Apple CEO: Microsoft Surface 'compromised, confusing'
But Cupertinian kit is 'incredible, amazing, fabulous, jaw-dropping,' etcetera
Apple CEO Tim Cook hasn't got his hands on a Microsoft Surface yet – which, frankly, would have been difficult, since it was formally announced just this Thursday – but he already doesn't like it.
"I haven't personally played with the Surface yet," Cook said during a conference call with reporters and analysts after Apple reported the financial results of its fourth fiscal quarter on Thursday, "but what we're reading about it is that it's a fairly compromised, confusing product."
Cook then proceeded to give Ballmer & Co. a bit of advice on product design. "I think one of the toughest things you do with deciding which product [to create] is to make hard trade-offs and decide what a product should be," he said, "and we've really done that with the iPad, and so the user experience is absolutely incredible."
Many of Apple's offerings strike Cook as being "incredible," as well as "amazing," "beautiful," "fabulous," "jaw-dropping," "fantastic," and more, as a YouTube video distillation of his and chief marketeer Phil Schiller's exuberant praise for Cupertinian kit during Wednesday's rollouts of the iPad mini, skinny iMacs, Retina-Display MacBook Pro, and Mac mini amply demonstrates.
During the Thursday conference call, Cook pooh-poohed what he characterised as the Surface's attempt to be all things to all men. "I suppose you could design a car that flies and floats," he said, "but I don't think it would do all of those things very well."
He's not worried about losing sales to the Surface – or, for that matter, to other tablets. "I think people, when they look at the iPad versus competitive offerings," he said, "are going to conclude they really want an iPad. And I think people have done that to date, and I think they'll continue to do that."
For its part, Microsoft has had to eat its words after dissing Apple products in the past – witness CEO Steve Ballmer's famous laughing dismissal of the iPhone: "Five hundred dollars? Fully subsidized? With a plan? I said, 'That is the most expensive phone in the world!'"
Ballmer laughed first, but Apple laughed last. It will be interesting to see who's laughing a year from now, after tablets based on Windows 8 and Windows 8 RT – Microsoft's Surface and others – have spent some time in the marketplace. ®
COMMENTS
I'm curious
He neglects to mention *how* it's confusing, or what's been compromised, or even what it's trying to do...
Sounds like FUD 101 from the chapter "How to diss your opponents product when you don't even know what it is".
As for flying and floating - I believe seaplanes manage that pretty well (although the "car" bit is obviously lacking).
Also, how many more quotes are we going to have to put up with from CEO's and product leads about how "fabulous", "groundbreaking" and "amazing" their own products are?! They're hardly going to come out and say "I wish we'd made the surface tablet, they've done a much better job at rounding off the corners than we have".
You know the end days are coming...
when the posters on the reg strt defending Microsoft lol
I am an iPad fan but I hope the Surface does well, it looks different enough to carve out its own market space driving competition and innovation which will ultimately benefit us all.
flies and floaters
"I suppose you could design a phone that makes calls and has maps," he said, "but I don't think it would do all of those things very well."
There, fixed that for you.
Wow. A CEO praising his company's products. amazing.
"I think people, when they look at the iPad versus competitive offerings," he said, "are going to conclude they really want an iPad."
They don't always, Mr. Cook. That's why the competition exists...
It seems that Apple soesnt like competition it seems, that they feel once they walk into a market, all the current players there should just leave. But Apple claims that they want innovation in the market, just not the way Apple has always innovated, by "stealing great ideas." Grab someone else's IP, make it shiny, and patent it as your own. They didn't patent it, so its fair game. Apple patents it, so anything anyone else does better not even RESEMBLE it. The shiny won't win everyone over. It won't win over people who "Think Different," since Apple is now the major influence to differentiate from (no wonder we don't hear that slogan anymore).
It won't win over people who can't afford it. That's why Android and even Symbian dominate the market in China, for example.
It won't win over all the people who have just never been big fans of Apple. As Apple's lawyers claimed a while ago to an Australian court, once a customer uses a Galaxy phone or tablet, Apple feels they've "lost them forever." As El Reg pointed out, that sounds like Apple doesn't believe their product will withstand competition. This reveals something important: Apple isn't a company that makes something vastly superior and more advanced. They make tech that's appealing to people who couldn't be bothered to understand tech. That's why Steve Wozniak said he gets more out of Android because you can configure it more, whereas iPhone is for people who just want it to work.
What is all this about? Just that people shouldn't be taken in by the shiny just because Tim Cook says its the best. He isn't going to say anything else.
