The Surface: I Came, I Saw, I Left

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 I went to the Microsoft store in Times Square yesterday to see for myself the new Surface tablet with the spiffy keyboard, sincenobody I know actually has one yet.  I had an open mind [“Open” in the sense thathe assumed the Surface would be unnecessarily complicated given Microsoft’sAchilles’ Heel, which is the need to promote Windows in everything it does)—ed.],and was hoping that it would give me something unusual tosay: i.e. that Microsoft had finally figured out what consumers actually want.[Fat chance!—ed.] And first impressions about the store itself weren’tbad: while small relative to the Apple mega-store on 57^th Street, theMicrosoft store has most of the same touches, i.e. glass windows and longcounters with tethered product to play, and plenty of blue-shirted Microsoftpeople to help.   Unfortunately, they do not have many customersto help—for despite long lines at the TKTS discount booth just a couple of blocksaway, and the usual pre-holiday masses streaming by on the sidewalk right outside, there were no more than two dozen potential customers in the Microsoftstore itself, and none were lingering at the tables playing with the merchandize withwide eyes and no sense of the time, the way they do at Apple stores. And playing with a Surface tablet, I found outwhy: the Surface feels a bit chunky, i.e. not as smooth as an iPad, and it has moreof a toy plastic play-thing feel than a smooth, business-ready metal-thing feel.  [He’s not much for technical jargon, ishe?—ed.]   But it’s not the feel that’s the problem: it’sthe way it works.   And the way it works is non-intuitive. Unlike yourfirst time with an iPad or a Galaxy, it’s hard, in a short period of time, tofigure out how to find what you might want to play; how to get out of programsonce you’ve gotten into them (weirdly, things somehow feel more like programs than apps onthe Surface); how go back to where you began; and how to look for newstuff.   Certainly, you can run spreadsheets on it, andyes you can use Word, but the cool new keyboard, being flat, is not easy to typewith.  Anyway, not many people were botheringto even try the keyboard, once they messed around with the screen. I like to poke fun at Microsoft’s new productapproach by claiming they make so many versions of things there’s even a “ModelTrain Enthusiasts’ Edition.” And while there was no “Model Train Enthusiasts’Edition” of the Surface [That he could see—ed.], it does seem like, once again,Microsoft has been undone by its corporate culture of striving to makeeverything for everybody, in one package, that promotes Windows. Apple’s Tim Cook has been saying for some timehe didn’t see the need to blend two form factors—notebooks and tablets—becauseyou’d end up with a compromised muddle.   Converging “a toaster and a refrigerator,” ishow he put it. He’s right. But that’s not just my opinion.  Isaw not one person actually purchase anything, or look like they were getting ready to purchase something, or just be really engaged in a product, in the brief time I was there.
Jeff MatthewsAuthor “Secrets in PlainSight: Business and Investing Secrets of Warren Buffett”(eBooks on Investing,2012)    Available now at Amazon.com
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