The all new second-generation Microsoft Surface Pro tablets are a huge step up from the company’s original tablet designs. The Surface 2, which is due for release next month, will be marketed aggressively according to a Digitimes report . The report stated:
“Microsoft’s current plight is due to its late entry to the mobile market, high product prices, and weak ecosystem compared to its competitors. Microsoft’s strategy of developing its tablet operating system using its PC operating system as the base, is the main problem preventing Windows-based tablets becoming standardized.”
But is Microsoft following Apple’s lead in their marketing of the Surface Pro tablets?
It should be noted that Microsoft is in fact keeping its first generation tablets on the market as a budget option to their all new tablets. The first generation Surface RT will still be available from stores for around $350, a good $100 less than the new range.
The Digitimes researchers, as well as many other analysts, see Office as the biggest selling point for the new devices. Although they comment that Microsoft’s initiative to introduce Office to other mobile platforms will only take away from the appeal of the Surface Pro tablets.
The report suggests that Microsoft’s strategy may not be a good one. Even though the new tablets feature the full gamut of Office programs, it may not be enough to draw users away from Android and iPad tablets, even though they are severely limited in their scope vis-a-vis Office.
During a Microsoft event in a store in Seattle, the vice president in charge of the Surface , launch, Panos Panay, said that even though the existing tablets offer a 10.6-inch display with 6:9 ratios, the company is toying with the possibility of introducing different screen sizes on their devices.
Panay said: “We have a lot of great things that we are thinking about and working on, and there are multiple aspect ratios and sizes and awesome things to come from Surface.”
With pre-orders already available on the new Surface 2 and Surface Pro 2 tablets, with the full launch coming on October 22, will you be interested in a new tablet? Do you think the new Surface Pro tablets will have something to offer users that the iPad and Android tablets lack? Let us hear your thoughts in the comments feed below.
