Microsoft’s newly unveiled Windows 8 Surface Tablets have perhaps the best shot of any so far at dethroning the iPad in the corporate world. Which general consumer habits are expected to continue favoring Apple for a significant time to come, large companies represent an ever-growing market with enormous potential for tablet capitalization.
However, even the most optimistic of analysts remain cautious with their predictions.
The primary reason why the new Surface Tablets have such potential to succeed where all others have so far failed is the enormous base of Windows PC and laptop users already within the corporate world. Having become entirely used to, familiar with and in millions of cases entirely dependent on various versions of the Windows OS for day to day task management, the prospect of a pure-Windows tablet will of course hold immediate appeal.
More appeal perhaps than the iPad from Apple.
Corporate Laptop Replacement
While the consumer reaction to the Surface Tablet is yet to be gauged with any real accuracy, thousands of market experts have already dubbed the device a laptop-replacement for business users. The fact that the new version of Windows 8 or Windows RT is backward-compatible means that the device will support all existing software packages and therefore demand few upgrades – a hugely appealing prospect for business users.
In fact, the high-end Pro model of the Surface Tablet has even been earmarked for direct competition with existing Ultrabooks and some of the best corporate laptops on the market.
High hopes indeed, but the vast majority of the same analysts making the suggestions have also been insistent on pointing out that such success is perhaps the ideal scenario, rather than the most likely. This is not in any way due to the prowess, potential or lack thereof of the Surface Tablet, but instead the fact that Microsoft, just like many others to have come before, is swimming against a fierce tide of iOS and Android rivals – all will superior tablet market pedigree.
What’s more, millions of corporate employees already bring their own domestic tablet PCs to work for convenience, which in turn eliminates the need to invest in more.
Pricing Problems
One of the things that may stand in the way of the Surface Tablet Pro’s success is the fact that with an expected price tag of around $1,000, it will be going head-to-head with some of the market’s best Ultrabooks.
Even worse, it will be 20% more expensive than the top-end 4G LTE new iPad and more than double the price of the entry-level new iPad, therefore has quite a deal to prove to say the least. This is not likely to prove easy, given the fact that the iPad delivers superior battery life and access to a vastly more extensive range of apps.
While the Window RT Surface Tablets will be price more modestly, their lesser-specs will make it even more difficult for them to compete with the iPad and various other leading Android Tablets. In fact, several analysts have now stated that the only way the RT Surface Tablet can possible succeed is if it were to be priced considerably lower than the iPad, which is all-but 100% out of the question.
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