Microsoft’s iPad competitor adverts now feature businesses, bloggers, moms and artists

By Tom Warren, on 19th Mar 11 12:40 pm with 27 Comments

Microsoft has upped the ante on its iPad competitor commercials this week.

The software giant, in association with ASUS, has pumped out four new commercials featuring the ASUS Eee Slate. The new adverts feature businesses, mothers, bloggers and artists, to try and show the practical use of a fully powered Windows 7 machine. Microsoft started advertising its Slate offerings in late February. The software giant has created its own dedicated site for ASUS’s Eee Slate at windows.com/slate. Microsoft’s new commercials are aimed to show how versatile Windows 7 Slates can be by using them in a range of scenarios. The company has no plans to air them on national TV yet but hasn’t ruled this out in future.

Microsoft’s advertizing blitz follows the introduction of Apple’s newest iPad. Apple’s latest iPad 2 features a dual-core CPU, 9x faster graphics and is slimmer and lighter than the previous generation. The company has also included front and rear cameras for use with FaceTime. Microsoft’s hardware partners have slowly been producing iPad rivals. Samsung unveiled its Sliding PC 7 series Windows 7 Slate hybrid at CES earlier this year. The device features Intel’s 1.66GHz Z670 Oak Trail processor, 10.1″ touchscreen, 32GB SSD and 2GB of RAM. The tablet ways just 2.1 pounds and will retail in March for $699. The iPad currently retails at $499 and sold three million units in its first 80 days of release. The iPad is currently selling approximately 4.5 million units per quarter, Bernstein Research estimates.

Microsoft Chairman, Bill Gates, said earlier last year that the company has a lot of different tablet projects it is pursuing. Microsoft canceled their internal Courier project shortly after the release of the iPad. The project was an innovative new tablet concept that had promised to combine a dual screen book design with finger and stylus input. The leaked promotional materials demonstrated various concepts that would have brought an unparalleled productivity tool to the market. Most media outlets and analysts felt the move to cancel the device was a mistake.

Dell also unveiled a hybrid “touch and type” Windows 7 Slate device in late November. The device currently retails at at $549 in U.S. stores. Microsoft rarely acknowledges the iPad or its sales influence. Windows general product manager Gavriella Schuster previously admitted that netbooks running Windows are “definitely getting cannibalised” by the iPad.

Microsoft is waiting for Windows 8 until it unveils its full Slate strategy. However, the company may introduce Windows 8 ARM based tablets ahead of a full desktop release. Microsoft’s competitive tablet strategy is believed to be further along than expected. Dell’s recently leaked Tablet Roadmap revealed that the OEM has marked Q1 2012 as its date for a Windows 8 based slate. WinRumors understands that Microsoft has been working on an ARM based version of Windows for nearly a year and that it is laboring hard to bring this to the market as soon as possible.

  • http://www.Nave360.com Sebastian Gorgon

    is it just me or Apple adverts are all as basic as an advert could get? Because if the simplicity wins over thousands sure Microsoft should head the same way

  • http://twitter.com/rd3d Ian Walker

    Once the tablet platform comes online along with its integrated marketplace you can expect to see increased developer interest in the Microsoft platform in general. Without too much tweeking it should be possible for developers to target WP7, Windows Tablet (Arm & Intel), XBOX (Kinnect) and Windows desktop with the same source code – dramatically increasing revenue potential – quite a compelling scenario.

    rd3d2.wordpress.com

  • http://twitter.com/Pieter_Kroon Pieter Kroon

    Still not very convincing… you don’t want Windows 7 on such a device, obviously.

    • GP007

      Maybe most don’t but there’s still a group out there that does want a full OS on a tablet and not just a scaled up mobile version.

    • http://www.rwalrond.com RWalrond

      yep, using my ep121 right now. This device is amazing. Fan noise and battery life are issues, but having full Windows is what makes this device different from these other tablets. Inking on Windows is far better than on any other platform.

  • http://twitter.com/Pieter_Kroon Pieter Kroon

    Still not very convincing… you don’t want Windows 7 on such a device, obviously.

  • Anonymous

    Those ads are ok. Maybe they should show that you can scale the UI of WIndows 7 up in different DPI settings so that it is easier to use it with your fingers. And handwriting recognition is just perfect for slates. They should show it instead of just talk about it.

    I’m wondering how speech recognition works on such a device? That would be a very good input method for tablets. Google made speech input on Android very popular.

    Everything is already there in Windows 7. So why not show it?

  • Stevcole

    The game is rapidly approaching OVER and MS and most others haven’t launched anything?

    If I were on the Board of Directors I would clean house.

    • Anonymous

      Over? Its hardly even begun. MS’s forte is taking what works and making gobs of money from it

    • Anonymous

      I agree, this market is still underserved, if you read the tea leaves, Microsoft is working on something special for Windows 8 and will specifically address the tablet market with something other than a shrunken desktop as i’n Windows 7 tablets that will go mostly nowhere.

