Although Apple and Microsoft are often business partners, there’s also an undeniable competitiveness between them. A quick look back at the adverts that painted Macs and PCs as very different pieces of machinery shows how far Apple went to differentiate itself. That doesn’t seem to have changed much in recent years, with Tim Cook lately quoted as saying he thought the Microsoft Surface Book was a “deluded” creation.
According to the quote from 9to5Mac, Cook suggested that the Surface Book was trying too hard to be both a laptop and a tablet, something that the recently released iPad Pro does not. That’s not what we thought when we took the Surface Book for a spin last month, but age old wisdom does suggest that trying to do too many things at once can make you a master of none.
Cook: Surface Book is “deluded”, because trying to be a laptop and tablet. It’s “trying too hard to do too much”.
— Adrian Weckler (@adrianweckler) November 11, 2015
However Apple does have a history of attacking competitor products and ideas, only to change its mind later on. Steve Jobs famously criticised the humble stylus, only for Apple to announce the Apple Pencil for the iPad Pro, with built in pressure sensors for more control.
Cook’s criticism also seems to suggest that 2-in-1 tablet/laptop combos aren’t worthwhile, but they have proved to be one of the more competitive product lines in mobile computing over the past couple of years. Indeed, the success of Microsoft’s own Surface line suggests that it can be a winning formula when given due care.
As some commenters have pointed out too, Microsoft’s new 2-in-1 designs do at least attempt to innovate the standards for mobile computing, while the iPad Pro is said by many to be merely an over-sized tablet.
What do you think of Tim Cook’s comments here? Is the Surface Book a “deluded,” idea?
