Apple's roadmap not golden for Microsoft

As I plowed through my Monday morning readings today I noticed a couple of articles about how Apple's Ipads destroyed every other tablet, including Microsoft's surface, during the huge US sales weekend that was. I'm not entirely surprised that there were images floating around of empty Microsoft stores, while people no doubt lined up to save 5% on the latest iPad or iPhone, because they haven't really given the general consumer something to get excited about.

Microsoft has always been associated as a business-y brand, so their addition of a touch pad keyboard to their good looking tablet will probably skew more towards corporate partners and small-business owners rather than the app loving market that eats up anything Apple craps out.

But where I think Microsoft has really failed is in giving people something new and different to experience which is really how Apple has built themselves to their current dominance. They have an opening because Apple is clearly running out of ways to wow people and have reached the point where they are not innovating as much. Whoever comes up with the next big thing - think iPod 7-10 years ago - will turn into the next Apple, and I think that could have been Microsoft. They have the money and the brain-power to get there, but they lack the creativity to push them over the edge. Instead of taking a leap and trying something extraordinary they just bought a copy of the map that Apple created for being a funky tech company and followed it.

Touchscreen phone? Check. Cool tablet? Check. Stores? Check.

Everything exactly as Apple did. Their marketing has always been pretty suspect, so though it's not all that surprising to see their distribution/penetration model be less-than-inspiring, it is disappointing. I still hold out hope for them as I am definitely not an Apple-lover like the majority of people, but what they really need to beat Apple is innovation. Innovative ideas for products AND full-scale-marketing.

If they really want to beat Apple they have to be the first one to launch the product that replaces peoples phones, tablets and laptops all in one.