Microsoft rep pans iPad Pro, says Apple's tablet is 'always going to be a companion device'

AppleInsider · January 12, 2016 5:58PM

Apple's foray into large-format touchscreen productivity is by its very nature incapable of being the same kind of standalone workhorse as Microsoft's Surface line, a spokesperson for the Redmond-based company said this week.

"Microsoft really wants you to only carry one device for tablet and PC use," Microsoft's Dan Laycock told TrustedReviews. "Whereas the iPad Pro is always going to be a companion device."

Part of the reason for this distinction is the differing approaches to applications and content, Laycock noted. Apple based the iPad Pro on iOS rather than Mac OS X -- shutting out many professional desktop applications -- while the Surface runs Windows 10.

"We don't see it as a one-to-one comparison, because this [the Surface] is a full PC, you're running full apps," he said.

Laycock also dredged up late Apple CEO Steve Jobs's famous rant against styluses while reiterating Microsoft's own bona fides.

"At one point in time, Apple declared that if there's a stylus, that's failure," Laycock said. "We're a huge believer in the pen; we know our customers love it."

thewhitefalcon · January 12, 2016 6:05PM

Intellectual bankruptcy is what Microsoft does best, so of course they take the Jobs quote out of context.

rbonner · January 12, 2016 6:05PM

This seems sort of random. As a aside, love their latest commercials. What rules did they break? How can you re-invent again? When I hear these things I know that very little has changed.

edited January 2016

kent909 · January 12, 2016 6:07PM

Good point. Why would you want to sell a tablet and a PC to someone when you could only sell them a Surface Pro? /s

ericthehalfbee · January 12, 2016 6:07PM

More of this "runs full Apps" bull$hit.

I wonder what all those iPads used in enterprise/corporate (where they completely dominate everyone else) are being used for? Playing games at meetings while the laptop beside them is being used for work?

Edited: I forgot to add, if MS keeps making statements like this Apple won't invite you on stage at their next keynote.

edited January 2016

lkrupp · January 12, 2016 6:09PM

“$500.00? And it doesn’t have a keyboard so it can’t be used for business?” - Steve Ballmer ca 2007 commenting about the iPhone.

metrix · January 12, 2016 6:16PM

This is the same mistake all these mfgs. keep making. The actual number of people that need professional applications are very small compare to the people that "just want to play around". I don't know anyone willing to pay Adobe for their suite of applications except paid designers however there is probably 1000 times more people that want to do some cheap photo effects or basic design. Microsoft is right you can't run Photoshop on the iPad Pro but for the casual user you probably going to save a lot more money buying apps from the Apps Store than full fledged software packages.

stangaddict · January 12, 2016 6:35PM

I can't say that I disagree with the point of the iPad (Pro) being a companion device. If iOS supported things like docking and extended displays, versus just mirroring, I think they'd get a lot closer. In terms of pure compute power, I'd bet a few dollars that the iPad Pro is right there with the Surface Pro. I think it's the OS though that holds it back. And FWIW I'm typing this on an iPad Pro.

stevie · January 12, 2016 6:38PM

metrix said:

1000 times more people that want to do some cheap photo effects or basic design. Microsoft is right you can't run Photoshop on the iPad Pro but for the casual user you probably going to save a lot more money buying apps from the Apps Store than full fledged software packages.

Exactly right!

The iPad Pro is "good enough" for most people. For anybody else with their professional edge use cases, there is the Mac.

mm · January 12, 2016 6:39PM

The Surface in the past has been a joke. Hope for their sake the new version is better.

jkichline · January 12, 2016 6:41PM

Microsoft has a very narrow view of what "business" is and that has been evolving quickly. Its not longer word processing and spreadsheets. Many new business users make use of web-based services and apps to collaborate and developers to those disruptive businesses are developing for iOS first. Microsoft's vision is not forward future thinking but is trying to maintain the cash cows of the past.

bobschlob · January 12, 2016 6:51PM

thewhitefalcon said:

Intellectual bankruptcy is what Microsoft does best, so of course they take the Jobs quote out of context.

Perfectly said.

jbdragon · January 12, 2016 6:52PM

thewhitefalcon said:

Intellectual bankruptcy is what Microsoft does best, so of course they take the Jobs quote out of context.

Some people, and Microsoft included, still after all these years just doesn't get it. Not everyone needs a full blown Universal computer. What do you get with Windows? Sure you get full size Windows App's. App's that cost a lot of money in some cases are is overkill. Using a Surface, like any Windows computer, you have to deal with Firewalls, Anti-Virus Software, Spyware, malware, Adware. I have all this stuff on my Windows 10 Desktop. I don't want to deal with all that crap on mt Tablet. For many a iPad or a Chromebook is more then good enough to surf the web, do a little Netflix and other Media stuff and some simple gaming and they would be 100% happy and have a system they don't have to worry about all the other garbage, and drivers, and on and on. I have a 7" Windows 10 Tablet now I got for cheap. it had Windows 8.1 on it. It's a WinBook TW700. Windows 10 on it is far, far better, but I still would rather use my SSLLLOOOWWWW iPad 3 instead.

rotateleftbyte · January 12, 2016 6:54PM

AppleInsider said:

Apple's foray into large-format touchscreen productivity is by its very nature incapable of being the same kind of standalone workhorse as Microsoft's Surface line, a spokesperson for the Redmond-based company said this week.

"Microsoft really wants you to only carry one device for tablet and PC use," Microsoft's Dan Laycock told TrustedReviews. "Whereas the iPad Pro is always going to be a companion device."

