Microsoft Surface just a ploy to sell Windows 8, says Acer founder

Acer founder Stan Shih on Wednesday referred to Microsoft's recently-announced Surface tablet as merely a tool to boost adoption of Windows 8, saying that the Redmond-based company has no real intention to enter the hardware game.

Microsoft's surprising foray into the iPad-dominated tablet market is getting a less than cordial reception from third-party OEMs using Android and Windows alike, and some company heads see the Surface brand as being a dubious entry at best. In essence, what Microsoft has created is a halo device to attract users to the Windows 8 platform that the acer founder believes will be abandoned after the first models roll out later this year.

Shih told DigiTimes he believes Microsoft is unlikely to take a real stab at competing with Android and the iPad because the costs related to hardware manufacture yield far less profit than the company's tried-and-true software licensing business model.

Among the many difficulties that Microsoft would encounter in building and marketing its own tablet are production management, distribution, and after-sales maintenance service, Shih said. The Windows maker has strong track records in all those categories, though rolling out a piece of hardware is quite different than boxed software and small peripherals.

By drumming up demand for Windows 8 tablets, Microsoft hopes vendors will expand the stock of devices made by other companies like Lenovo, Samsung and Acer instead of Android models made by those companies. Shih said that vendors should take a positive view of Microsoft's plan as it can be seen as essentially free advertising.

Microsoft looks to push Windows 8 with its Surface tablet. | Source: Microsoft

Surface was officially announced by Steve Ballmer on Monday at a last-minute special event in Los Angeles. There will be two different iterations of the device, an ARM-powered model running a stripped-down version of Windows 8 called Windows RT and an Intel i5-carrying version which will run a tablet-centric full-fledged Windows 8 OS called Windows 8 Pro. The Windows RT model is set to go on sale in conjunction with the launch of Windows 8 this fall to be followed by its larger, and presumably more expensive, brother three months later.

Microsoft reportedly gave PC manufacturers a heads-up before unveiling the device, and when asked by All Things D about how those companies felt about it, Ballmer replied with "no comment."

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82 Comments

solipsismx

said about 11 years ago

I agree with this wholeheartedly. MS doesn't want to sell the complete widget they simply want Windows to be dominate so they can get OEMs to suckle their teat. Unfortunately since Windows has no real smartphone, tablet or ARM-based presence they are not just losing out but the gravitational forces of those three categories have stagnated and will shrink the WinPC market if they don't think of a way to fill the void with Windows. Perhaps not the best plan, just like when they screwed over their Play4Sure OEMs when they created the Zune, but it's a plan and it's either case MS is trying to make a move into the HW side long after the dominos have fallen. I quite like many aspects I saw with the Surface itself but there are so many questions and concerns about the way it was shown, what wasn't shown, the lack of hands on, the time frame to release, price questions, etc. that it's looking as dead as the Zune, which was a very solid device by version 2.0. Too little too late.

quadra 610

said about 11 years ago

MS has around 30 years of learning to do before they can do the vertically-integrated "sell the whole widget" game without looking like amateurs.

The problem is that MS doesn't think like Apple. The two companies are approaching tech, philosophically and strategically, from entirely different places. You can't just transplant Apple's CULTURE into Redmond and expect it to function successfully.

Just look at the disastrous Surface keynote. It was just so . . . awkward and flat-footed. Sinofsky looked so uncomfortable that he was practically squirming. Again, these guys aren't accustomed to this sort of thing. Microsoft is broken at the tech-cultural level. They're no Apple, but they're trying desperately to be Apple, without having any grounding in the basics.

solipsismx

said about 11 years ago

[quote name="Quadra 610" url="/t/150846/microsoft-surface-just-a-ploy-to-sell-windows-8-says-acer-founder#post_2132291"]MS has around 30 years of learning to do before they can do the vertically-integrated "sell the whole widget" game without looking like amateurs.[/quote] When did Apple decide to take Mac OS X, strip down to it's bare essentials and then build it back up? We know the iPhone came out in 2007 so that's at least 3 years before the iPad came out and I'm under the impression it was at least 3 years before that. Even before that Mac OS X was built using PPC and x86 and had already transitioned Mac OS from Moto to PPC. I suppose we can say MS has experience with PPC from porting Windows to create the Xbox but I doubt they put in the same effort or had the same constraints since it's the same essential HW and much more powerful than a PC, phone or tablet. I commend MS for actually porting WinNT to their smartphone and eschewing WinCE in the process, and getting a single OS across ARM and x86, but it all seems rushed and without a proper cross development kit it seems like it's all going to backfire. Maybe they do have one that can build cross platform apps as easily as Apple's SDK allows, or easier, but I certainly haven't read about it and certainly didn't see it demoed yesterday in their very long and bored 2 hour video on Win8.

constable odo

said about 11 years ago

Of course, it's a ploy to sell Windows 8. What else is Microsoft in business for but to sell Windows? Windows 8 by itself may not help Microsoft sell a lot of copies. A Windows tablet ups the ante a bit and may boost interest in Window upgrades. I only hope that as a Apple shareholder that the Surface tablets have a happy Zune ending. I'm already tired of hearing how the Surface tablets are going to put a dent into iPad sales. Seriously, not one Surface tablet has been sold yet, so it's far too early to tell what consumers think of it and if they'll shell out their hard-earned cash for it. I say they won't, but maybe that's just wishful thinking on my part.

indiekiduk

said about 11 years ago

Quote:

The Windows maker has strong track records in all those categories, though rolling out a piece of hardware is quite different than boxed software and small peripherals.

sounds like Shih forgot about the Xbox