After the high excitement of 2010-11, it’s been a bad year for the tablet so far. In the wake of the launch of the first iPad ‘ one of the only form factors Apple really did pioneer ‘ there were forecasts that touchscreen slates were going to replace PCs in short order. But while the device has been a factor in eroding the dominance of the PC in the past couple of years, many other designs are doing the same, some of them far more PC-like (ultrabooks, Chromebooks, hybrids, large smartphones etc). The iPad was a weak point in Apple’s most recent results, and this week Morgan Stanley said it had slashed its forecast for tablet growth this year, from 26% to 12%.
So will the new Surface from Microsoft ‘ the firm with the strongest vested interest in keeping the PC alive ‘ help to prove those pessimists wrong and actually put the company back in the driving seat of enterprise client devices? The much rumored smaller-sized Surface did not turn up at this week’s event, and was reported to have been put on hold at the last minute. Whatever the reason, the sole focus on the Surface Pro 3, a 12-inch product, emphasized that Microsoft wants to protect its business PC stronghold, with any Windows form factor it can ‘ which means a product that can simultaneously take on the Macbook Air and the iPad, the Chromebook and the Galaxy Tab.
The Surface Pro 3 is too little and too late to succeed single-handedly in that challenge, but it looks like a device that is well capable of making progress on the road. It has a 12-inch screen (up from 10.6-inches on the Surface Pro 2), kickstand and stylus support along with the Surface range’s characteristic Type Covers and USB 3.0. It has a more powerful processor than its predecessors (Intel Core i7 in the top model), higher screen resolution at 2160×1440, and is slimmer, at 9.1mm, and lighter, at 800g (less than a MacBook Air, crucially). The product will be priced in the US from $799 to $1,949 depending on processor (there are Core i3, i5 and i7 models) and RAM/storage configurations.
This combination of features clearly aim to take the best of the tablet form factor (slimness, hi-res touchscreen) and of the laptop (large screen, various inputs including keys, powerful processor).
The launch also focuses heavily on the Intel platform, raising further speculation that Microsoft will distance itself from its ARM/Windows RT combination. That could signify a retreat from the lower end consumer tablet space, and an acceptance that ARM/Android will dominate there. Or Microsoft may be offloading activities for that market to recently acquired Nokia, and be planning what it should have done all along ‘ a unified ARM-based operating system spanning smartphones and tablets.
Whatever the fate of RT, the Surface Pro 3 is a clear statement that the business market still belongs to Wintel and can still be preserved from the assaults of iOS, Android and Chrome. It is bold of Microsoft to boast of a device that can replace the laptop, but it’s a necessary risk. At least Microsoft is not coining an awkward new name for its tablet/laptop product, even while it insists it is creating a new category ‘ more powerful than a tablet, but neater than the various Frankenstein’s monsters which PC makers have designed in the quest for an appealing hybrid.
“We are making a market,” Panos Panay, corporate VP of Surface computing, told The Register. “We are still calling this a table, because tablets have not landed.’ In other words, the apparent decline in tablets is not terminal, but is because the first-stage designs have reached their limits, and in the business sector, ultraslim, low power laptops are fulfilling many of the promises of the slate. All that means there is room for a new definition of the tablet, or so goes Microsoft’s argument, or dream. It may well be right. Its challenge is to enhance the Surface Pro further to ensure it fulfils that dream, not the next iPad ‘ and then to work out a credible strategy for the consumer and ARM base.