Microsoft loves to talk about anything other than Surface

In June, Microsoft pulled back the covers on one of the company’s biggest surprises in recent history; the Surface tablet was unheard of before the announcement and Microsoft literally pulled an ace from its sleeve.

The hype surrounding the event was, by some estimates, topping that of Apple announcements. Before the event, the Internet was on a witch hunt to uncover information and for the most part, nearly every rumor turned out to be false as Microsoft kept a secret of epic proportions. Well done, Microsoft.

But, since that event, Microsoft has gone quiet on the subject; we still do not know a price for either version of that tablet. That’s fine, we still have time until the end of October to hash that out but it would be highly appreciated to know how many pennies we consumers need to put away to afford the device on launch day.

Not only is Microsoft keeping keeping mum on the topic, but it feels like they are deflecting conversation around the device every time it is brought up. These observations reach back to July in our conversations with Microsoft executives during a couple of Microsoft events spanning up to this previous week.

For a product that is as big as the Surface for Microsoft, you would think they would be salivating at every chance they can get to talk about the product but that is far from the case. Every time we have brought up the product, we are always instantly reminded that OEMs are doing great things too. Fine, maybe they are, but we want to talk about the Surface, not what OEMs are doing and even having the conversation (or forcing the conversation) feels quite awkward as if Microsoft wants to put the focus elsewhere, for now.

This phenomenon has now occurred during four different conversations with Microsoft employees at four different locations. They love to tell you what great things their OEMs are doing but when it comes to the Surface, it almost feels intentional that the conversations are driven off course.

You can’t ignore the Surface advertisements that are popping up all over the US in preparation of the launch and they are working to get the hype machine rolling but the odd fact is Microsoft is not talking about the advertisements either. At one point, they provided no comment on the artwork as if we are supposed to believe that there is group of vigilantes roaming the streets and tagging walls with Surface advertisements.

Ballmer in a recent interview was the most outspoken about the tablet by at least giving a price point generalization but again falling short of any hard details. Beyond that though, Microsoft has remained quiet.

It’s an odd move for Microsoft to go quiet on the single most important hardware launch since the debut of the Zune. You would think the company would want to shout from the rooftops how awesome the Surface is but at this point, it seems they want to talk about anything other than the Surface.