some people like the potential that is the tight integration with Microsoft Office, while others are not sure if this is truly ready for the Enterprise and if Microsoft is going to cause problems for their traditional partners by competing with them directly. Others have commented that all of the Windows 8 variants will be confusing.

I thought I would add my perspective here to these criticisms.

First, to tackle the Enterprise adoption question. Will the Enterprise adopt Microsoft Surface en masse? No, but I don’t think Microsoft is expecting this either. In today’s world of devices in the Enterprise you have two broad categories of devices. 1) Devices IT directly manages, i.e. the IT managed laptop, and 2) devices IT does not manage but supports, i.e. the tablet/smartphone that the user owns and IT lends application support to- so you can check your email and do other work related tasks (think BYOD and consumerization).

Microsoft historically has had a strong handle on #1. But #2 they have definitely struggled with as employees have gone out and purchased their own smartphones and tablets to use for both personal and business related reasons. It is for #2 that Surface is for.

Microsoft I believe will be quite content to allow the Enterprise to deploy Windows 7 laptops and have employees bring in Windows 8 tablets because that represents a win for Microsoft. Will employees see enough appeal in Surface to go out and buy it just like they are buying iPads and Android tablets? I think so, but we’ll definitely have to see how the market reacts. The Microsoft approach to tablets is different and unique enough to carve out a strong niche in my opinion.

Both Google and Apple have treated the tablet as an extension of the phone (based on the fact that the tablet O/S is a variant of the phone O/S). Microsoft had made the tablet an extension of the laptop O/S. This different approach represents both potential and risks for tablet owners. The potential in doing more types of content creation and having a fuller experience with certain applications such as Microsoft Office. The risk comes with traditional laptop bloat and battery drain as multiple applications compete for resources. The promise of the Windows 8 Metro interface is that the risks mentioned are minimized, but we’ll have to wait and see Windows 8 in action before making the final judgment.

Second, let’s talk about Microsoft competing directly with their partners. While Microsoft has talked up their history in hardware (think keyboards and mice), it is definitely new for them to produce a computing device outside of gaming. So while this does mean that Microsoft will be competing with traditional partners, I think the message here is more about creating a category than competition. Outside of Apple, no one has done really well with tablets (although you can make the case for Amazon and Barnes & Noble- but arguably many people see those a single purpose readers vs. tablets). As mentioned above, Microsoft is trying something new with tablets and the message with Surface is that they are trying to define that niche. If they are successful, there will be room for more, especially if partners come out with different form factors and different pricing strategies. If Surface becomes a huge hit, partners such as Dell, Acer, Lenovo and HP may thank Microsoft for the awareness created for Windows 8 tablets that may even create opportunities for traditional laptops as partners start to blend the concept of the laptop and the tablet together.

The last point is the potential confusion caused by all of the Windows 8 variants. This is where Microsoft definitely has a challenge ahead of them. When you think of Windows 8, you really have three different potential experiences that partners may present to users. 1) The classic Windows interface on an Intel based device. 2) The new Metro interface on an Intel based device, and 3) the new Metro interface on an ARM based device (Windows RT).

There will be application incompatibilities between these user experiences, as well as different application experiences on Metro vs. the classic Windows interface. Some Metro applications may be able to fall back to a classic Windows interface on a Intel based device, but will not be able to on an ARM/Windows RT based device. This may present challenges for Microsoft as users may get confused by the different variants. We saw this with the Surface announcement as Microsoft is rolling out both an ARM based and Intel based version. How Microsoft handles this in a non-confusing way remains to be seen, but I think out of the gate this is an area that needs improvement.

So to summarize, I think Microsoft has the potential to succeed with Microsoft Surface by targeting the business user/mobile worker – not by targeting the traditional Enterprise and they have a chance to create a unique niche not served by the iPad and Android tablets that will not only benefit Microsoft but their traditional partners as well. However, they have their work cut out for them to ensure users are not confused by different user experiences that all fit under the Windows 8 umbrella. The true test comes this fall with both Windows 8 and Microsoft Surface starts to hit the market.

Tags: Microsoft, Surface, tablet