Why Microsoft's Surface Pro 3 is the most important "laptop" for laptops right now

Yes, I’m typing this on a Surface Pro 3 (SP3), but this is NOT a review. This is not a propaganda piece, either. This is about recognizing the roles a certain product and company play in the tech space. Now that expectations have been set…

Are you familiar with the terms “category manager” or “category management”? In the marketing world, they’re often used in the context of consumer packaged goods to describe the role that product group (think: a segment of similar products e.g. toothpaste or cereal or cold beverages) leaders play for their retailers. Bear with me, here’s a quick, arbitrary yet explanatory example: Walmart buys Philadelphia cream cheese from Kraft. Let’s say Philadelphia is the cream cheese innovator and best seller in the cream cheese category. Walmart asks Kraft and its Philadelphia brand managers to be “category managers” for cream cheese store-wide. Kraft’s brand managers are now responsible for boosting not only the sales of the Philly brand at Walmart, but also the sales of all other cream cheese brands on Walmart shelves. What’s good for the goose must be good for the gander, am I right? I contend that, whether requested to do so by the ailing PC/laptop market or not, Microsoft is playing the role of category manager right now.

And, its playing the category manager quite effectively. Although, it is not the best-selling or most popular laptop out there, it could be argued that the SP3 is the most innovative. The SP3 was released under the boisterous claim that it could replace your tablet and your laptop. Oh, who am I kidding? It claimed that it could replace your iPad and your MacBook Air! Those two Apple products are the most popular, best selling items in their categories. What a wild and machismo claim to make! Several internetbloggers and journalists have weighed in onwhether this comparison is based in logic or fact. Some were on the fence, some laughed and some kind of respected Microsoft’s gumption. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter if the SP3 replaces your iPad and MacBook Air. It doesn’t matter if the SP3 ranks higher on Consumer Reports or Engadget. What does matter? The SP3 has started a dialogue among consumers about what computing could be. Here are the type of questions I’ve seen consumers and bloggers pose recently (along with some of my own answers):

• Why can’t our computers be slim AND powerful? The SP3 easily out-specs the MacBook Air and Sony Vaio Tap 11. And…
• Why can’t our tablet hybrids be light AND still be made from high quality materials? The Sony Vaio Tap 11 is light, but frighteningly flimsy. The ASUS Transformer Book line is clothed in polycarbonate and still heavy. And…
• Why can’t we get a screen that’s sharp and bright? In every square inch of SP3 screen, there are 216 pixels. Macbook Air boasts 135 pixels per inch. That can’t be found on the Apple website. Yes, the Macbook Pro has a higher pixel count, but it’s not a direct competitor to the SP3. And…
• Why can’t we have a touchscreen, too? You know, if we wanted it? Apple is the last major brand without a touchscreen laptop. And…
• Why can’t we have a real computer in tablet form? Lenovo has two options: one is 4 pounds with its keyboard and the other uses an Atom processor. Office for iPad doesn’t make the iPad right for the office.

There are trade-offs to every machine. Sure, there are enough areas where the SP3 falls to its competitors to prevent it from flying off of every shelf everywhere, but Microsoft has started a conversation and a comparison war that will surely boost laptop/ultrabook/PC innovation in the years to come. Let’s face it, Microsoft has earned its role as a category manager once again.

*image from mashable.com