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Microsoft warned PC manufacturers that it was planning its own range of Surface tablets, CEO Steve Ballmer has confirmed, giving them advance notice it would be challenging them on their own turf. ”Our PC partners knew in advance we were announcing something today in this space” Ballmer told AllThingsD [See Clip Below] in the aftermath of the Surface reveal, a pair of Windows-based slates targeting the iPad and enterprise markets, though the chief exec declined to comment on the reaction those OEMs had.
That reaction, though, isn’t expected to have been especially positive. Microsoft has taken the Surface back to tablet basics, somewhat at odds with the hybrids and other form-factors OEMs experimented with at Computex. Having the developer of the underlying OS also challenge you with hardware products jostling for consumer attention is arguably not what Acer, Samsung and others were hoping for when they signed on for Windows RT.
Still, Ballmer is keen to stress that Surface isn’t the sole basis of the Windows tablet strategy. “It’s an important companion to the whole Windows 8 story,” the CEO said said. “It’s an important piece. It’s not the only piece.” Whether he was referring to other OEMs being involved, or more Surface-brand hardware from Microsoft itself, is unclear.
In fact, Ballmer suggests that Surface is really more of a spark in the style of Google’s Nexus program than it is a direct rival. The new tablet line-up “gives people a full range of things to think about, sort of primes the pump for more innovation around Windows 8, [and] brings new technology to the Windows PC platform.”
While there are plenty of unknown details about Microsoft’s Surface tablet, perhaps the biggest open question is what this means for Microsoft and its decades-long relationship with the PC industry.
Microsoft’s top executives said little onstage on the subject and not much more in interviews afterwards.
In a brief chat after the event, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said that PC makers have known for an unspecified period of time that Microsoft would be doing its own hardware.
Ballmer noted that there will be a lot of PCs sold that will be made by companies other than Microsoft.
“If you look at the bulk of the 375 million machines that get sold (next year), they probably aren’t going to be Surfaces,” Ballmer said. “On the other hand, we could have a sizeable business.”
“It’s an important companion to the whole Windows 8 story,” Ballmer said. “It’s an important piece. It’s not the only piece.”
While Microsoft kept the details of Surface tightly limited to a small group of Microsoft employees working on the project, Ballmer said PC makers weren’t totally taken by surprise.
“Our PC partners knew in advance we were announcing something today in this space,” Ballmer said.
So how did they feel about it? “No comment.”
Ballmer said Microsoft’s goal is that Surface “gives people a full range of things to think about, sort of primes the pump for more innovation around Windows 8, (and) brings new technology to the Windows PC platform.”
Just how closely to the vest has Microsoft been keeping Surface? Ballmer said he has not personally been using a prototype on a regular basis.
“We wanted to keep things under wraps,” Ballmer said. “I’m out in public a lot.” ###
