I've been highly critical of the convoluted marketing behind Surface as you can read about in the included links to the left. Aside from the confusion generated by the two different models (RT and Pro) with ostensibly very different buyers yet much in common, the most confounding decision has been the message in all the advertising. Sure, the ads are everywhere and the tablet has perhaps the broadest television product-placement in history. But given that tablets are about touchscreens, it has long been mystifying that the video spots nearly exclusively highlight the fact that Surface can be used with keyboards.
"Less Talking" actually has no keyboard in it at all, except a piano keyboard Microsoft borrowed from Apple's own launch spot for the iPad Mini. (It actually doesn't have a Surface in it either; it has something called an Asus VivoTab Smart). And the companion web page also is keyboard free. But what's remarkable is how much the ad evokes the old "I'm a Mac, I'm a PC" spots Apple once used to get people to take a new look at its computers when Apple was desperately trying to make a comeback.
Now, I should be clear. This is a good ad. Using the voice of the iPhone's Siri, it highlights multiple capabilities of Windows 8 tablets in 30 seconds, including the visually fantastic Windows 8 interface with its "live tiles" that make iPad's simple rows of icons look as dated as its 6-year-old appearance truly is. That doesn't stop tens of millions of people from buying iPhones and iPads, of course, but it does make the Windows product feel newer.
After that, Microsoft shows off the fact that Window 8 tablets can run two apps at once, which some people might find appealing. But then it goes a bit off the rails by highlighting that one of them can be Powerpoint. Aside from the fact that Keynote on iOS is an excellent alternative than costs $10, the idea that people are thinking, "Wow I was going to buy an iPad but now I'm instead going to buy this Asus whatever-it's-called because it runs Powerpoint!"
Finally, the spot highlights the Asus tablet is only $449, far cheaper than the $699 iPad it's being compared to. Since it's a full Windows 8 machine (not a Windows RT model), that means it probably has less than 25GB free while the iPad has closer to 60GB. It also runs an
Microsoft isn't selling many tablets -- below 1 million in the most recent quarter according to IDC -- and this marketing shift might not help matters much. But it's a pretty sharp shift nevertheless. Along with the new-ish Windows 8 spot "Favorite Things," which is run of the mill, but at least does a solid job of highlighting why normal people might want to use the new operating system, Microsoft is fighting back.
The fact that it's fighting against a clearly non-PC tablet in the iPad with a full Windows 8 tablet is perhaps a more subtle harbinger of the future of computing, one in which Microsoft seems less well positioned. As PC sales continue to plummet -- notebook sales were down 24 percent in HP's report yesterday -- it's becoming clearer and clearer that even productivity applications are moving inexorably to the post-PC era. Sure, Microsoft will sell a lot of Windows licenses to those still buying PCs, but the future is mostly elsewhere.
Strategically, the company has to decide how its going to profit from that future. It seems unlikely Windows tablets are going to surpass iPads and Android tablets in volume anytime soon and Windows Phone is destined for a similar also-ran position for the foreseeable future. In the meantime, Microsoft's Azure cloud business is booming and Office has a cloud variant too. Perhaps it's time to bring the latter to iPads and Samsung Galaxy Tabs before people finally decide they don't care it's missing. Of course, then Microsoft would have to stop making fun of iPads not being able to run Powerpoint. Seems like a small price to pay.
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