Microsoft (finally) joins the tablet party! Initial reaction: So what?

Mighty Microsoft (MS) has finally jumped into the fray with their Surface “tablet” computer. It’s a somewhat unusual gesture – MS has tended to leave the hardware side of things to other manufacturers. Some commentators have suggested that the Surface is indicative of an inkling of frustration on MS’s part towards its hardware partners who have left MS coughing in the clouds of Apple & Google’s mobile dust. So what does MS do? It invents… Wait for it… A KICKSTAND! Color me underwhelmed.

Here’s what I see when I look at the Surface: A notebook computer that you can pretend is a tablet by manipulating some amazingly engineered hinges. Softwarewise, we can expect it to have all of the goodies that are worthy of a dinosaur of yesteryear: MS Office, Exchange, Outlook. This will be an attractive option for those who have still not figured out the Cloud and who complain about the lack of MS Word and the quirkiness of getting contacts to sync with Outlook on the iPad. In a nutshell, it offers the illusion of change for those who don’t want too much change.

I’m not seeing how the Surface meets Seth Godin’s criteria of remarkability. Looks like the population in Zuneville might be increasing sometime in the near future.