Ballmer: “Surface Is Just a Design Point”

In a move designed to appease their concerned OEM partners, the Microsoft CEO had a few things to say about Surface and it's place in the Windows ecosystem.

"Surface is just a design point," Ballmer said. "It will have a distinct place in what's a broad Windows ecosystem. And the importance of the thousands of partners that we have that design and produce Windows computers will not diminish. We have a mutual goal with our OEM partners to bring a diversity of solutions, Windows PCs, phones, tablets, servers to market. And what we seek to have is a spectrum of stunning devices, stunning Windows devices. So, every consumer, every business customer can say, 'I have the perfect PC for me.' ... We're excited about the work our OEM partners are doing on Windows 8."

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So basically surface is just Microsoft giving their hardware partners a gentle kick up the backside. Seems fair enough to me.  Looking forward to seeing the reactions (in hardware form) from the OEMs. 

Looks like a win-win to me.

@Ian2: Well, I think that's what everyone pretty much reckoned it was. 

And the whole 'vaporMg' had me wondering if MS was trying to tell the OEMs something. It really is an odd choice for a trademark.

As for the reaction from the OEMs? What they gonna do? They don't really have much of a choice. 

The problem with Microsoft's reference design is that I'm not sure it's actually doable at a reasonable cost. 

It will be very interesting to see what the Surface is like if/when it actually ships.

@Ray7:OK Apologies for stating the obvious there.  Agree that price is going to be critical, ARM devices need to be competitive (maybe not so much the Intel devices as they are aimed at the top of the market?)  

I don't agree with OEM's not having much of a choice. The Surface reference design is just another option in my opinion. Haven't the older reference designs for Laptops, Tablets, Desktops etc already been largely hardware updated for touch? 

@Ian2: When I said that the OEMs didn't have much choice, I meant that they few choices for an operating system outside of  Microsoft. They can complain all  they want; they're not going anywhere.

@Ray7:Oh yes, I see what you mean.  I guess the whole thing kind of breaks down if either side doesn't perceive that they are part of a team with a say in what happens. (Maybe that's what happened with HP when they did the whole Touchpad thing?

Surface is Microsoft telling the OEM's that their stuff stinks. Cool it up like this _.

Microsoft is the one showing it will now have a say in what happens!

OEM's should be grateful for having no responsibility for the OS and instead of their usual profit-maximized quality-minimized offerings, will have to gear up to the quality of Surface.

I can imagine the conversation in which the idea of Surface was surfaced, (pun intended).

I can't wait for the Pro version.

That's how I also see it... MS has always had a "vision" with Windows but up until now there was no way to complete that vision when OEMs are all in a race to the bottom and one tries to be as boring as the other with low-quality hardware loaded with crapware.

MS showing them how it's done is one way to get the whole thing back on track. Now the OEMs can either continue cranking out their low-quality products or go back to the drawing board and come back with something that is as good or better than Surface.

My feeling is that MS isn't doing anything that any other OEM can't also do. The OEMs just need some "motivation".

Not to get too off-topic, but unfortunately I think MS made two mistakes with Surface...

1. They should have included pen input in RT as well. If it isn't pervasive across all versions then it will never become mainstream, and it is one sure way to differentiate with iPads. There is a reason there is an aftermarket for those fat-tipped things that passes as a "stylus" for the iPad. It could have opened a whole new category of apps that could not have been matched by the iPad. Oh well...

2. The only thing the screen aspect ratio is good for is watching movies. Nothing else. It makes portrait mode "awkward" to say the least, and in landscape it's pretty bad because of the small screen you will always need to zoom into documents (doesn't matter the resolution) meaning it won't cover much vertical area on the document. This includes web pages that are mostly formatted to scroll vertically.

Now I plan to get the Pro but still, even point #1 will affect me because now we are back to the same issue of there not being critical mass for devs to create those apps that can take full advantage of pen input. And I'm talking about all sorts of drawing apps/games, less handwriting recognition. There was a game for Tablet PC a long time ago called Crayon Physics, which had nothing to do with handwriting recognition, but was a load of fun. Those are the kinds of things that could have been a big differentiator.

So that actually brings up these questions: Can OEMs create other aspect ratios, or are they stuck with the widescreen format? Also, can OEMs put pen support on RT hardware, or is that strictly only supported by the Windows 8 Pro version?

27 minutes ago, BitFlipper wrote

So that actually brings up these questions: Can OEMs create other aspect ratios, or are they stuck with the widescreen format? Also, can OEMs put pen support on RT hardware, or is that strictly only supported by the Windows 8 Pro version?

OEMs can do whatever aspect ratio they want, as long as the resolution is 1366x768 or higher.

I believe Windows RT has identical Metro features, so yes, it should support pen input.

I think the primary reason the ARM Surface doesn't have pen input is probably the extra cost, weight and thickness associated with the additional digitizer.

MS showing them how it's done is one way to get the whole thing back on track. Now the OEMs can either continue cranking out their low-quality products or go back to the drawing board and come back with something that is as good or better than Surface.

Agreed; this is like what Google did with their Nexus line.  It exists to push the big-name OEMs in the right direction, by competing at the top instead of just at the bottom.  And this isn't too different than Intel introducing the Ultrabook concept as a standard roadmap for future laptops.