Microsoft’s original equipment manufacturer partners are doing their very best renditions of Julius Caesar this week after Microsoft apparently blindsided them when it announced that it would be making its own tablet. Just one day after Microsoft unveiled its new Surface tablets, some OEMs started griping to Reuters about their surprise and frustration at being kept in the dark in the lead up to the Surface announcement.
“No senior executives heard about the news last week,” griped one anonymous Acer executive. “We’re quite surprised.” Another anonymous source, meanwhile, told Reuters that there was a “sense of betrayal” among some OEMs because Microsoft didn’t tell them that they were going to make their own tablet without OEM input.
OEM complaints aside, it’s perfectly understandable why Microsoft would want to put out its own tablet first before giving their partners a crack at it. The company has a lot riding on Windows 8 and it wants to make sure that the public’s first interaction with the new operating system meets Microsoft’s own expectations and specifications. If that results in some hurt OEM feelings, Microsoft doesn’t seem to mind.
