What Microsoft doesn't get about the tablet revolution

At a Tuesday event in New York City, Microsoft introduced the latest version of its Surface tablet. The Surface 3 has a larger screen, more computing power, and an updated cover that provides more stability when the tablet is used with a keyboard.

Microsoft's Panos Panay, the creator of the Surface, laid out a clear vision for the future of tablet computing. 'You've been told to buy a tablet, but you know you need a laptop,' Panay said. 'Today we're going to focus on taking that conflict away.'

While the Surface 3 is new, this vision of the tablet market isn't. Microsoft desperately wants tablets to be another kind of PC, and it has been trying to make that vision a reality since it started pushing the concept of tablet computing 13 years ago.

But Microsoft's vision is wrong. Tablets aren't PCs. Indeed, iPads and Android-based tablets have succeeded precisely because they ditched the complexity of traditional PCs. Microsoft's determination to make 'Tablet PCs' is a sign that the company doesn't understand the economic forces behind the mobile computing revolution.

Less is more

Smartphones and tablets are a good example of what business guru Clay Christensen called a disruptive innovation: a technology that's simpler and cheaper than the technology it replaces. The PC disrupted older mainframe computers. Digital cameras (and then cell phone cameras) disrupted film photography. And as I wrote about on Monday, internet-based news is disrupting the newspaper business.

The iPad was a hit because it didn't have all the features than a full-blown MacBook

The key thing to understand about disruptive innovations is that their simplicity initially makes them worse at serving the traditional customers of the product they're disrupting. Buzzfeed's early journalism wasn't nearly as good as the reporting of the New York Times. Early PCs were toys compared to the much bigger computers that were already on the market. But the simplicity and low cost of these devices allows for rapid innovation. The products gradually improve until they're good enough to undercut the market for the older technology.

The mobile computing revolution is a textbook example of this phenomenon. When the iPad arrived in 2010 it looked to a lot of experienced technologists ( including me!) like a step backwards. It didn't have a keyboard, wasn't good for word processing, and didn't even have a USB port. Many people were also annoyed that the iPad forced people to buy apps from Apple's proprietary app store. People like me didn't understand why anyone would want an iPad when they could get a full-fledged laptop for a little bit more.

But the market proved us wrong. The iPad was a huge hit. And those iPad limitations that looked like disadvantages at the outset have turned out to be strengths. Apple ditched the window-icon-menu desktop interface Apple itself had pioneered a quarter-century earlier in favor of a user interface custom-built for a touchscreen. With no keyboard and mouse, developers were forced to create apps that used the new iPhone-derived visual language.

The iPad aped the iPhone in other important ways too. Since the 1980s, PCs have been based on a hierarchical, folder-based file system. The iPhone abandoned that metaphor, which many users found too confusing anyway, in favor of having each app manage its own data. Requiring users to purchase apps through Apple's app store greatly simplified the process of obtaining software and keeping it updated. These changes, in turn, helped to reduce the amount of storage required for the iPad's software, allowing them to use cheap, lower-power flash storage chips instead of bulkier hard drives.

Anyone who needs to power of a PC can and should just buy a PC

In short, the iPad was a hit because it didn't have all the features than a full-blown MacBook. That allowed the iPad to be smaller, lighter, and cheaper than Apple's PCs. But more importantly, it actually created a better user experience for people who are not power users. If someone just wants to watch movies or check their email, the keyboard, windows, file system, and other features of a traditional PC is overkill.

Of course, the iPad was a poor choice if you wanted to do serious word-processing, number-crunching, or image editing. For those tasks, a traditional PC was clearly superior. But most people don't spend very much time doing those things, especially at home. They spend a lot more time watching videos, reading books, checking email, and catching up with friends on Facebook. And for those casual computing tasks, a tablet is a better choice.

Google took the same approach with Android. Android tablets have no keyboard, no windows, and no user-accessible file system. That made Android tablets a lousy choice for the office, but they're cheap, simple, and work fine for casual web browsing and watching videos on the go.

