After proclaiming in his keynote address at the 2012 Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference that Microsoft’s goal is to sell “a few million Surface PCs” in the next year, CEO Steve Ballmer also went on to claim that Microsoft’s Surface tablets are merely reference designs meant to show Windows OEMs what’s possible.
“‘Surface is just a design point,’ Ballmer said. ‘It will have a distinct place in what’s a broad Windows ecosystem. And the importance of the thousands of partners that we have that design and produce Windows computers will not diminish. We have a mutual goal with our OEM partners to bring a diversity of solutions, Windows PCs, phones, tablets, servers to market. And what we seek to have is a spectrum of stunning devices, stunning Windows devices. So, every consumer, every business customer can say, ‘I have the perfect PC for me.’ … We’re excited about the work our OEM partners are doing on Windows 8,'” John Paczkowski reports for AllThingsD.
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: First, it’s got a revolutionary Liquidmetal-like unibody chassis branded “VaporMg.” Then, “VaporMg” turns out to perhaps be merely a finish; just a coating. Metallic paint.
Okay, whatever, we expected as much.
Now, Microsoft is going to sell “a few million Surface PCs,” which, BTW, after Amazon’s tiny screen Kindle Fire sales have fallen off a cliff, would make it the #3 best-selling tablet in the world (after Apple’s #1 iPad with Retina display and Apple’s second place $399 iPad 2), oh, but wait, never mind, Surface is really only “just a design point.”
Stunning, indeed.
Is it just us or is instilling confidence among potential tablet buyers and app developers not one of Microsoft’s strong points? Microsoft’s patented method of wildly over-promising and woefully under-delivering just isn’t going to cut it in this new Post-PC world that Steve Jobs hath created.
Watching this Surface debacle unfold is like watching a clown car empty out. At the end, a sweaty Ballmer T. Clown will pop up through the moonroof and scream, “Ta da! It was all just a big fat joke! No, no, no, not me, the Surface!” Then, after laughing maniacally and for far, far too long, he’ll pop a light bulb into his mouth and wander aimlessly offstage.
Do these rapidly deteriorating ‘Surface’ tablets even exist? Nope. Not from what we’ve seen so far. Will they ever? And, if they do, will they even remotely resemble the barely-working mockups that were trotted out during Microsoft’s dog and pony show?
Stay tuned, there are a lot of clowns packed into that old car.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Fred Mertz” and “Jax44” for the heads up.]
Related articles:
Microsoft’s Buffoon, er… Ballmer throws down gauntlet against Apple – July 10, 2012
Microsoft reportedly dumps ‘VaporMg’ chassis, will use ‘VaporMg’ only as ‘surface treatment’ – July 9, 2012
Microsoft’s downfall: Inside the executive e-mails and cannibalistic culture that fueled Microsoft’s lost decade – July 7, 2012
HP said to dump Microsoft over Surface; to cozy up to Google Android for tablet efforts – July 2, 2012
Bad news for Microsoft’s iPad killer? – July 2, 2012
Dear Microsoft, Steve Balmer and Bill Gates: What is up with your obsession with keyboards? – June 28, 2012
Jason Schwarz: Top 10 reasons why Microsoft’s Surface is DOA – June 22, 2012
Why I love Microsoft’s vaporware Surface tablet – June 22, 2012
Microsoft’s Surface tablet said to be Wi-Fi only at launch; no 4G, no 3G, no 2G, not even 1G – June 22, 2012
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ZDNet’s Kingsley-Hughes: Microsoft’s Windows 8 is an awful, horrible, painful design disaster – June 8, 2012
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It’s almost like Ballmer got a call from the guys actually trying to make the Surface and they told him they couldn’t do it.
What do we do now?
Just remind folks that Microsoft is a Software Company and that the Hardware will be built by someone else.
Brilliant!
Once again, Darth Fester emerges from behind the curtain, says some stupid shit and recants. Nothing to see here, folks. Move along. Move along.
Microsoft is the Mitt Romney of Tech. Next week Ballmer is introducing the Microsoft Etch-a-Sketch!
This just shows you the big difference between MSFT and AAPL corporate culture. MSFT just like a loser always begs for attention… a bit like some less than “A-list” actors/actresses.
I highly suggest Ballmer-the-loser shut his mouth up fast and concentrate his effort on improving MSFT’s R&D ROI. Can you say Kin, Zune, Bob, Surface 1 gen.,
STFU Ballmer-the-loser!!
Ballmer is GOD !
Almost as Brutal as the quote from M.Dell about shutting Apple Down………….
Why does the press always give him a pass on total crapola
“apple will have the most expensive phone by far ever in the market”
Total BS #1 it wasn’t even close to the most expensive phone AND at $600 it wasn’t subsidized (another thing they let him get away with saying)
“I think by most estimates we had about 20-25% of the market”
Total BS #2 MS zune never had more than 3-5% of any market high or low (well except for the “Sh_t brown colored MP3 players” market where they had total domination)
Question is; WHY do the “journalists” interviewing him let this bafoon get away with asserting total fabrication as fact without even calling those “facts” into question? (and this goes on still today)
waitaminute. so, first Microsoft has this big announcement where they announce Surface, passing it off as a real product in the works. tech journalists, bloggers and Apple haters everywhere herald it as the One True iPad Killer, even though there’s no indication of a release date and no one actually got to handle one.
now Ballmer says it’s just a “reference design” and they don’t actually have a real product after all, nor are they planning on making one themselves.
what a bunch of effing clowns.
