14 DAY TRIAL // One of the ambitions of the “new Microsoft,” as CEO Satya Nadella calls the company, is to become a bigger player in the hardware business, and the last 18 months are living proof that the software giant is very serious about this.
The firm has since launched several new devices, including the Surface Pro 3 and 4, Surface Book, two Microsoft Bands, and a bunch of others, becoming almost overnight a rival to its own partners.
And somehow, Microsoft’s already being punished for this new strategy, as some of the companies that previously worked with them are now rethinking their options whenever they are asked to do something together with the Redmond-based software giant.
The best example comes from Lenovo, who refused to sell the Surface Pro 3 because they consider the 2-in-1 a rival for its own devices. And according to the company’s COO, Microsoft specifically asked them to sell the Pro 3 last year, but Lenovo quickly refused.
“I said no to resell their product. They asked me more than one year ago, and I said no I don't see any reason why I should sell a product from, within Brackets, competition,” Lenovo's COO Gianfranco Lanci was quoted as saying by The Register at the Canalys Channels Forum.
Dell and HP agreed, but neither was happy
While Lenovo refused a collaboration with Microsoft for the Surface Pro 3 as part of the Surface Enterprise Initiative, Dell and HP, both long-time partners of the Redmond-based software giant, actually agreed to sell the device, but neither was pleased to do it.
HP PC chief Dion Weisler revealed during the same conference that, while they agreed with Microsoft’s plan, they only sold Surface support and services “if the customer absolutely insisted upon it,” adding that it wasn’t “our first preference.”
“These are customers we have been working with for many, many years and we don't simply want to cede those relationships to a competitor, so we said, ‘OK, we'll participate in that,’” he continued.
Microsoft has clearly upset some of its partners, especially with the Surface Book, which marks the company’s debut in the laptop market and is most likely the first in a longer series of models that would launch in the coming years. So far, Microsoft still seems to be in control of the Windows and PC ecosystem and its relationship with partners continues, but it’ll be interesting to see how long this is going to last.