Bill Gates says Apple may need a Surface-like device

Written by

Chris Matyszczyk, CNET:

Gates began by being circumspect, saying that the market hadn’t declared this was what it wanted yet, but he said that the idea of Apple having to create a Surface-like device was “a strong possibility.”

“This is a seminal event,” he declared.

Um… no.



  • http://bobmartens.net/ Bob Martens

    I think he got that mixed up … Microsoft needs an iPad-like device … which is what they are trying to do with the Surface with Windows RT … Home Professional Enterprise Edition.

  • quietstorms

    That Bill Gates is so funny. I don’t know who’d I pay first to tell jokes: him or Louis CK.

  • http://twitter.com/axian A.X. Ian

    His problem is that he never grew past the stupid stylus thing or is willingly delusional about it. For Gates everything revolves around people writing stuff on the slab. Styluses are for dinosaurs. No one knows how to write anymore.

  • http://twitter.com/Moeskido Moeskido

    Remarkable. The tablet market isn’t real until Microsoft commoditizes it, eh?

  • No

    What he really saying that Apple needs to bring back FingerWorks multi-touch keyboard. That is what Surface is really about.

    Microsoft has also copied MagSafe connector.

    Also Apple needs to have their own Stand built-in.

    Surface Pro won’t beat Air in not a single category. By the time it comes out, retina version will devastate it. AIr already has USB3 and Thunderbolt, high capacity SSD.

    RT is Tegra 3 processor which is half as fast as A5X. wait till Microsoft sees A6, they will shit their pants.

  • http://www.thegraphicmac.com/ JimD

    How cute. Microsoft is still trying to run the Spin Machine at full throttle.

  • Kieffer

    Unless I missed something that’s happened since the announcement, Microsoft still needs a Surface-like device as well. Ship, or get off the pot!

    • lucascott

      indeed. let’s ship and storm the market before you talk about the other boys and what is selling millions for them

  • http://www.veganswithtypewriters.com/ Phae Deepsky

    Gates: “You don’t have to make a compromise” – To me the whole thing looks like a collection of compromises in hopes that someone will like something about it, maybe.

  • Steven Fisher

    “This is a seminal event”

    I’ll buy that, if we go with the second dictionary definition of seminal.

    • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_XENVNKXRXRIHZBGMN35N44M3VA dreyfus_ffm

      That’s the first believable explanation/excuse for (nomen est omen?) Ballmer’s posture on stage during the Surface introduction…

      http://i.imgur.com/Z7urU.jpg

  • http://twitter.com/colinmat Colin Mattson

    Another abortive attempt at shoehorning a desktop OS onto a tablet is seminal? Good thing Gates is no longer at the helm.

    The iPad was seminal. It defined a class of machines consumers had been shirking for over decade.

    Hell, Metro is seminal. It introduced a largely smart, efficient touch UI distinct from its competitors. (And then Microsoft, clearly haunted by the specter of Gates, said “This touch UI and its metaphors belong on a desktop, with a mouse!”)

    Microsoft’s… hang on, let me count… sixth attempt at birthing a “no compromises” tablet is not and will not be seminal. The Surface Pro is just the previous failed attempt coupled with a detachable keyboard and an even more unpleasant operating system.

    Kill the Surface Pro and let Metro shine on the Surface. Bam, a seminal moment for Microsoft: They finally ship a no-compromises tablet.