The Verge - Microsoft Surface: PC partners react

Acer CEO optimistic about Windows 8.1, claims Microsoft is back 'down to Earth'

2013-05-09T12:05:37Z

While Microsoft executives have been hinting at the arrival of a Windows 8 update, codenamed Blue, two Acer execs have been voicing their approval of planned changes for the OS. Speaking to The Wall Street Journal, Acer president Jim Wong explained that Microsoft is making alterations "at a high percentage" rate thanks to OEM input. Arguing that the world is not going 100 percent touch in the next five years, he says "touch makes a lot of possibilities for PCs," but that "you need to take care of the rest of the world that doesn’t need touch" too.

Windows chief Julie Larson-Green dropped big hints about changes for non-touch use of Microsoft's Windows 8 operating system recently. Speaking at the Wired Business Conference earlier this...

Stephen Elop interview: Nokia can compete with Surface

2013-02-25T14:16:40Z

For all the speculation surrounding Nokia's MWC plans, the eventual launches from the Finnish company this morning proved somewhat underwhelming. High-end features like wireless charging and a super-sensitive touchscreen were trickled down into lower price ranges with the Lumia 520 and 720, but there was no new hero device, no translation of the 808 PureView's 41-megapixel camera into the Windows Phone realm, and no tablet.

We've been eagerly awaiting Nokia's entry into the highly competitive tablet space since way back in 2011 — when Stephen Elop confessed it has great potential and is of great interest to Nokia — but today the company's CEO remained demure on the subject of actually releasing such a product anytime soon. He told...

HP's head of PC 'not a big fan' of Windows RT, says Surface is slow and kludgey

2012-11-15T11:20:38Z

Todd Bradley, HP's head of PC, has spoken frankly about Microsoft's Windows RT and Surface launches. In an interview with IDG Enterprise, Bradley reiterated comments HP made earlier this year, saying he'd "hardly call Surface competition," before making some rather damning comments about Microsoft's first ever tablet. "It tends to be slow and a little kludgey as you use it," says Bradley, adding that "it's expensive... the press has made a bigger deal out of Surface than what the world has chosen to believe." Back in August, another HP exec said that Surface was Microsoft's way of "making a leadership statement and showing what's possible in the tablet space."

Bradley cites the small retail launch — Surface is only available directly...

HP's Todd Bradley dismisses post-PC era, says 'people are trying to be dramatic'

2012-09-20T08:51:33Z

Todd Bradley is HP's executive VP in charge of personal systems and printers. As such, it's his job to be excited about the future of PCs, but he's gone further in a recent interview with PC World in dismissing the claim that we're living in a post-PC era as "just wrong." Citing the broad need for computers in everything we do, Bradley argues that the global PC market remains as large and buoyant as ever. He does acknowledge the increasing importance of tablets, a market that HP aims to lead from the front the way it does with Windows PCs laptops and desktops today, but he's ultimately unimpressed by the idea that portable devices are taking over from the more traditional machines.

Though these comments from Bradley convey a sense of...

Lenovo's Gianfranco Lanci on the PC Plus era and the threat of Microsoft's Surface

2012-08-31T11:00:13Z

Fresh off his company's manifold Windows 8 device announcements at IFA 2012, Lenovo's Gianfranco Lanci sat down with us for a few minutes to discuss the present state of the PC industry. It's become something of a nebulous term these days, the PC industry, what with the definition of the personal computer undergoing a transformation into new form factors and types of functionality, but Lanci appears unfazed by this period of flux. He defines the PC world in terms almost equivalent to the Windows ecosystem — which is to say, if it runs Windows, it's a PC, whatever its size or shape — but he's also on board with Microsoft's more expansive concept of PC Plus.

Will we ever see a carbon fiber ThinkPhone?

Lanci defines PC Plus as an...

Dell promises plenty of Windows 8 devices to compete with Surface

2012-08-22T06:16:45Z

Dell just announced a 22 percent drop in consumer sales as part of its Q2 earnings report, so with Windows 8 set to shake up the PC market in a matter of months you'd hope the company would have a solid strategy. Worry not, stressed CFO and senior VP Brian Gladden in the investors call, as there'll be a comprehensive lineup of Dell products running Microsoft's latest OS towards the end of the year.

Lenovo CEO ready to take on Microsoft's Surface, 'just one of many competitors'

2012-08-16T07:05:20Z

Lenovo’s CEO Yang Yuanqing isn’t worried about Microsoft’s upcoming Surface tablet eating into his sales. "[They’re] just one of our many competitors. We are still confident that we are providing much better hardware than our competitors including Microsoft," he said during the company’s Q1 earnings call, reports CNET. It sounds like Yuanqing is gassed up over his company’s recent performance — net profit up 30 percent year over year on strong sales that leave it just a hair (0.7 percentage points) behind HP for most PC shipments worldwide.

While Acer CEO JT Wang warned Microsoft to "think twice" about Surface, up until now Lenovo had been striking a more diplomatic tone, with VP Dili Bhatia telling ABC News’s Joanna...

HP doesn't see Microsoft Surface as a threat to its own Windows 8 tablet

2012-08-15T12:35:15Z

Microsoft's decision to make its own Surface tablets could have major implications for its traditional hardware partners, but their opinions on the subject remain divided. While Acer's CEO told Microsoft to "think twice" about its plans, Lenovo is more sanguine on Windows 8's prospects — and now HP seems to agree. Executive John Solomon told CRN that the company doesn't consider Surface a competitive threat, and emphasized that its own Windows 8 tablet would have enough to stand apart.