Part of the reason for this distinction is the differing approaches to applications and content, Laycock noted. Apple based the iPad Pro on iOS rather than Mac OS X -- shutting out many professional desktop applications -- while the Surface runs Windows 10.

"We don't see it as a one-to-one comparison, because this [the Surface] is a full PC, you're running full apps," he said.

Laycock also dredged up late Apple CEO Steve Jobs's famous rant against styluses while reiterating Microsoft's own bona fides.

"At one point in time, Apple declared that if there's a stylus, that's failure," Laycock said. "We're a huge believer in the pen; we know our customers love it."

At one point in time I hated to eat a tomato. Now I don't.
Once upon a time Steve Job said that using a Stylus was a sign of failure. That was probably true in the time of a Psion.
Technology has moved on. That is clearly no longer the case.
It is clearly time for MS to play a different tune.

auxio · January 12, 2016 6:57PM

metrix said:

I don't know anyone willing to pay Adobe for their suite of applications except paid designers however there is probably 1000 times more people that want to do some cheap photo effects or basic design. Microsoft is right you can't run Photoshop on the iPad Pro but for the casual user you probably going to save a lot more money buying apps from the Apps Store than full fledged software packages.

Not to mention that, for professional graphic design/illustration/photo/video editing work, you typically need a large monitor. So it's not like media professionals are trying to do that work away from a desk anyways. Given that the Surface Pro performance is terrible when you hook it up to a large external monitor, mobile media professionals are going to opt for a powerful laptop like a MacBook Pro regardless.

As for other 'professional' apps like Microsoft Office, the iPad Pro w/ iOS versions of those apps is just fine in the vast majority of cases (going through presentations in Powerpoint, marking up Word documents, etc). Only hardcore spreadsheet editors would find it constraining, but they're a minority and tend not to be on-the-go, so would just opt for a regular PC (cheaper) anyways.

edited January 2016

stevie · January 12, 2016 7:24PM

jbdragon said:

I don't want to deal with all that crap on mt Tablet. For many a iPad or a Chromebook is more then good enough

Well said. Most people don't really need anything better than an iPad. THat is Apple's genius. That is why their profits are so high.

edited January 2016

quadra 610 · January 12, 2016 7:27PM

The more irrelevant Microsoft becomes, the more you'll hear from them trying to convince everyone that they're not.

Welcome to the latest.

subrandom · January 12, 2016 7:30PM

I went back and forth between the iPad Pro and the Surface Pro 4, for about 90 minutes. I used them both, picked them up, ran apps on them, etc.

I finally went with the iPad Pro. Not because the SP4 isn't a good device, it's actually very nice. But there were a few things that pushed me over the edge:

1. The SP4 felt a lot thicker. I realize that in pure measurements, it isn't. But it felt more unwieldy in the hand.

2. I intend to use it for photo work (among other things) while traveling. And Photoshop on a small screen is hellabad. It's intended to be run on full-size screens, the bigger the better. It's great on my 27" 5K iMac.

But something like SnapSeed on the iPad Pro does everything I want without the bulk, and is made for my mobile device. I don't need a stylus to hit the itty-bitty UI elements, because it was designed for touch.

3. Windows 10's ability to morph between desktop and tablet mode is nice. Maybe even the future. But the number of "tablet friendly" apps that I actually care about is vanishingly small. The Office apps adapt nicely, but most other things, not so much. On the iPad, every app is designed for the tablet mode, because it's the only mode; of course, that's also a limitation, but one I ultimately decided was worth the trade off.

This situation might resolve itself if developers get excited about making apps handle tablet mode, but right now it's no competition on the "tablet application" front; the IPad destroys the SP4 in both selection and quality.

4. The iPad had cellular data availability. The SP4, astonishingly given it's prices, does not. I'd rather have a 3G connection out in the sticks someplace where there is no WiFi, than no connection at all. This was really a huge deal breaker for me.

Finally, 5: Windows itself. As a longtime I.T. Professional directly involved in desktop management...I just don't want to deal with Windows potential issues, while I'm trying to get stuff done far from home. I know that's unfair. But years of supporting Windows has left me more than a little wary of it.

I have plenty of critical things to say about iOS and it's limitations, and it was definitely a close fight between the SP4 and iPP. Maybe next year, Microsoft.

edited January 2016

wonkothesane · January 12, 2016 7:46PM

thewhitefalcon said:

Intellectual bankruptcy is what Microsoft does best, so of course they take the Jobs quote out of context.

Exactly. To clarify: The apple device is not a stylus as in "my OS sucks so badly that I require a sharp pointed tool to interact with it" (which is actually what the quote of SJ referred to, in addition, to a phone) but rather extends the use in particular in he field of creativty, mostly drawing.

fallenjt · January 12, 2016 7:48PM

MS SurfaceBook is a flop

anome · January 12, 2016 7:52PM

It disappoints me that MS are still following the same philosophy - "Windows on Everything!"

Apple's philosophy has always been "Keep the hard stuff out of sight of the user." So tailor your software to the platform it's running on, and do all the work of compatability at the back end.

So when MS design a tablet, you need a stylus for the UI elements that don't scale properly, and a keyboard for text input, but you can run exactly the same software on it as on your desktop PC.

When Apple design a tablet, they redesign the UI elements to work properly on the platform, design the hardware to provide optimal performance for a tablet, and create a model for iOS and MacOS apps to complement eachother.

Which of these models is more succesful? Well which one is selling more tablets, even to users of the other's desktop OS?

Microsoft rep pans iPad Pro, says Apple's tablet is 'always going to be a companion device'

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