I feel compelled to add to John Gruber’s take on Frank Shaw’s blog post. I think John is being too charitable.
Frank starts with some twisty little prose, criticizing Apple for giving away iWork with all new iOS devices:
Surface and Surface 2 both include Office, the world’s most popular, most powerful productivity software for free and are priced below both the iPad 2 and iPad Air respectively. Making Apple’s decision to build the price of their less popular and less powerful iWork into their tablets not a very big (or very good) deal.
I am not a fan of snark, and this was snarky. Frank didn’t say, “throw in the iWork apps for free”, which is what happened. Instead, he implies that Apple raised the price of the iPad so that us hapless customers have no choice but to pay for something we don’t want. That might be considered true if the price of the iPad went up, even one penny. But the iPad Air added a bunch of new features, found a way to slim down significantly, and kept the price the same. Oh, and, we’ll throw in our productivity apps, too.
There was no decision to build the price into their tablets. That’s just snark.
And so it’s not surprising that we see other folks now talking about how much “work” you can get done on their devices. Adding watered down productivity apps. Bolting on aftermarket input devices. All in an effort to convince people that their entertainment devices are really work machines.
In that spirit, Apple announced yesterday that they were dropping their fees on their “iWork” suite of apps. Now, since iWork has never gotten much traction, and was already priced like an afterthought, it’s hardly that surprising or significant a move. And it doesn’t change the fact that it’s much harder to get work done on a device that lacks precision input and a desktop for true side-by-side multitasking.
Really Frank? How many tablets in the world have Word on them? How many have Pages? I would wager that any iPad productivity app will have more “traction” than any comparable Surface app.
And I use my iPad every single day, all without a single bolted on aftermarket input device, just the ones I was born with.
As to precision, I would love to see a side by side comparison of the iPad and Surface touch precision. I can’t imagine the Surface even coming close. Yeesh.
I’m assuming the “precision input” to which Shaw was referring was the ability to use a trackpad or a mouse with the Surface. He’d have to be really, really drunk to believe that the Surface’s touch screen is more precise than the iPad.
Anyway, Microsoft gonna Microsoft.
Is it just me or does anyone else find it just a teeny bit ironic that a Microsoft rep is talking about “bolting on aftermarket input devices” to “convince people that their entertainment devices are really work machines” when their entire ad campaign on the Surface was built around an optional – and very expensive – keyboard cover?
“I’m still over in Abu Dhabi, where the only thing hotter than the weather are the new Windows devices unveiled by Nokia this week.” Hmm, maybe they forgot to put fans in these Nokia devices?
Just trying to get attention for his company, when clearly nobody cares.
I have a problem with the quotes around “work” implying real work doesn’t get done with iPads. It is so patronizing. My wife is an eye doctor and this year started to make training slides for her staff with Keynote on her iPad mini. There is a work supplied WinXP with Office on her desk. I didn’t even show her how to use Keynote. Now she sends out the medical training material as a pdf to the entire organization (19 locations and 30+ doctors) all created from iPad and Keynote. I don’t know about you, but that seems like “work” to me.
Microsoft has always been a bit out of touch, but their repetition of the “iPad is only for entertainment consumption” meme is tiresome, even by their standards. Are they so blind as to think the only way people “work” in the world is by using one of their shitty office apps? Damn, just watch this video asshats: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8Le9wvoY00
I especially like the quote how iWork is “already priced like an afterthought”, implying that Apple are chumps for not pricing their iWork suite high enough. Yeah, that’ll get me to switch over to Microsoft’s platform: they charge for their Office suite like it’s their main source of revenue!
Of course, what else is he going to say? Microsoft’s cash cows are Windows and Office. As of today, Apple is giving away their OS and their productivity apps for free. It threatens the very foundation of Microsoft’s business model – if people come to expect their OS and their productivity suite for free, Microsoft is screwed. And with the Surface tanking in the market, panned for it’s clunky schizophrenic design, and clocking in at $900 for the “pro” version, hundreds of dollars more than the top-of-the-line iPad, about all he can do is play the traditional “yeah, but if you leave the Microsoft circle, you’re out of the Microsoft circle!” card. That threat has worked well in the past to keep their corporate buyers in line, but it’s not going to last forever.
Frank Shaw is the new Steve Ballmer.
Hear, hear!
Microsoft made a bet years ago to not make Office for the iPad. That has proved to be a poor, if not fatal decision. The problem they have now is that almost no one is asking for Office for the iPad and almost no one is buying their tablets. So their decision has left them out in the cold.
The problem they have is institutional. Because they had tried and failed for so long to understand what would make the tablet work they didn’t think Apple had solved it either. This mistake led them to think that people were still going to continue to buy PCs in much greater quantities than the iPad. Now their biggest sources of revenue are starting to shrink and they have no way to go back in time and change their decision.
Just when you think Microsoft gets it—eliminating Windows upgrade SKUs, lowering prices, launching Office 365, integrating SkyDrive with Windows 8.1—someone like Frank Shaw has to open his mouth.
It’s one thing to post this kind of screed on the personal company blogs Microsoft supplies. Go hog wild; I’ll not judge the company by your ridiculousness. It’s entirely another to use The Microsoft Blog as your bully pulpit for this crap.
