Microsoft – Breathing space

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Microsoft gives the PC makers room to breathe.

• Microsoft updated its Surface Pro at an event in Shanghai but left plenty of space for its partners to innovate within the fledgling tablet-PC category.
• Microsoft has followed Apple in dropping the version number from the name and the new product makes incremental improvements which include:
  • Battery: Microsoft claims that despite looking very similar, the new product has 50% more battery life than the Surface Pro 4, clocking in at 13.5 hours under optimal conditions.
  • This will be well received by road warriors who spend a lot of time in airports and coffee shops looking for power sockets.
  • Fan-less: The new Surface Pro is fan-less in the m3 and i5 versions which is a meaningful saving both in terms of power and noise.
  • Microsoft is very late to fan-less computing and I see it as behind the curve as there are other devices (see here) available that run the same processors but are fan-less across the whole range.
  • I am assuming that as the i7 version also runs Intel Iris Plus Graphics 640, more heat may be generated under heavy load than the i5, necessitating the presence of a physical fan.
  • Going fan-less is a good opportunity to reduce thickness and weight but again Microsoft does not appear to have taken this route as it is keeping the same chassis for all versions.
  • Instead it is leaving this to other companies like Samsung, Huawei, Eve Tech and HP which has clearly been doing some work on its form factors.
  • Hinge: A new hinge has been created to enable what Microsoft calls studio mode.
  • This is where the device is almost horizontal but is slanted at the same angle as the workspace of an architect or illustrator.
  • This is very similar to the use case provided by the popular but expensive all-in-one PC Microsoft launched last year called Surface Studio.
• Outside of these upgrades, the new Surface Pro is an incremental upgrade which leaves plenty of room for others to address this space.
• I don’t think that it has ever been Microsoft’s intention to take market share away from its partners but more to show them the way forward
• Historically, PC makers have really been starved of form factor innovation, having outsourced almost all of its to the ODMs.
• However, there are signs of this coming back.
• A good example is HP which as seen huge improvements its form factors with the Envy line of laptops finally living up to its name.
• Most PC makers now offer a Surface Pro-like product which if marketed properly, still has the potential to change the nature of PC market.
• A tablet PC with a separate keyboard and mouse offers a more productive, healthier and more ergonomic computing experience which I still think renders the laptop form factor obsolete.
• However, PC makers and the marketing departments of Intel and Microsoft have been selling laptops for 40 years which has become a very difficult habit to break (see here).
• I still believe that this has the potential to kick the PC market back to growth as old laptops are quickly replaced, but given that this is just a product cycle, it would only last for a few years.
• This rising tide would float all boats but I would prefer to be aboard either Microsoft or Lenovo for this ride.