      The Market has spoken, it wants simplicity and great battery life and that that’s the iPad for now.

    • Guest

      Yeah, like they did in music. Oh right, that didn’t happen. Well, there was Search. Oh right, nevermind. Okay, how about mobile? Oh right, that didn’t work out either. But tablets, MS will finally come from behind there and make gobs of money.

      LOL.

    • Anonymous

      Bing search is growing fast, Windows Phone is growing (far from a shrinking market) and the zune marketplace has been a success, its actually dug into Apples earnings as reported. Not sure where you’re getting your sources but they’re bad. Its no wonder you have to post as guest. Oddly enough Bing Video portal (where i’m sure other services will fall in behind) is now the 2nd largest video site behind yahoo. MS is actually doing something right, you’re just to ignorant or blind to even care.

    • Guest

      And losing money faster. Now $2 billion a year. I’m getting my information from their financial reports. Suggest you check them out.

    • Anonymous

      Maybe you should re-read it.

      Redmond, Wash. – Jan. 27, 2011 – Microsoft Corp. today announced record second-quarter revenue of $19.95 billion for the quarter ended Dec. 31, 2010. Operating income, net income and diluted earnings per share for the quarter were $8.17 billion, $6.63 billion and $0.77 per share, respectively.

      Online services posted a 500 million loss, but online services includes bing, office/live 365 and azure – all growing projects showing great possibilities and shrinking losses. Last quarter it was 1.1 billion.. who knows what it will be like next quarter. Hardly a failure, but an investment.

      PS, MS just announced the next dividend is .16 per share.. let me know when your other tech companies start paying dividends.

    • Anonymous

      What are you talking about? Zune is no. 2 in market share. So is Bing (~30% US market share). Microsoft was also one of the pioneers in the smartphone segment. I’d hardly call MS a failure in those areas.

    • Anonymous

      The game is just getting started, the big player here will ultimately be Android, Windows 8 will arrive i’n plenty of time, it just can’t be another IOS copy like Android, then again Windows phone 7 isn’t a copy of the iPhone either.

      It looks like things will get very interesting for Windows very soon.

  • Anonymous

    We desperately need Windows 8 on the current generation of slates…

  • David G.

    I hate apple but even I think the iPad is cool as crap. However, I think Microsoft’s strategy is to treat the tablet/slate as a full-up computer (a natural evolution of the laptop) and not as a giant iPod or iPhone. If they can convince people that tablets are more like a grown up computer and not just a novelty, I think they can win some over. Look at the Zune though, just too late to the party to make a huge impact. They need products that compete right now, not late 2012 or something.

    • Anonymous

      Zune also failed be because it didn’t have a dedicated retail chain like Apple does to promote it’s products.

    • Guest

      By the time the hardware makes that practical, Apple will have brought Lion to the iPad and will have the winner for both casual slates and full PC tablets.

  • http://twitter.com/mayor4reel martins

    Microsoft as always…playing catch up. ballmer needs to go.

  • J-mac

    I’ve already heard this thing of “microsoft is over” when netbooks with linux came out… and then everybody starts asking for windows xp.

  • Guest

    You can ‘t advertise your way to success, though MS never seems to learn that. W7 on a slate isn’t competitive. Period.

    This is just damage control to try and stall iPad and Android tablet sales until W8, which probably won’t be competitive either since it will lack the apps.

    • Anonymous

      Windows 8 will have apps, the .NET virtual machine will be on ARM, X86, X64 as well as multiple cell phone platforms. Another FUD guest :) keep on trying

    • Guest

      So iPad will have several hundred thousand apps and media consumption services designed specifically for touch and slates, and MS will have several thousand mostly business related apps that were designed for PCs with mouse and keyboard input?

      Well now I feel so much more optimistic about MS’s chances. NOT.

    • Anonymous

      You obviously have no clue :) Keep on trolling

  • http://profiles.google.com/todor.kainy Todor Tsvetkov

    This is the same trolling as when the rumors for WP7 ran out … they will do that, they will do this blablabla and especially they will fail … and what happened? The idiots from MS made the truly the only OS that can compare with the dominated iOS … don’t get me wrong Android is great and all but it’s not as slick as iOS or WP7, it’s better for other things but it’s no as slick. So … Microsoft are not so dumb after all? Or just the haters are blind and don’t wanna believe it? Well to bad for several months WP7 become a part of the BIG players on the mobile OS systems. Think what you want but Windows 8 will be a killer for tablets it will be fast, slick and something that iPad is not … It will be functional, truly functional, like the ad said … “…I can put Photoshop on this thing!” that’s what I’m talking about … stop trolling and face it MS are not losers :) they are innovators in almost every area … and if people like iPad for work … it’s their problem :) they will miss some features they will be “happy” buying their iPad every one-two years … Just stop hating and think for a second :)