What Microsoft doesn't get

Microsoft absolutely hates this vision of tablet computing. Microsoft has always been first and foremost a PC company, and approaches every problem with a PC mindset. The company has made billions of dollars selling PC applications such as Microsoft Office, and it desperately wants that bonanza to continue in the mobile computing era. So the firm is highly motivated to create a tablet that doubles as a PC.

But this makes as much sense as selling a digital camera that also takes film photographs. Anyone who needs to power of a PC can and should just buy a PC. The point of buying a tablet is that it's cheaper, smaller, lighter, simpler, and more power-efficient than a traditional PC. Those advantages are only possible because tablets don't try to be all things to all people.

A tablet that does everything a PC can do is just a laptop. And we already know how to build a great laptop - Apple and other PC makers have been refining the design of laptops for a generation. A great laptop looks like a Macbook Air.

Microsoft's Surface tablets have a funny shape and muddled user interface that make them a poor alternative to a full-fledged PC. And they're too complex and expensive to be a serious alternative to an iPad or Android tablet. In its attempt to create a product that does everything well, it's wound up with a product that's not that good at anything. And its tablets are going to continue failing as long as Microsoft is convinced that it needs to create a tablet that's also a PC.

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MSFT – Is the New Surface Pro 3 Tablet a Game

Microsoft ( MSFT) unveiled its Surface Pro 3 tablet on Tuesday, and I joined CNBC's Adam Bakhtiar to discuss what it might mean for Microsoft's prospects.

The good news: It's a fantastic product that blows the iPad out of the water.

The bad news: Given the slowdown in the growth of the tablet market, I fear it's too late to make much of a difference.

To start, MSFT really outdid itself this time in creating a sleek, attractive product. The new Surface boasts a large 12-inch display and PC-caliber power. And in fact, Microsoft is billing its new offering less as a 'tablet' and more as a 'laptop replacement.' It's compared as much to an Apple ( AAPL) MacBook Air as it is an iPad.

The Surface Pro 3 runs Windows 8.1 Pro, which means that a user can literally do anything on the tablet that they can do on a desktop or laptop computer. If you buy an optional docking station, you can even give yourself a multimonitor setup. And the USB 3 jack allows you to plug in virtually any accessory you can plug into a computer.

The downside?

Cost. The Surface Pro 3 starts at $799, making it significantly more expensive than the iPad or the assorted Android tablets. It's also more expensive than most mid-range laptop computers. If your purposes for owning a tablet are light web browsing, reading e-books or toying with entertainment apps, then the new Surface is too much computer for you.

One interesting point of differentiation is the size. MSFT opted not to 'out-iPad the iPad' with a smaller screen. By opting for the larger screen, Microsoft is attempting to create an entirely new product line in the 'jumbo tablet.'

That's a smart move; peeling away Apple loyalists is no easy task.

Unfortunately, Microsoft is coming to market with the Surface Pro 3 at a time when overall tablet growth is slowing. The tablet market will be lucky if it grows by 12% this year. Apple sold a lot fewer iPads than the consensus expected last quarter, even while iPhone sales surprised to the upside.

And ironically, PCs - the very products that tablets were supposed to destroy - are staging a mild recovery. The rate of decline in PC sales slowed to just 1.7% in the first quarter of this year, according to Gartner. With corporations finally starting to replace their employees' aging computers after years of cost cutting, we may actually see modest growth by the end of the year.

So, will the new Surface be a game changer for MSFT stock? No, it won't. But kudos to Microsoft for coming to market with a worthy competitor.

Charles Lewis Sizemore, CFA, is the editor of Macro Trend Investor and chief investment officer of the investment firm Sizemore Capital Management. As of this writing, he was long MSFT. Click here to receive his FREE weekly e-letter covering top market insights, trends, and the best stocks and ETFs to profit from today's best global value plays. http://ift.tt/1hgKyaM For tablet reviews of the best budget tablets

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The New Surface Could Be the Tablet Microsoft Has Been Trying to Create ...

