Microsoft Flies Solo With New Tablets

Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) recently announced a new line of tablets dubbed "Surface." , instead of partnering any of its traditional hardware friends, Microsoft is going it alone when it comes Surface manufacturing -- Redmond will make the hardware on its and load it its Windows 8 operating system.

It's similar to the way Microsoft approaches video games with its Xbox 360 console. However, Microsoft has a history of working with outside hardware partners when it comes to personal computers, and those partners likely have plans to launch Windows 8 tablets of their own when the OS is released later this year.

The company didn't release details pricing. It didn't give exact launch dates for the products. Microsoft didn't respond to our request further details.

Microsoft's Surface will be entering a crowded tablet market the iPad reigns supreme. But the new product have some strong features, Patrick Moorhead, president and principal analyst Moor Insights & Strategy, told the E-Commerce Times.

"The valuable features in the Surface are the covers," he said. "The Touch Cover and Type Cover enable Surface to morph from a tablet a notebook."

For tablet buyers looking to purchase an enterprise tool, those can be valuable , especially when enterprise users are also looking the Microsoft Office software that comes with a Microsoft tablet, said Tuong Nguyen, analyst at Gartner (NYSE: IT).

"There is the potential be a good product with people are using it in enterprise," he told the E-Commerce Times.

However, Microsoft also has challenges if it wants to break the tablet market, Moorhead and Nguyen agreed. Without exact pricing points, it's unclear how big a splash the Surface and Surface Pro may make.

"What's unclear is battery life and pricing," said Moorhead. "These could be potential show-stoppers if competitive."

Microsoft's plan to make the hardware its own is a potentially risky undertaking, said Moorhead, especially considering ongoing relationship with PC partners.

"Microsoft is taking a colossal risk competing with its PC customers," said Moorhead. "They obviously were wowed by what their OEMs were offering, or would not have announced Surface."

The tablet market is already competitive, said Nguyen, and this adds another element the challenge.

"I don't think anyone done that successfully in the past," Nguyen said. "This was than a tiny sneak preview, this was a big sneak preview, and they were saying we're going to be in the tablet space and this is how we're going do it. That seems very iffy me."

While Microsoft went that route Xbox, it's difficult to compare this launch to Microsoft's similar endeavors the past, he noted.

"They've done it with Zune and Xbox," he said. "We all know where Zune went. And with Xbox, you're talking about a highly competitive hardware. Microsoft is big licensing, so the worst case scenario is that its similar to the hardware space, where they lose money hardware but make it up on the software side. Aside that being challenging on its own, we're talking the mobile market here, and that's going to be tough."

Adapted from: TechNewsWorld, June 19, 2012.