Microsoft's Surface tablets: A trip down memory lane, via Apple

FORTUNE -- I don't spend a lot of time writing about Microsoft (MSFT) these days, but the company's re-entry into the tablet market last summer felt like news I should be covering.

After all, Apple (AAPL) had succeeded where Microsoft had, for so many years, failed. And now Redmond was back, gunning for the iPad.

So I watched Microsoft introduce the Surface RT and the Surface Pro last June, curious to see what they might mean for Apple, and I wrote a series of blog posts tracking the progress of the new devices.

Now that we have solid evidence -- in the $900 million write-down Microsoft announced Thursday?to account for unsold Surface RTs -- that the company's latest forays into the tablet market have been less than a stellar success, this may be a good time (and the perhaps the only time) to look back at my Surface stories.

In chronological order:

• Video: Microsoft unveils its answer to Apple's iPad. "?It's easy to forget that Bill Gates announced the specs for Microsoft's first tablet computer in 2001, nearly a decade before Apple came out with the iPad."?June 19, 2012
• Microsoft's new tablet: The unseemly chortling of the Apple partisans. "The Surface is greeted with guffaws and catcalls from a camp that ought to know better."?June 19, 2o12
• Gartner sees Microsoft stealing market share from Apple. "By 2016, it predicted in April, Windows 8 will be No. 3 in tablets and No. 2 in smartphones."?June 20, 2012
• Why Microsoft is building its own tablet computers. "There is no longer enough profit, writes John Gruber, in selling software alone."?June 21, 2012
• Apple lovers kick Microsoft's Surface while it's down: "One minute and 18 seconds of awkwardness draws millions of viewers on YouTube." June 22, 2012
• Poll: Which comes first, Microsoft's Surface or Apple's television set? "One is vaporware. The other a rumor." June 25, 2012.
• Macalope v. Winotaur on the Microsoft Surface: "WINOTAUR: You're just upset because now?we're?the most exciting company in tech. MACALOPE:?Uh-huh." June 26, 2012
• 11 Apple iPads per hour vs. zero Microsoft Surface tablets: "A survey compared sales at an Apple Store and a Microsoft Store in the Mall of America." Nov. 26, 2012
• Interest in the Surface fell 53% after its price was announced: "Meanwhile, 44% of tablet shoppers plan to buy an iPad versus 24% for Kindle Fire." Dec. 13, 2012
• Microsoft's Surface Pro: The reviews are in: "The verdicts range from 'magnificent, a classic' to 'hefty and costly and power-hungry.'" Feb. 8, 2013

Source: http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2013/07/20/apple-microsoft-surface-tablet/

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