The vision has remained remarkably consistent. Is the technology finally ready?

Microsoft announced a new tablet computer at an event on Tuesday in New York. As its name indicates, the Surface Pro 3 is the third in a line of devices that run full-blown Windows 8, making them newfangled PCs as much as iPad rivals. (I gave a lukewarm review to the first version, and my colleague Jared Newman wrote more enthusiastically about the second one.)

But in a sense, the road to the Surface Pro 3 really goes back to 2000, when Microsoft unveiled a pen-oriented portable computer it called the Tablet PC. Unless you want to start counting in 1990, when it began work on something called Windows for Pen Computing.

No matter how you do the math, the company got interested in the idea of a portable computer with a touchscreen and a pen many, many years before Apple kicked off the modern era of tablets with the iPad. Only the part involving it designing and selling its own hardware is a recent development.

Being prescient about future trends in computing-which Microsoft has often been, dating back to 1975, when Bill Gates and Paul Allen thought there might be a big market for PC software-doesn't automatically mean that you're capable of designing products that vast numbers of people want to use. Windows for Pen Computing, for example, went nowhere. The Tablet PC, which Bill Gates famously predicted would dominate the industry within five years, did not.

As for previous Surfaces, they aren't the flops they're sometimes written off as: Microsoft sold a half-billion dollars' worth of them in the last quarter. But they also aren't the sort of game-changing blockbusters that would lead anyone to think that Microsoft has nailed what a post-PC PC should look like.

Even with the first two Surface Pros, part of the problem is that Microsoft's ambition had usually raced ahead of the technology curve. It's still difficult to cram a potent Intel processor into a thin, quiet device, and to add effective touch and pen features to an operating system with roots as venerable as those of Windows. So the arrival of any new Microsoft tablet always makes me wonder: Is it finally possible to build the device the company has been envisioning all along?

I'm not ready to say anything definitive about the Surface Pro 3, which I haven't seen in person yet. But the gap between vision and reality is clearly shrinking.

Though this new model isn't a radical rethinking of the Surface concept, it nudges the platform in a specific direction-even further away from direct competition with the iPad, and back towards the PC productivity category that was so good to Microsoft for so long. That's the right direction for Surface Pro, and it made perfect sense that the other device onstage as a point of comparison was a 13-inch MacBook Air, not an iPad.

When the company launched the original Surfaces in 2012, it declared that their 10.6″ screens, with a 16:9 aspect ratio, were ideal and chosen after rejecting many other sizes. But the Pro 3 has a 12″ display with a 3:2 aspect ratio. As Surface honcho Panos Panay explained at today's event, that's reminiscent of a piece of paper. It's also closer in size to a conventional laptop, making Surface more intriguing to folks who are looking for a laptop replacement and found the earlier models too dinky.

The Pro 3′s snap-on keyboard accessory-oddly, it still isn't standard equipment-is a Type Cover, with real mechanical keys and a more serious touchpad than previous Surface keyboards. It's designed to fasten to the tablet more securely than earlier models, which-coupled with the new infinitely-adjustable kickstand-should make the Pro 3 a more lap-friendly laptop alternative.

Microsoft will also offer the Surface Pro 3 with a choice of Intel processors: Core i3, i5 or i7. That's unusual for a tablet, but standard practice for a user-configurable PC. As are accoutrements such as the docking station and Ethernet adapter the company will offer.

Software-wise, the product launch reflected Microsoft's recent efforts to reassure Windows users that the operating system's classic desktop mode is alive and well, not something the company envisions as being replaced by the new-style Metro interface anytime soon. We got a tantalizing peek at a version of Photoshop that ran in desktop mode but featured tweaks to make it work better with touch and pen input, for instance-something likely far more interesting to more Photoshop aficionados than a stripped-down, fully Metro-ized Photoshop would be.

