The iPad Pro was released this week and Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, has recently spent most of his time on a press tour to promote the product; but that didn’t keep him from taking the opportunity to tell the attendees at an event in Ireland this week what he thinks about Microsoft’s Surface Book.
The one liner that has run through the headlines, is that the Surface Book is “deluded”, referring to its identity crisis because it cannot decide whether it wants to be a laptop or a tablet. Cook went on to say that it “succeeds at being neither” a tablet nor a laptop.
Although he was clear on how he feels about Microsoft’s first shot at a “laptop”, Cook did described Apple’s relationship with Microsoft as “really good.” For those of you that missed it, Apple even invited Microsoft on stage during the iPad Pro Keynote in September to demo their Office products on the device.
Historically, computing devices have had a steep learning curve and for the most part were reserved for the more nerdy among us. But with the iPhone, Apple created a simple mobile first operating system in iOS that was easy enough for anyone to use. For consumer technology, Apple has set the bar high regarding the ease of use and no other company has been able to catch up.
It’s simple really. Microsoft took a complicated operating system and tried to make it work on a tablet whereas Apple started with its simple, minimal and familiar mobile first operating system and developed it to be perfect on a tablet. So no matter how sleek Microsoft makes it’s laptop on the outside, they will never reach as massive of a market as Apple until Windows becomes a whole heck of a lot easier to use.