Microsoft's new Surface tablet, unveiled this week to challenge Apple's market-leading iPad, may be Wi-Fi-only at first, without a connection to mobile-phone networks, Bloomberg reported on Friday, June 22, citing "two people familiar with the matter."
According to Bloomberg's sources, Microsoft will be equipping its Surface tablet with only a Wi-Fi short-range connection, at least initially. The sources spoke under condition of anonymity because the full specifications of the tablet have not been made public yet.
Surface marks the software giant's first dive (discounting the ill-fated Courier) into the growing tablet market, and will be running Microsoft's next-generation Windows operating system. Microsoft has unveiled Surface on Monday, June 18, but it has not released all the details on the specifications yet.
Apple is currently the market leader when it comes to tablets. The Cupertino, California-based tech giant began selling its high-end third-generation iPad in March with the fastest cellular connection - long-term evolution, aka. LTE for short. Since the first iPad model went on sale back in 2010, the tablet had the option of a mobile-phone chip which allows users to access the Internet virtually anywhere there is network coverage. If Microsoft's Surface is indeed aimed to rival Apple's iPad, network accessibility could be an issue. On the other hand, Apple sells a Wi-Fi-only iPad model as well.
Wi-Fi-only models currently make up the larger part of the market, and Microsoft's plan to initially roll out a tablet without connection to mobile-phone networks may enable the company to keep costs down, said Ben Bajarin, an analyst at tech consulting firm Creative Strategies, as cited by Bloomberg. Bajarin added, however, that this decision could hinder Microsoft's efforts to promote Surface as a device you can use anywhere and in any way.
"The way Microsoft is positioning this product - that it's highly mobile but also has the functionality of a notebook - that customer might be more interested in working from any location and not being bound by Wi-Fi," explained Bajarin.
Meanwhile, Gartner Inc. analyst Carolina Milanesi said most tablet consumers are using their devices mainly at home, where they have wireless connection, and tend to avoid mobile-phone connections on concerns about the charges of monthly data plans. "Wi-Fi-only is not a limitation for Surface," Milanesi told Bloomberg.
Microsoft said it will start selling its Surface tablet later this year, breaking the company's traditional practice of handling computer software while its partners focus on hardware. According to Bloomberg, again citing "two people familiar with the matter," Microsoft has contracted with Taiwanese company Pegatron Corp., which also assembles Apple's iPhones, to manufacture the Surface tablet.
