At the time, a lot of people accurately pointed out that the first iPhone wasn't really a "smartphone" at all. It was missing too many features like a real keyboard, copy/paste, and GPS. But those commenters were so busy being Right On The Internet that they missed the larger point: it wasn't a smartphone, but it wasn't a conventional phone or feature phone, either. It was something else, a product category unto itself. Just like the peanut gallery on Slashdot, most of the industry heavyweights didn't understand that fact until it was way too late. That is why Steve Ballmer is sitting at home twiddling his thumbs right now instead of running Microsoft.
The new Surface is being introduced into a very different market. Is it a new type of product altogether, like the first rudimentary iPhones were? If so, it had better be able to fulfill a lot of unsatisfied market demand, like the iPhone did, or it will languish forever in its niche.
If not -- if we're supposed to judge it as a replacement for existing laptops, tablets, or both -- then the required features and performance characteristics are very well understood, and Microsoft has no excuses if they fail to meet those requirements. Their failure to engage with graphic artists and other key users at the design phase was clearly a bad move.
The new Surface is being introduced into a very different market. Is it a new type of product altogether, like the first rudimentary iPhones were? If so, it had better be able to fulfill a lot of unsatisfied market demand, like the iPhone did, or it will languish forever in its niche.
If not -- if we're supposed to judge it as a replacement for existing laptops, tablets, or both -- then the required features and performance characteristics are very well understood, and Microsoft has no excuses if they fail to meet those requirements. Their failure to engage with graphic artists and other key users at the design phase was clearly a bad move.