In a recent uncovered government filing, we learn that Microsoft indeed understands that its Surface tablet plans might upset its OEM partners and that it may affect their commitment to the company’s platforms. While this was common sense to most, it is first time we are hearing Microsoft admit it.
“Our Surface devices will compete with products made by our OEM partners, which may affect their commitment to our platform,” Microsoft stated in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. When Microsoft launched the Surface tablet, Steve Ballmer proclaimed that Windows had exceeded the company’s expectations by powering over 1 billion PCs. “We want to add another piece to that Windows 8 story,” Ballmer added during his speech at the Surface launch event. “It was always clear that what our software could do would require us to push hardware, sometimes where our partners hadn’t envisioned.” Ballmer announced that the company would be creating a whole new family of computing devices so Windows 8 “could have it’s own hardware.” Apparently, Microsoft only gave a three day notification to OEM partners about the Surface tablet. One can easily argue that this is probably a step in the right direction for Microsoft or that Microsoft just shoved their foot in their mouth.