The MSFT countdown clock reads:
2 years, 3 months, 2 days, 6 hours and 47 seconds until Mr. Softie files for protection from its creditors under Chapter 11 of the U.S. bankruptcy code.
Is it just me, or any sentence from Ballmer just makes no sense ate all ? Just a blurb with poorly connected buzzwords.
This one goes: “blah design blah ecosystem blah partners blah diversity.” The rest is just decoration.
MDN’s hubris is astounding. We all know that Apple has a large lead and a top-notch design team. But that doesn’t mean squat if Apple doesn’t continue to innovate. The majority of computer users, having been brainwashed into thinking that initial Wally-World purchase price is the only consideration to make when buying a product, will give MSFT and iPad-clone products a try if the price is any lower than Apple’s. That’s why the Mac share hasn’t ever broken 15% despite having better hardware AND OS integrated into beautiful machines for the last 12+ years. … and you know darn well that Ballmer is desperate enough to give away Surfaces below cost, just like the Xbox, in order to steal tablet market share.
The reason that Apple got good was because they were the underdog with nothing to lose, guided by a few obsessive people with a very crisp vision. Now that visionary guide has diffused, the core team has bloated and slowed down. Look how long product refresh cycles are these days. Apple can very easily become the next bloated MSFT if it doesn’t keep its head together. MDN might do better to keep perspective rather than being an airheaded cheerleader all the time.
One of the traits that Jobs attempted to breed into the Apple team is the notion that they must continue working as if they are a ‘start up,’ and that this survive his passing. Time will only tell if that can be maintained, and I suspect it will be the most important responsibility for Cook and other leaders to foster. There may be some missteps here and there, but I’d like to think that Jobs’ greatest creation was Apple itself, not the doodads.
Wow, “Mike”, you’re one, sore, Microsoft marketing Troll.
“But that doesn’t mean squat if Apple doesn’t continue to innovate.”
And what do you see, “Mike”, that indicates Apple won’t continue to innovate?
I prefer this guide: “Future behaviour is best predicted by past behaviour”
“give MSFT and iPad-clone products a try if the price is any lower than Apple’s”
Let me see, Apple iPad base price – $499.
If only iPad clones were cheaper, ay?
Oh LOOK! –> http://www.tabletpccomparison.net/
34 of the 43 iPad clones selling since the iPad was released, were/are priced below, and often significantly below the base price of Apple’s iPad.
Want to try a different Troll tactic “Mike”?
Yes? Well, how about spewing some baseless opinions and hoping they’re taken as fact?
Like this …
“Now that visionary guide has diffused, the core team has bloated and slowed down.”
Care to give some evidence that Apple’s “visionary guide has diffused” or that “Apple’s core team” (<– you have no idea what that even means, and you're just hoping that others fall for your nonsense) is 'bloated and slowed down'?
No? You'd rather just spout empty rhetoric and hope someone listens?
Geez, put a little effort into it, "Mike". You're besmirching the image of the real, hard-working, creative Trolls we occasionally see here.
I use a macbook pro before people jump on their high horse here, but the surface is essentially a touchscreen laptop, as a macbook pro user I couldn’t use a ipad for design work, 3d modelling etc any more than I could use an iphone, but the surface is a touchscreen ultrabook essentially, get a grip people, apple fandom is pointless here, unless apple creates an macbook air touch with a version of mountain lion that designed for touch, surface will sell guys. Digital artists who need a digitizer, and would like the ability of something like a wacom cintiq to draw directly on the screen in apps like zbrush or full photoshop or want the ability to run full apps not app store lifestyle stuff will buy this. Arguing otherwise is pointless. The ipad is not a business machine its a phone OS guys. MS hype aside, a fully fledged touchscreen OS is on the way with windows 8 like it or not, unless iOS steps up or mountain lion is adapted to touch then MS has a niche apple can’t fill at present. As I said I work on a Macbook Pro but can see what MS are doing even if everyone else can’t, mark my works MS is still the main OS for business, and they own that sector compared to Apple, this will continue that trend sorry to say,
The true sign of a Troll, start one’s trollishness with, “I use a macbook pro …”.
To your point,
“… the surface is essentially a touchscreen laptop”
– No, Microsoft Apologist. The Surface is vapourware from Microsoft. Again. (See “Courier”)
Crikey, Ballmer himself admits it.
“Arguing otherwise is pointless.”
… Next Trolliferous attempt?
Such an idiot, I’m an apple user,I follow tech, but I’m not brain dead enough to mindlessly write off everyones point of view that isn’t only about apple, get a life.. Read def of troll… a troll is someone who posts inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community. My post was not off topic, and if pointing out that apple hasn’t developed touchscreen tech that works for creatives who need full programs. if that is inflamitory then you obviously don’t have to work on programs that require a full OS and want a touchscreen for 3d modelling or illustration. I pointed out that so far apple does not have a full OS aimed at touchscreen, I have to work on a macbook pro actual work done and have been waiting for a tablet that does what I need, so in that sense MS are on the right lines for me anyway. If you can’t handle the fact that for some of us who use apples don’t think the ipad is right for business. You might as well get an apple logo tattoo on your own arse and worship your own excrement as your obviously so pro apple you cant even allow people who want something that apple doesn’t offer to exist, So what if the surface arrives or not, Win 8 will allow zbrush, full cs6 etc on a tablet, I wish an apple product existed that also could, but there isn’t. As I said the ipad isn’t making any more headway into business any more and MS windows 8 is likely to do for touchscreen what the ipad can’t, allow a tablet to be a laptop replacement,. Honestly get a life.