Differentiation
Ars Technica: Is Surface Microsoft’s confession that Windows 8 isn’t really cut out for tablets?
But Windows 8 exposes the great danger of Microsoft’s vision: a software environment that forces you to go “PC” when all you want is the “Plus” bit. If the iPad has taught us anything at all, it’s that there’s a lot of people out there who are happy with pure tablets, and actively desire pure tablets. Windows 8 gets a lot right, but its PC side is still there, and it’s inescapable.
The beauty of the iPad is in all the way it isn’t a PC. No keyboard. No wires. No pesky file directory explorer. When Henry Ford build the Model T, he didn’t market is on how well it aligned with the horse and buggy. He marketed it on how different and better it was than its predecessor.
The more time goes on and the more I really look hard at Microsoft Surface and Windows 8, the more I see a company not ready to cannibalize one area of their business in order for another part to thrive.
And for innovation to happen, you need that cannibalization.