Samsung, not Microsoft, is the reason Apple iPad Pro is pitched as a Windows 10 PC-killer
Leave it to Samsung to be the champion of Windows PCs, while Apple moves into laptops turf with a tablet.
Yes, Apple iPad Pro is a killer device, and yes, it does have the chops to take on the workload of a whole category of ultraportables, whether they run Windows 10, or Chrome OS.
Now, in 2017, iPad Pro can do all that, not because it is actually more powerful, faster, more lightweight, or ever slicker than your average tablet, or netbook, but because the PC revolution is finally over, and the nerds won.
Consumers, for the first time in 40 years of our young history of computing, understand what a computer is for.
Of course, the semantic is still awkward and fuzzy, and diluted in marketing buzz-words, by which we still use the word “computer” wrong, much like when little kids say “pesghetti”, but the substance is clear: regular users have now a defined, and fundamentally solid understanding of what they want, when they walk into a computer store.
Do you want to surf the web, chat with your friends and shop? Well... you can probably do that with your phone just fine. What about Office documents? Spreadsheets, charts, maybe some light video editing? That’s where Apple iPad Pro kills it. It’s fast, it’s powerful, and it doesn’t run some old version of iOS where everything looks humongous and awkward. iOS 10 is a desktop operating system made for mobile devices. It supports multitasking, split-screen, and just when you thought your mind couldn’t be blown further, you can scroll two application windows simultaneously, with two fingers, in different directions. Go ahead, try it. We’ll wait.
Ok, how cool was that, from 1 to 10?
...We thought so.
With that in mind, Microsoft, and a number of other PC manufacturers have not been sitting tight, watching all this happen. Microsoft Surface has had plenty of time to mature into something that can seriously compete with the iPad Pro, as well as former Sony property Vaio, has come up with some pretty amazing devices, powered by Windows 10. So amazing, in fact, that iOS users are starting to turn their heads and take notice.
While it’s true that Apple is probably 5-6 years away from having to seriously do something about it, it’s undeniable that this hybrid laptop-tablet formula works well enough for tech manufacturers to want a piece of the action, and interestingly enough, now that Samsung is suddenly rumored to be working on its own version of Microsoft Surface Pro, Apple is revamping its marketing machine with a new ad, pushing the iPad Pro as “more than a computer”.
Any of this would be hardly relevant, of course, if Samsung didn’t have this “love-hate” relationship with Apple, and if we can go past what’s been happening among the South Korean tech giant’s top ranks (wag of the finger to you Mr. Lee! Not cool...), Samsung is still a top dog in the industry, from concept to inception. Lest we forget Samsung is the mass-manufacturer behind many of Apple’s mobile processors, which gives them the technical “leg-up” over other companies, to be any kind of competition to Cupertino. Still... they choose to go the Microsoft way, and make a Windows 10-powered Galaxy tablet.
This also means that Samsung has determined that there is a big chunk of potential customers who are looking for something in between a Windows 10 laptop and an iPad. Something that has lots of battery life, it’s powerful enough for daily tasks, and, if needed, it’s capable of running desktop applications as well, by snapping in a little mobile keyboard.
Could Vaio lead the charge in changing consumers mindset about windows PCs? Probably not. Could Microsoft? Well... given time and more focus on killer products like Surface Studio, probably in a couple of years.
Samsung can do it, right now, for two reasons: first, it’s not Lenovo, which, while it has dominance over Windows PCs worldwide, its charisma is too fragmented for people to latch on. Finally, Samsung is a company whose name is rock solid, because of what it does. Pick any Samsung product, open it (or look it up on iFixit), and all you see is Samsung chips, Samsung memory, Samsung components everywhere. Can we name another company who can afford to do the same, and guarantee the same level of quality in manufacturing?
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