Apple CEO Tim Cook slammed Microsoft's just launched Windows RT version of the Surface tablet on Thursday, saying, "I suppose you could design a car that flies and floats, but I don’t think it would do all of those things very well.” Now it seems Microsoft has some things to say about Apple's recently announced iPad Mini tablet.
AllThingsD.com reports that, in a chat with Microsoft's Windows division head Steven Sinofsky, he tried to make the case that laptops that had Windows 8 installed were a better value that Apple's new and smaller iOS tablet. Sinofsky is quoted as saying:
These are fantastic machines. They’re not netbooks or bargain-basement machines. At that price, he said, you can get a computer good enough to last a student through college .... It’s $279. Here we are, talking about seven-inch recreational tablets for $329.
Sinofsky also said there will also be lots of thin and light Ultrabooks using Windows 8, and which will have touch screen support, that will be sold for hundreds of dollars cheaper that Apple's MacBook Air notebook. He added, "It’s not just discounting. It’s engineering work that drives the cost down."
It's clear that Microsoft's message to consumers, for both its own Surface and Windows 8-based PCs, that people will be able to do a lot more with these products compared to Apple's devices and cost less as well. We will see if that message works with the world at large.
Source: AllThingsD.com
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