Surface: Between a Rock and a Hardware Place
Watching the Microsoft Surface event video, I sensed uneasiness. Not panic, but discomfort. Some will argue that I'm simply spoiled by Apple's on-stage polish, but Monday's Microsoft event struck me as rushed and severely under-rehearsed.
Context & Ripple Effects
Two days after Business Week argued that Microsoft's Surface tablet should shame the PC industry, John Gruber offers the counterpoint: watching the Hollywood launch video, he saw an event that felt rushed and severely under-rehearsed, with an uneasiness he contrasts against Apple's on-stage polish. The exchange extends a running 2012 argument about stagecraft as signal — one that flared in March when VentureBeat claimed Apple's press conference showed a brand unraveling and Matt Thomas pushed back in Something's Unraveling, Alright.
The stakes go beyond choreography: the Hollywood event marked Microsoft's entry into branded tablet hardware, putting it in the same frame as Apple at exactly the moment reviewers were praising the Ivy Bridge MacBook Air and Microsoft was prepping Windows Phone 8 licensee devices.
First-order effects
- Microsoft's first branded tablets now compete directly with the Windows licensees whose devices the company had just previewed Windows Phone 8 for, turning its OEM partners into rivals overnight.
- The event's rough execution becomes part of the launch narrative itself, shaping how the hands-off reviews and buyer perception land before any unit ships.
Second-order effects
- If Microsoft keeps building first-party hardware, Windows licensees face pressure to differentiate on design and price against their own platform vendor, mirroring the dynamic Apple's integrated model created.
- Apple's counter-position strengthens by default: every comparison of Surface's staging against Apple's polish reinforces the integration-and-craft story Apple sells, even without responding directly.
Third-order effects
- The episode tests whether a software company can adopt Apple's vertical hardware-plus-retail-theater model without the operational discipline behind it — if the pattern holds, hardware events become judged as much on execution as on product.
- A Microsoft that owns its tablet hardware end-to-end would restructure the PC ecosystem around two integrated camps, squeezing the traditional assemble-and-license middle.
The trend: Microsoft is moving toward Apple-style vertical integration of hardware and software, and the quality of its product theater is becoming part of that competitive test.