12/12/2012
After seeing the new Microsoft offerings, Steve Wozniak recently lamented that Microsoft is now out innovating Apple. Wozniak is the surviving founder of Apple, and his perspective clearly is important, but he was the guy who got the product to work. It was the other Steve who was largely responsible for creating the entity that was Apple, and it was the other Steve that made it a huge success.
Steve Jobs was more of a packaging and marketing guy; once he got something that worked, he didn't mess with it much -- he simply refined it and convinced us we loved the refinements. The products weren't truly magical, any more than a magic show is magical, but he convinced us they were something special -- and they were good enough that we saw them through his eyes.
Apple wasn't the first with smartphones, tablets or even MP3 players. It was just the first to package a set of compelling technologies, wrap them up with marketing, and get us to line up to buy them.
Windows 8 is innovative, but it is only part of something that makes up a whole; without the rest, it's not magical. Surface comes close, but I think what's missing is a magician. Let me explain.
I'll close with the Dell XPS 12 tablet -- the first Windows 8 tablet I've received to review, and one with the most innovative screens of the bunch
