Why Content Marketers Should Care About Microsoft’s Surface Tablet

Players in the marketing, digital, content, and technology industries woke up this morning to read about the announcement that Microsoft released its new Surface Tablet, which may or may not be competing with Apple’s iPad.

The announcement marks another pivotal point in content marketing. Tablets are proving to be the future device of content publishing, but how they will be used by consumers is a matter of differing opinions.

Sam Grobart of the New York Times says Microsoft and Apple have contrasting viewpoints on how consumers will use their devices. Apple has an “adherence to a certain purity of thought — the right device for the right purpose,” he writes. Microsoft wants to be “forward-thinking to presume an age where these two devices truly merge.” Grobart says Apple’s iPad is “not a productivity device” and mainly serves to entertain.

Microsoft, on the other hand, hopes that Surface will encourage productivity and create a PC-like experience. The new Surface runs Windows — either a lightweight, tablet-friendly Windows RT version or Windows 8. It has a keyboard. The Pro version has a stylus.

So, why should content marketers care? It’s inevitable that consumers will both digest content and do work on tablets. Whether an audience uses a tablet just for browsing or for strategic research is a consumer behavior that content marketers need to tap into in order to provide relevant content.