I don't yet have an opinion on some of the most important things about Surface Pro 3, such as how easy it is to work with the pen, which is based on technology from a company called N-trig rather than the Wacom tech in the first two Surface Pros. (I've tried to take notes with a pen using an infinite number of Windows-based devices in the past and it's never felt anywhere as natural as it does with a pad of actual dead-tree paper, which Microsoft rightly says is the benchmark.)

Also: I continue to be confused by something I already complained about four paragraphs back: Why doesn't Microsoft include the keyboard with the Surface?

Yes, making it optional helps bring the starting price down-the Pro 3 starts at $799-and allows buyers to choose between multiple keyboard options, such as ones in a variety of colors. But given that the click-on keyboard has been Surface's defining feature from the start, not bundling it muddies the message. And the more Microsoft focuses on pitching Surface Pro as a complete laptop replacement, the muddier the message feels.

Still, I'm glad that Microsoft has taken three whacks at the Surface Pro concept in a little over a year and a half. If the Surface Pro 3 (or the Surface Pro 4 or Surface Pro 5) is a winner, it won't just help convince skeptics that the company's decision to start making its own computers was smart. It will also mean that the Tablet PC vision Bill Gates himself preached beginning in the last century wasn't the misfire it's often seemed to be-just a good idea that took an uncommonly long time to become reality.

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Pregnant Women Access Prenatal Info Via Computer Tablets, Cellphones

Soon-to-be mothers can now use computer tablets and other mobile devices to learn about prenatal nutrition and exercise, as well as warning signs signaling possible problems during pregnancy.

South Jersey health system Virtua launched the prenatal education program in February, garnering praise from state officials and healthcare advocates, who cited the program as a potential model for reaching women who might not be able to attend traditional prenatal classes because of work schedules or childcare demands.

The initial goals are to reach 500 pregnant women who are uninsured, underinsured or enrolled in Medicaid, increasing the number of visits they make to their doctors, reducing premature deliveries, and increasing the rate of women who breastfeed exclusively.

The Virtua Center for Women in Lumberton has seen the number of pregnant women participating in prenatal education rise from less than 1 percent to 72 percent who have registered for the tablet-based program.

'I think it's a great opportunity to move from the traditional classroom for prenatal education, to get these women in a mode they are used to using,' said Kelly Nierstedt, Virtua assistant vice president for women's and children's health. 'This generation of child-bearing women grew up with computers and smartphone technology, so they want information quick and they want it convenient.'

The program offers a lesson for each trimester of the pregnancy, with the last lesson covering the post-birth healthcare of both the mother and baby, including post-partum depression and the importance of skin-to-skin contact with the baby. Other lessons, which include both text and short videos, deal with anatomy, pregnancy discomforts, nutrition and healthy living, warning signs, body mechanics, and exercises.

Colorado-based InJoy, a company that specializes in prenatal education products, developed the program.

While the tablets are available at the Lumberton center, once women participate in the program they're able to access the lessons on their cellphones.

Virtua health policy and programs director Suzanne Ghee said she was impressed with the format of the lessons.

'The tablet learning (program) has breastfeeding education, it has nutrition, it has postpartum care, pre-eclampsia, all of these things that women really need to be mindful of to have a healthy delivery,' said Ghee, who is due to have a baby in 12 weeks. 'Typically when you go to an ob/gyn's office they give you a folder, with a hundred pamphlets of everything you need to know, and it's completely overwhelming.'

The program was praised on Tuesday by state Health Commissioner Mary E. O'Dowd, who sat down with two pregnant women to work through a lesson at an event promoting prenatal education at the center.

One of the women, 18-year-old Amanda Gingery of Pemberton, said she liked the format of the lessons. While she was familiar with the exercise information in the lesson, she was surprised by other content.