On the other hand, seeing this coming from their VP of Communications explains their recent advertising strategy. Especially the “apples and oranges” Surface campaign that focuses on price and (mostly-already-consumed) physical storage while ignoring everything else.
His whole quote: “2. Faster and more precise input methods like keyboard/trackpad.”
Because when I want something faster or more precise than a giant capacitive touchscreen, I reach right for a trackpad.
“I am not a fan of snark” is funny because I read The Loop because I am a fan of snark.
I get, and more or less agree with, what you’re saying, but I think you might want to re-examine your definition of the word “snark” since I don’t think it fits with what you’re describing. His comments (at least what you’ve referenced as being snarky) seem more disingenuous thank snarky to me.
Or maybe you meant sneaky?
Now John Gruber’s Daring Fireball… that’s some good snark!
This. This is what gets me about Microsoft’s marketing. It feels scammy to me.
I’ve used Windows 8, and I could see how it’d be a good interface for a touch device, but every time I hear from Microsoft about the iPad, their message seems to include “expensive” and “no keyboard”.
Even if you take the bottom-of-the-line Surface (RT) and add a Touch Cover, you’ll end up with a $428.98 combo (compared to the bottom-of-the-line iPad (2) at $399). If you add the Touch Cover 2 they actually show in the ads, you’re up to $468.99. That leaves you $69.99 to buy, say, an Apple Wireless Keyboard and something on the dollar menu at McDonald’s.
(If you compare the flagship models – Surface 2 with Touch Cover 2 vs. iPad Air – you’re looking at $568 vs. $599. That’s a better comparison for Microsoft, but still, not that much of a price difference.)
Either criticize the price or criticize the lack of a keyboard accessory – but don’t do both.
You would think the Board/Shareholders would demand that MS’s executives just STFU. Every time they open their yap, something rancid and stupid pours out. It’s gotta be hurting their stock price—at least preventing it from improving.
My favorite part of Shaw’s tirade is where he talks about Microsoft being intimately familiar with consumer wants/needs, then uses Surface USB ports as an example.
One could say that Word is the most powerful word processor available today. Or, one could say that Word is a bloated piece of crap overcomplicated by tons of features that justifies its incredibly high cost by including features most people don’t need or want.
One could say that Pages is an underwhelming word processor. Or one could say that Pages is an ideal word processor that is streamlined and easy to use because it focusses on the features most users need rather than glomming on a bunch of crap to justify an obscene price like the products from another famous software company.
I have used every version of Word for Mac since 5.1 (which was probably Microsoft’s last really good word processor) and I was oh so happy when Apple came out with Pages and freed me from Word.
While Frank was certainly posting with an agenda, I don’t think it’s accurate to suggest Apple hasn’t done the cost/benefit analysis behind bundling the apps with their new hardware. As much as we all love Apple, they are a business and aren’t making changes like this out of sheer benevolence.
I’m not saying Microsoft is executing well with Surface, but suggesting that any company “throws in” software for free is, in my opinion, missing the mark. It’s a lovely marketing message, and Apple may be delivering more value for the same price vs. the previous year’s model, but it’s no less calculated than what Microsoft is doing.
Given the decrease in memory prices since the iPad launch, if anything a 32GB base model would’ve been much more appreciated than the bundled applications. Maybe next year.
I’ve actually used a Windows 8 (not RT!) tablet.
The idea that Office on them is compelling is incomprehensible to me.
Does anyone else get the feeling that Paul Thurrott ghost-wrote that post for Shaw?
Just more evidence that Microsoft’s focus groups are their own employees.
I think it’s funny to the point of glee that the company always held up as an alternative to the Apple “cult” is thoroughly deluded by it’s own success. Success predicated on reaping the profits from the PC OEMs products that are bought by the ton lot and distributed under office desks everywhere. Worse (or funnier) is that Microsoft obviously truly believes that it’s success in corporate computing was brought about by hundreds of millions of individuals purposely buying Windows PCs, as opposed to the fact that a relative handful of purchasers make decisions for thousand if not tens of thousands of other people without their input.
That Microsoft continues to imagine that their hundreds of millions of customer are as devoted or invested Windows/Office as Apple’s customers are is the basis of these defensive rants, and part of the reason that I believe Microsoft’s cash cows could stop producing in a rather short time period. Far shorter than most think is possible.
I’ve said many times that while Apple’s approach to corporate corporate communications are derided as “draconian”, other companies’ employees provide ample evidence every single day of the benefits of Apple’s tight control of the public face of the company.
Microsoft made a bet years ago to not make Office for the iPad. That has proved to be a poor, if not fatal decision.
Microsoft has allowed Apple and Google to demonstrate to the entire first generation of the mobile era of computing that Microsoft and it’s products are utterly irrelevant.
That was my exact thought when I read that blog yesterday.
I have said it before and I will say it again:
Microsoft’s repeated reference to it’s snap on keyboard in the Surface commercials has convinced me that the target demographic for the Surface is people who have never seen a laptop or believe that the iPad has no keyboard options whatsoever.
So…. a handful of coma patients and a very confused Dachshund named Colin? That strikes me as a not particularly huge market, though it would explain the slight overstock.
And that’s what writedowns are for…