For many years I have been an avid tech enthusiast. I read review/rumor blogs and watch the live feeds of many tech events, so naturally on June 19th, I tuned in to see what you had in store for us. Like many who watched the unveiling of your surface tablet, I was blown away by what I saw. I loved the idea of a Microsoft branded tablet and quite honestly it's about time you gave your OEM partners a swift kick in the pants.
But in the month since the event, and reading the comments and articles popping up on the web about the surface and windows 8, I fear that the tech community as a whole does not truly understand what you are trying to do. This most recent shift in your products is so new, that many people have lost faith in your ability to provide for our consumer needs. You may not be irrelevant yet in any tangible sense (you still hold a massive market share and billions in saved income), but the media has begun to write as if you are already on the outs. They write as if you are the aging giant with one last attempt at remaining in the technological spotlight, and as many companies have refused to accept (at their own peril) your perception in the media is everything.
Thinking on this I have composed a list of three goals, a short list of achievable actions that you can take to make sure that you not only remain relevant, but that you are once again the king of silicon for years to come.
1 Push metro applications If every software company out there isn't thinking, "why don't we have a win8 app of that yet" then you're not pushing hard enough. At the time of writing this, the ipad has over 500,000 apps in the market place, if you don't have at least 100,000 apps in the market place by launch and haven?t reached the same number of apps as apple six months from then, WinRT may be a long time recovering. You need to make developers an offer they would be crazy to pass up; make developing a metro app the easiest possible, make adding it to the market place the most pleasant process around, heck, make the development of apps and posting to the marketplace free for the first six months after launch. You have the money to make developers crazy about your platform, and in the new tech world we all know that developers are more important now than ever before.
2 Price the surfaces properly the price of buying a surface needs to be competitive with ipad and android. If the average consumer has the choice of paying more for a surface, or buying an ipad (along with the entire ecosystem behind it), the choice is going to be the ipad. Now maybe you can't go as low as android and apple because you don't want to anger the OEM?s that make so many great windows products, then at least make sure that someone buying a surface gets the most bang for their buck. If you can?t beat the ipad price point, make sure the surface is packed with the best hardware possible. Give the surface Bluetooth and NFC, make the screen full HD or better, come out with an LTE version in Q1 or Q2 of 2013. It doesn't matter if you lose money initially on the sale of the surface, as long as you get people away from the ipad and make the user experience the best ever, that's how you build a brand and that's how you insure that your ecosystem will be the system to beat for years to come.
3 Advertise like never before If windows 8 comes out in October, start your big advertising push in September. Consumers need to be aware of windows 8 and the changes it brings to the ecosystem. I truly believe you have developed the most intuitive UI and design language for a touch central device to date, but if people are unaware of the changes, the consumer appeal for a windows tablet will not be enough to combat Apple and Google in the mobile space. I want new and better adds. I want to see two Microsoft commercials for every Apple commercial. I want an add where a document started on the surface is then edited on a windows phone, or one where a group of teens play a game a 360 and their win8 tablets. The old method advertising won't work, windows 8 needs to be cool, kids need to want the surface more than the ipad. Just saying with windows 8 you can do anything isn't good enough; you need to show specific features that the ipad doesn't offer. Only by making the surface and other windows 8 and RT tablets the cool new thing can you change consumer opinion and drive them away from the Apple and towards your new ecosystem.
What ever happened to that, "We are not robots, put people first" video? Why isn't that your windows phone advertising slogan?
These steps may seem drastic, they may cost money at first, but if we've learned anything from the xbox it's that you can lose money initially and still emerge as a strong, profitable platform for years to come. Microsoft has the technology, time and money to once again be the king of the computing world, but only if you have the guts to put everything on the table and really show off to the world. Unlike so many other companies you have a unique position enabling you to switch directions before ever noticing a massive dip in revenue. You've already put the time into making windows 8 and the surface something revolutionary, a total renovation of the PC, now please, don't let so much hard work go to waste by not wanting to spend the money to complete the package.
You have 60 billion dollars, don't be afraid to spend it
Many in the tech media, or just tech enthusiasts, can already see the potential in what you are trying to do, but if you try to cut corners now, be it by cutting costs in the surface?s hardware, making software development less than ideal, or by failing to advertise properly, the average consumer won?t understand, and won't be deterred from buying an ipad. Please make sure you put the time and effort into launching your new line of products with a bang, and here's hoping that this year will be one of many future record years at Microsoft.
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