Lenovo dings Microsoft Surface: We'll provide better hardware
Lenovo executives believe it can beat Microsoft on hardware and claims not to be worried about Microsoft's Surface tablet. — During Lenovo's first fiscal quarter 2013 earnings call, executives didn't mince words in attacking Microsoft's Surface strategy.
Context & Ripple Effects
Lenovo had signaled in March that it aimed to be among the first with a Windows 8 tablet, a notable reversal from its 2010 view that business buyers did not want slate devices. Its public confidence against Surface turns that product plan into a test of whether a Windows licensee can out-design the platform owner.
Microsoft's June Surface unveiling put the Windows supplier into direct hardware competition with the manufacturers it also relies on to deliver Windows RT PCs. Lenovo's remarks make that channel tension explicit rather than treating Surface as just another tablet rival.
First-order effects
- Lenovo must differentiate its Windows 8 tablet hardware directly against Microsoft Surface, while Microsoft becomes both its software partner and a competing device maker.
- Surface gives Microsoft control over a reference hardware product, raising the bar Lenovo executives say they can clear on design and build quality.
Second-order effects
- Other Windows RT hardware partners face the same incentive as Lenovo: distinguish their devices from Surface rather than depend on Windows alone to create demand.
- Microsoft's hardware entry shifts competition among Windows tablet makers toward tighter software-and-device integration, where the platform owner has a built-in advantage.
Third-order effects
- If Microsoft continues pairing Windows with first-party devices, the Windows ecosystem moves from a pure licensing model toward one in which OEMs compete against their own platform supplier.
- The contest is an early example of the Windows 8 tablet launch race becoming a systems-design contest, not simply a contest over PC specifications.
The trend: Windows tablet competition is shifting toward integrated hardware-and-software design as Microsoft joins its OEM partners on the device shelf.