Tech reviewers have written much about the Surface, and we are again wondering if it will be more viable and popular than the iPad. I see this is a fundamental miss based on simple use cases. The iPad is and always will not be a laptop; it’s an appliance. This is a whole different animal and people seem to overlook that the iPad has created it’s own place in computing. It’s about the interface and what is most natural. Look at anyone using an iPad and you’ll see that their fingers moving on the screen. These are for the most part not keystrokes, rather they are navigating to get information versus inputting it.

Yet the Surface buzz seems to center around it’s layout keyboard. At last! The dreaded keyboard issue has been answered. Well, to my thinking it was never an issue in terms of what was missing. The virtual keyboard was always intended to be a secondary means of inputting information. If you could get it to work with a Bluetooth add-on, great. To me, the whole point of its design was it’s naturalness.The iPad pioneered the ability to float freely in a workspace such as classroom or hospital offering up images and answers with fluidity. Finger navigation is an intuitive means to get a response. The key, though, is developing content specifically designed to give quick, digested information plainly displayed. What the device doesn’t do as well is document manipulation and I don’t think Steve Jobs ever really intended it to do that. Because we are visual beings, we read visual information immediately and naturally.

Make no mistake, I’m excited about what Microsoft can do and would love to see them create some real competition in the marketplace. I have been following Windows 8 and really like it. The Surface, while be viable if it lives up to the hype, but also won’t replace the iPad. The one thing that is clear is Microsoft has learned an important from Apple and the iPad. This device is light, highly portable, and fast coupled with a full operating system intended to create and heavily revise documents. I see this more as a replacement for laptops and increasingly desktops as workers become more and more mobile. Work being done in an office is a real estate burden that companies are looking to avoid and now are exploring more work-from-home scenarios. This is where the Surface will shine.

Years ago, MCI made a brilliant marketing play for decision makers in companies who always favored AT&T. It was called Friends and Family. After that, there were fewer barriers to entry as an ‘untested’ product. The logic was that if executives used MCI at home, why wouldn’t they use it at work? Apple has adopted a smiler strategy and I think succeeded quite well. The iPad will continue to further penetrate the enterprise as more workers opt for more stylish devices that offer tools and features they enjoy. Use Facebook as both an entertaining and somewhat work-related activity if you give credence to the Social Media impact on business.

Perhaps Windows 8 has the edge in the enterprise battle based on Microsoft’s legacy platforms, but let’s face it; there’s going to be a big jump here. From what I see, there’s a fragmentation issue with Vista, XP, and even Windows 7 then going to Windows 8. As apple has encroached further into the enterprise from the consumer side, it could well be a toss up between the two platforms.

Then there’s the issue of growth. The Surface offers a new revenue stream as companies will replace all those clunky laptops. Once people started using iPads and with Apple’s savvy move to SSD for it’s MacBook Air, no one is willing to carry around a device that weighs more than a pound or two. The Surface certainly looks appealing and despite being a big Apple proponent, this could make things very interesting. Of course we’ll have to see how Microsoft launches and supports the Surface. One thing that really bothers me is the lack commitment so many tablet wannabes dropped their devices without really establishing a market for them. Microsoft certainly has the money; we’ll have to see if they have the fortitude.