When Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) launched its surface tablet, it implicitly created a direct competition with its partner companies. The company denied this fact then, but now, it appears that Microsoft is finally coming to grips with the reality of the truth after its SEC filing. The company bluntly, expressed in its SEC filings that, its recent venture into the tablets business might have affected the relationship with its OEM partners, notes AllthingsD.
In another report, CNET News, notes that Microsoft’s venture into the tabs business was merely an intention to compete with the likes of Apple and Samsung, rather than develop a direct competition with its customers. Consequently, this also creates competition with its partners, which now is dampening the relationship between them.
Additionally, the report notes that Microsoft has been pressurizing its partners to produce tablet devices in order to capitalize on windows 8 operating system (OS); and Many manufacturers are already very optimistic on the upcoming OS. The partners believe that the new OS will boost their manufacture of mobile devices, at a time when demand for personal computers has taken a tumble.
During the debut of Surface tablets, Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) CEO, Steve Ballmer, told attendees that there was nothing to worry about, in regard to direct competition with partners, when he said, “Surface is just a design point. It will have a distinct place in what’s a broad Windows ecosystem. And the importance of the thousands of partners that we have that design and produce Windows computers will not diminish.”
However, the latest remarks from an annual report, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission yesterday, are a direct contradiction to the initial statement; Microsoft said, “our Surface devices will compete with products made by our OEM partners, which may affect their commitment to our platform.”
Microsoft partners involved in the manufacture of tablet devices will see this an absolute betrayal, because, they will not only be competing with Apple and Android makers, but also, their supplier, Microsoft. Apparently, the world is becoming more mobile every day, and in the near future, a majority of users will have turned to the mobile devices at the expense of the PCs, something which could spark difficult times for the Windows maker’s partners.
Microsoft also said, “Users may increasingly turn to these [mobile] devices to perform functions that would have been performed by personal computers in the past,” in reference to the future of PCs. Additionally, the company said, “even if many users view these devices as complementary to a personal computer, the prevalence of these devices may make it more difficult to attract applications developers to our platforms,” reported CNET.
