A year after its flubbed tablet introduction, Microsoft is back with a new Surface.
The US tech giant, which has invited media to a launch in New York, is seeking to correct missteps from its first try and gain a foothold in the tablet market dominated by Apple’s iPad and others using the Google Android operating system.
Details of the new device were not known, but many analysts expect a more powerful Surface tablet to help Microsoft build momentum in mobile computing.
Microsoft, which is trying to shift its focus to “devices and services” to better compete with Apple and Google, barely made a dent in the sizzling tablet market since introducing the first-generation Surface in October last year.
The company has not released sales figures, but reported tablet revenues of just US$853 million in the fiscal year ended in June.
Research firm IDC said Microsoft sold 900,000 in the first quarter of the year — a market share of just 1.8 percent — and even fewer in the second quarter. By comparison, Apple sold about 34 million iPads in the first half this year.
Microsoft was forced to take an embarrassing US$900 million writedown for “inventory adjustments” due to weak sales of the new tablet, which has a basic version and a more expensive “Pro” model.
Enderle Group analyst and consultant Rob Enderle said he expects the new tablets to be much improved.
“This new release should be massively better than the first one. The trick will be getting folks to look at the product fresh,” he said.
Enderle said the first version “was too heavy, too expensive and had poor battery life” and the upgraded Surface Pro lacked a key element, the Outlook e-mail program.
Microsoft appears to have fixes these issues and now has a chance to gain some traction with a device that aims to serve as a tablet with some of the functionality of a laptop PC.
The first Surface “was not a complete device” and did not work with many Windows apps, J. Gold Associates analyst Jack Gold said.
Microsoft can succeed with “a reasonably priced and performance-oriented Pro” to appeal to business users, but the company “has to build momentum before Android makes it mostly irrelevant,” Gold said.
Others say that Microsoft’s strategy has become muddled as it tries to gain ground in the “high mobility” computing segment while still serving the hundreds of millions using conventional PCs on the Windows operating system.
Roger Kay at Endpoint Technologies Associates said Microsoft still has a long road to become a meaningful player in mobile computing.
“High mobility and that form factor are up for grabs between Apple and Google and perhaps Microsoft, but Microsoft will be a distant third,” he added.
Microsoft’s best chance in the segment is to build momentum with its acquisition of Nokia’s phone business, and extend that into tablets, Kay said.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last