We snubbed Microsoft's Surface Pro wooing, says Lenovo exec Lenovo snubbed “competitor” Microsoft’s advances when it was asked to sell the Surface Pro slab, the PC maker’s chief operating officer has claimed. Both HP and Dell were hired as global resellers for Microsoft’s enterprise tab-cum-notebook last month, selling the hardware wrapped in a services blanket, much to the annoyance …
Lenovo goes it alone. You know what else makes them different from their competitors? They actually make money selling PCs (though now even they are taking the mobile revolution on the chin somewhat). Still I think I might trust their instincts more. Not saying anything about how good or not the Surface Pro is but the annals of business history are lined with the corpses of companies that partnered too closely with or did Microsoft's bidding too much.
Just another salvo in the Microsoft vs. OEM battle that's shaping up.
These deals exist so that large companies can buy something like the Surface Pro and have it supported in a similar fashion that their business desktops, laptops and servers are. Call and file a ticket with a single vendor, and the hardware magically gets replaced. Since there's practically nothing to repair on a Surface Pro, that just means HP and Dell do the sparing needed to get machines to customers fast.
I guess that for a global company that has to service these everywhere, it's not an option to just go down to the Microsoft store and make an appointment...
Their support, tracking, warranty repairs are pretty poor and result in many calls/chats/emails to get things sorted out (to be fair most of their software support teams are not much better but at least there's Google). Not surprised others are picking it up. Not surprised in Lonovo either however - whole Surface thing seems to be a bit of gimmick to me and will stick to a proper laptop and/or tablet any day.
Every time I see some suit struggling with one of these things on a plane I feel like they're a solution looking for a problem. I've got a laptop which will sit on my lap (unlike Surface Pro) and I can actually use it. I've got a tablet which has epic battery life and a variety of useful tools that can mean I don't have to fire up my laptop to use them but I've never felt the need to bolt a keyboard or mouse to it because a tablet is what it is and if I need a keyboard and mouse I'm pulling out my laptop. Maybe the new Surface book will fix the deficiencies but I doubt it and the price of the inconvenience of having both devices in one box is a definite no-go.
In the category of laptops not using 16:9, I think you only have the Surface and the MacBook Pro. That could be part of the demand.
Lenovo is saying they would lose sales, implying that the Surface is in fact competitive, so good for Microsoft.
HP and Dell say they are catering to customer needs. I don't think that sort of decision should be criticized.
So does a Trollop. And I don't think they should be criticised either.
HP, Dell, and street whores are all in the business of giving the customer what they want at the price they are prepared to pay, as quickly as possible. It is unsurprising. Just good business.
Lenovo have adopted a more thoughtful approach, which is their choice to make and I doubt it will be to their disadvantage either.
Both approaches make sense, so good luck to all of them.
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
