Microsoft Corp. introduced its first-ever laptop, wading deeper into hardware to spur adoption of its Windows 10 operating system and crank up the competition with Apple Inc. and Google Inc.
The Surface Book laptop has a detachable screen, allowing it to be used like a tablet, and a battery that can last up to 12 hours, Microsoft said in a statement Tuesday. It is two times faster than Apple’s Macbook Pro, Panos Panay, who runs engineering for Microsoft, said at an event in New York. Prices start at $1,500 for the 13-inch laptop, which will go on sale this month. Panay also introduced three Lumia phones and a Surface Pro 4 tablet.
The success of Windows 10 is central to Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella’s strategy of building an ecosystem of gadgets and cloud-based software and services that work together -- much the way Apple’s and Google’s do now. In releasing the new phones, tablet and laptop, the company is seeking to attract consumers and developers to the operating system, which works across a variety of devices from phones to game consoles. More than 110 million devices run the operating system, about two months after its release, the company said. Microsoft’s goal is to reach 1 billion in 2018.
Microsoft’s underlying goal is use Windows 10 “to help drive further consumer demand and ideally start to change the perception of Microsoft as a ‘rounding error’ in the smartphone and tablet landscape,” Dan Ives, an analyst at FBR Capital Markets, said in a note. “It all comes down to consumer adoption.”
The Surface Book, which is geared at a wide range of users including game players, scientists, programmers and architects, is Microsoft’s attempt to compete with Apple in the high-margin, high-price personal-computer segment, Mike Silver, an analyst at Gartner, said in an interview. The laptop’s distinctive look, with the detachable screen and a flexible hinge, sets it apart from other devices that attempt to compete with Apple’s MacBooks, he said.
“I don’t think you’re going to mistake the Surface Book for any device on the market,” he said. “It’s really about taking a page from Apple and being able to provide the full experience, and I think that’s why they’re still doing phones.”
Microsoft shares closed little changed at $46.75 in New York, leaving the stock up less than 1 percent this year.
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