Hell hath no fury like an original equipment manufacturer scorned. The New York Times has discovered that Microsoft (MSFT) is actually somewhat worried that some of its OEM partners will flee Windows for more open-source pastures after the company announced that its own homemade Surface tablet would be the first tablet sold featuring Windows 8.“Our Surface devices will compete with products made by our OEM partners, which may affect their commitment to our platform,” the company acknowledged in its annual report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday.
While this admission isn’t exactly surprising, it is in definite contrast from the happy face Microsoft has been putting on its decision to go it alone with the first Windows 8 tablet, as Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer last month said that “the importance of the thousands of partners that we have that design and produce Windows computers will not diminish.”
