Surfacing everywhere: Was the Surface tablet a failure?

Whenever I attend a meeting, I can’t help but notice what kind of laptop someone brings to help them with their workload. Several things I’ve noticed when people bring their personal machines to meetings: Macbooks are unsurprisingly popular, tablets are also carried as a tandem device, and business laptops are not going away.

But there is another constant that increasingly shows up to these meetings: A couple of people carrying a Surface tablet. Microsoft’s hybrid tablet has been popping up frequently enough to make me question whether this controversial device really was a failure or not. After all, how could it be a failure if I run into it at every coffee shop, office meeting, and airport I visit?

Saying that the Surface tablet had a confused start is probably the biggest understatement of the year. The device originally launched as an iPad killer, except it wasn’t. Its only saving grace was that it came with Microsoft Office installed, which given its asking price, seemed pretty steep considering it couldn’t run anything worthwhile. Microsoft eventually had to write it off for $900 million back in 2013.

But that’s where the confusion begins. Microsoft, in its infinite wisdom, decided to launch two different kinds of Surfaces. One is the tablet we associate as the failure; the iPad wannabe that failed to deliver on its promises. This line was pseudo-phased out.

But Microsoft also released the Surface Pro line. And this was, and still is to this day, a laptop squeezed into a tablet form factor. Microsoft had better success with this concept, even making the old Surface tablets become smaller versions of this. Everything your laptop could do, the Surface Pro could do as well, and then some. Well, except for sit in your lap properly.

Since the Surface and Surface Pro had tablet form factors, they were top heavy and required different placement due to the shifted center of gravity. This introduced the now iconic kickstand that most people associate with the Surface line.

The Surface Pro is a device about compromises. It’s a laptop with an optional, but necessary keyboard accessory. It is designed like a tablet, but too heavy to use as one in the hand for extended periods. Its keyboard and trackpad work fine, but not as well as its laptop brethren. Some would be right to ask “who is this device for?”

Some people complain about the device being too much of a hybrid device. But do you know what else is a hybrid device? Your smartphone.

When I got my first cell phone, all it could do is make phone calls and receive texts. Now my smartphone can surf the internet, email friends, play videos, music, and games, take photos, scan documents, record dictation, and more.

Can my smartphone do these things better than a standalone device? No. A DSLR camera is always going to take better photos. A music player is always going to have better battery life and playback. A dedicated video game console is going to have better support and titles to choose from.

But none of that matters, as long as the smartphone is the first thing you reach for in your pocket. We’re living in an age of convergence. Even the devices I’ve mentioned have overlapping capabilities, like a DSLR camera with Android built into it.

Microsoft is trying to define what these convergent devices are going to look like in the near future for laptops. They might not have gotten it right the first time, but that’s mostly because they didn’t have a solid message to convey to their target audience.

And even though they’ve whittled it down to “the tablet that can replace your laptop,” I still feel their focus is a bit over the place. It goes without saying that the Surface is pretty useless without the keyboard accessory. So why continue to sell it separately, instead of bundling it with the device? If the focus is to treat it as an ultrabook replacement, then the next logical steps need to be made to remove any confusion from potential buyer’s minds.

But Microsoft must be doing something right. After all, I’m seeing it pretty regularly in the wild. It must be resonating with someone if they decided to spend their hard-earned money on it.

And with the introduction of the Surface line, we’ve seen more hybrid devices from manufacturers. Although not as extreme as the Surface, laptops also are being designed as either convertibles that can flip their screens 360 degrees, or as tablets with a more solid keyboard base. And that was Microsoft’s indirect doing.

Whichever direction the Surface line follows in the near future, it would be unfair to put it on the same level as the Zune or the Kin. But Microsoft needs to solidify its confusing strategy with the Surface tablet, instead of trying to please everyone and no one at the same time.