How do we compare Microsoft to Apple when launching a new tablet? Compare the new iPad product launch with Microsoft just announced “Surface tablet”.

Apple will:
- show a completed hardware with specs
- tell about the battery life
- expose product pricing
- set a shipping date.

Microsoft will:
- say nothing about pricing
- hide battery life
- set a ambiguous shipping date
- forget to tell how much it will cost.

Guess who win.

Many think the Apple ecosystem is a closed one. Maybe. Apple has complete control of the hardware and the software. This allow them to build products that offer one of the best user experience on the market (iPhone, iPad, iPod, etc.). The integrated approach that is behind Apple’s successes is about to be the de facto standard in the mobile space. It seems.

Microsoft with their Windows Mobile OS + Nokia is a step in that direction. The more obvious valid comparison would be the just announced Microsoft Tablet named “Surface”. With Surface, Microsoft will control the operating system AND the hardware. This is a first for Microsoft. They should have done it long time ago with their PC business so they could have provided the users with the best user experience on the Windows platform.

Google is also rumored to do the same in the next few weeks by announcing their own tablet running Android 4.0. This seems to validate the vertical integration approach of Apple has the best way to offer the best products.

As you’ll see in another post, having a vertically integrated approach is not the only thing you need to guarantee success of any products. Also, being Microsoft with many OEM relationships to keep in good health, this can become a pretty tricky business.

Is another one from this Microsoft/Windows/Whatever specialist/analyst/whatever named Paul Thurott. 

After months of silly silence in the face of hundreds of legitimate questions from customers, businesses, developers, and the tech press, Microsoft suddenly and unexpected unveiled (most of) its plans for ARM-based Windows 8 tablets. I’ve got the details (of course) in Microsoft Finally Explains Windows 8 on ARM: Desktop and Office 15 Applications Will Be Included, as well as an accompanying screenshot gallery. But the big takeaway here is simple. Windows on ARM, or “WOA,” as Microsoft calls it, looks like more than a credible answer to the iPad [Emphasis is mine]. In fact, it looks like something that will relegate the iPad to the backwater of the tablet market, much as Windows did to the Mac. And they will ship with full, but touch-enabled, versions of the coming Office 15 apps, which should be a neat final nail in the coffin of those overpriced luxury items from Cupertino. Last year, the Kindle Fire proved that a low-priced device could quickly chip away at the iPad’s dominance. This year, ARM-based Windows 8 tablets are going to accelerate the iPad’s decline. And I’m not the only one who thinks so.  This is a big deal, people. The only question is why Microsoft sat on this for so long. Windows on ARM looks awesome.

What? I’m sorry but an ARM processor by itself won’t solve the underlying problems of Windows. Not sure? Here is a nice one Joanna Stern reviewing the MacBook Air as a Windows 7 machine:

Interesting note on battery life: the Air got over 6 hours of battery life running Mac OS X, but only 4 running Windows 7.

See? Paul, keep dreaming!