Tech: Are Apple and Google Trying to Scratch Microsoft’s Surface …
Kung Fu Drafter
It’s our estimation that you would have had to be under a rock for a very long time to not know that Microsoft is about to cut the ties off of Windows 8 and the Surface slate. So being that we know our readers are not rock dwellers, we have to ask a question:
Do you think that the antics of Apple and Google prove that Microsoft may just have something worth looking at?
Microsoft’s Not-So Micro-Unveils …
So after much to do the time has finally come for Windows 8 to go out into the wild and make its way in the world. It really shouldn’t come as any surprise that Microsoft has been working up a new patch of Windows. After all, that is their bread and butter. Of course, this time around the bread and butter is touch oriented.
Originally called “Metro,” Microsoft’s new form of user interface is not only touch-centric, it is the center of what a great many users are riled up about. Not that we think much will come of it. For some odd reason cutting edge geeks seem to hate change with a passion. But in the end: the bigger the dust-up, the faster it passes and the harder it is to remember. So we are sure that Microsoft’s touch interface will just become a de facto part of Windows life.
Now the new Windows RT slate, well that is something altogether different.
Tales of Desktops and Tablets
Where Microsoft's new release of Windows for the desktop is a rebirth of considerable proportions, the slate is a whole new world for the software giant. While the past has been dotted with attempts at mobile Microsoft operating system’s, they have always been attempts at cramming a desktop version of Windows onto a movie device. But Windows 8, now that was dreamt up with touch in mind.
So it only seems natural that in addition to unleashing a new edition of Windows, Microsoft will be releasing it’s tablet offering, the Microsoft Surface. And it looks really nice.
With promises of features that are already attracting the Windows faithful, the Surface is sparking interests. Pre-sale units of the tablet have already sold out on the Microsoft site. Retail units should be available at Microsoft retail and pop-up stores. Overall it certainly seems has if there is a considerable amount of pent-up demand for a Windows tablet. And maybe, just maybe that has Apple and Google nervous.
When Big Boys Sweat
Now it is known, far and wide, that here at the Dojo we are Google proponents and among the Android faithful. Still, we have to wonder if Microsoft has not turned up the temperature on the tablet duopoly of iOS and Android. Could it be that two Four Horsemen of the Internet are concerned? It certainly seems so.
As Microsoft’s big coming out party approached both Apple and Google announced their own cotillions. Apple waited until the Microsoft date to plan, what is widely expected to be, the announcement of its new iPad “mini” (which we all hope is not actually the name of the damn thing!). You have to recognize what a power move by Apple this is since Apple traditionally rules the news cycle with its announcements. It takes a staggering imagination to conceive of a scenario where there is any oxygen left in the room to carry the sound of Microsoft’s tablet.
Yet, should there be any air left, surely it will be a stolen by the giant lungs of Google and what is expected to be the announcement of their 10” Nexus tablet device. Sure, Android tablets are not as widely used ad the market-leading iPad. But the numbers defintely show Apple’s dominance is dwindling.
Look What I can Do
So, why would Apple and Google want to take the poof out of Microsoft’s sails (see what we did there?) if all Windows RT can hope for is to be a distant third? Because, maybe the Surface is worth looking at.
Why else would Apple try to press out the Surface announcement with the debut of one of the most talked-about bits of kit in recent memory? Even Google is playing the attention game, and to a possibly more drastic degree by scheduling their event the very moment morning of the Surface announcement!
It has long been the suspicion of Kung Fu Drafter that when someone is trying to make you look one way, you have to wonder what is happening in the other direction.
Are we excited about the new Google device (which may possibly feature the newest incarnation of Android)? Hells yes! We are practically drooling at the thought. Are we excited about the iPad Mini? Actually we are very “meh” on the matter, but we know PLENTY of people are foaming at the idea of it.
But the thing we are really excited about, the possibility that has us intrigued and wanting more is the possibility that there is something new coming to the market. Something that may just be so fresh and interesting that it has Apple and Google nervous. That can only translate into better products and more innovation and price competition and that can only be a good thing for the consumer.
Whether or not these last two big plays of the year by Google and Apple were meant to thwart Microsoft or not, we can be sure of one thing: This final week of October is primed for gadget lust and this is going to be one interested gift-giving season …
- KFD -
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