It’s no surprise that Microsoft would piss people and companies off with their new tablets, the first to come and bash the Surface tablets is Acer.
Acer’s senior VP, Oliver Ahrens, apparently believes that Microsoft’s attempt to take over the tablet industry from Apple will fail. From what we can read at Cnet, Microsoft left its partners totally in the dark, only announcing the tablet last week. Since there were more questions than answers, Ahrens comment is not coming at a good time. Couple it with the internet explorer fail during Microsoft’s press conference not long ago and the tablets future isn’t looking to bright.
So what did Ahrens actually say?
“I don’t think it will be successful because you cannot be a hardware player with two products,” he said to Reuters. “Microsoft is working with two dozen PC vendors worldwide, including the local guys, whereas Apple is alone, it can more or less do what it wants. Microsoft is a component of a PC system. A very important component but still a component.”
Ouch, but he got a point. You really can’t be a jack of all trades. As Ahrens explains further, it is the products and the partners that will suffer from this war with Apple. And really, in the end it will be us, the paying customers.
Of course, Ahrens isn’t the only partner who has openly criticised Microsoft and their decision. Acer founder, Stan Shih, stated that Microsoft will use the tablets as a way for other tablet manufacturers to make their own Windows 8 tablets, then Microsoft will withdraw from the market. He continues on with saying that Microsoft will lose money from selling tablets and they make more money as a software developer. In other words, they make money licensing Windows 8 to these companies which create tablets running on said OS.
The only company who had something lukewarm to say was Dell. They stated: ”We remain committed partners to Microsoft. We remain committed to Windows 8, and we will have a Slate product at the time of launch.”
What do you think of the future of these Surface Tablets?
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