Bill Gates took a shot at the iPad while explaining Microsoft’s rationale for the Surface on Monday morning on CNBC.
He was asked about the declining PC market. He said that tablets are growing in popularity, and it’s “going to be harder and harder to distinguish products” that are PCs versus tablets.
The Surface, he says, brings the “portability of the tablet but the richness of the PC.”
He then said of people using iPad-like devices, “A lot of those users are frustrated, they can’t type, they can’t create documents, they don’t have Office there.”
While some people are frustrated by the iPad’s limitations, most embrace it. Apple sold 19.5 million iPads last quarter. Over that same period, HP, the world’s number one PC seller, sold 11.7 million PCs, according to Gartner.
Meanwhile, Gates said, Microsoft's Windows 8 tablets combine the benefits of the mobile form factor with the functionality users have come to expect in a PC. "If you have Surface [or] Surface Pro, you've got that portability of the tablet but the richness, in terms of the keyboard and Microsoft Office, of a PC," he said.
Gates also said it will be harder to distinguish between tablets and PCs as the form factors blend together and tablet functionality increases. Gates isn't alone in that view -- Intel (NSDQ:INTC)'s PC business chief, Kirk Skaugen, recently said he believes the 10-inch tablet form factor will "rapidly erode" this year and meld with notebook-tablet hybrids with convertible displays and detachable screens, leaving mini-tablets as the dominant category
When it comes to comparing the Surface to the iPad, some solution providers agree with Gates -- even though they can't resell the Surface tablets, which are currently sold direct through Microsoft's online and retail stores.
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