'I didn't know that you couldn't eat certain foods,' Gingery said. It also drew praise from Betsy Ryan, president and CEO of the New Jersey Hospital Association.

Ryan said could reinforce the strides that have been made statewide in reducing early elective deliveries.

A separate Virtua-based program funded by March of Dimes is focusing on reducing premature births by bringing together groups of eight to 10 women to discuss their pregnancies and share information.

'It's information that's going to be reinforced by this tablet learning,' said Nierstedt. 'In some cases, they may see that information before they get to their (group) sessions, and they'll have an education foundation from which they can ask questions.'

Virtua President and CEO Rich Miller said the tablets fit into a broader trend of focusing on health and wellness of patients outside of hospitals.

The Haines Family Foundation funds the program. Holly Haines of the foundation said the program combined two of the organization's interests - Burlington County and education.

'The Center for Women really struck home for me,' Haines said. 'We've done support pieces at Burlington County College to help single women get education, and we though this was a good fit. Education is very important -- I think it's one way we can help families move up and out of their circumstances.'

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Surface Pro 3 Details: Microsoft Reveals New Powerful Tablet

Microsoft's Surface event in NYC today revealed the Surface Pro 3, Microsoft's answer to consumers feeling the need to carry or own both a laptop and a tablet when work has to be completed.

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That was arguably one of the main goals of the original Surface already, but Microsoft notes that tablets have not replaced computers as expected, and believes the Surface Pro 3 will be the solution. That may be an admission that the first two Surface devices failed in that objective, but the changes made are meant to address some of the main issues with using the device as a laptop.

Microsoft's Panos Panay revealed the new device, which is thinner and lighter than its predecessor despite boasting a larger 12inch screen. He pointedly compared it to Apple's Macbook Air, which weighed down the scale when matched with the Pro 3.

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According to Panay, nothing is compromised by the thinner and lighter device. The battery life is purportedly better than the Surface Pro 2's, and the fan is made to be quieter and more efficient than before. He promises it will remain cool and barely audible (if at all), and you won't feel the air leaving the device. New front-facing speakers are 40 percent louder than what they've shipped before, and are said to be best in class.

The stand is entirely reworked as well, featuring a full friction hinge with a full range of motion that can reach a nearly-flat maximum 150 degrees. This will help achieve what Panay called 'lapability', which is of course the capacity to use a device on your lap. That's inarguably a major weakness of typing on a tablet or Surface compared to the experience on the aptly named laptop, but the fully adjustable angle of the Pro 3 is meant to rival that ease-of-use.

The new type cover can latch onto the Surface in a new way, which Panay says is a small innovation that makes a big difference to the experience of using the device on your lap. The keyboard folds up at its hinge and magnetically attaches to the display, which increases stability by leaning on the device rather than your legs. 96 percent of people who have an iPad also have a laptop, Microsoft claimed, and the adjustable stand combined with the new keyboard are meant to be an essential part of the Pro 3 becoming a viable laptop replacement.

A newly designed pen with more accurate pressure and pointing (parallax technology has been removed, leading to 'best in industry' accuracy). Clicking the pen can turn on the screen for note-taking in OneNote, and clicking again will instantly send the notes to the cloud for access on all other devices.

A new Surface-optimized version of Photoshop was shown off by an Adobe employee as well, which features a lot more touch-based options. Feedback was generally positive for Photoshop on the device before, but more touch interaction was the most popular request from users.

Exact specs for the Surface Pro 3 will be forthcoming, and it will be available for pre-order tomorrow starting at $799 and will come in core i3, i5, and i7 processing configurations.

Though I initially questioned upon the reveal if the Pro 3 was different enough from its predecessors to achieve the goals Microsoft was attempting to reach, the changes and new features do look like they may make a difference. It will be interesting to see if hands-on experiences validate Microsoft's planning and apparently belief in the product to be the laptop replacement the first two devices were billed as.

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