Well, the gloves are well and truly off. People might not have been overwhelmed by Apple's recent reveal of the iPad mini, but that hasn't stopped Tim Cook from taking a well timed swing in the direction of Microsoft's Surface tablet.
Speaking during a conference call with a group of analysts after the announcement of Apple's new tablet range, the Cupertino company's CEO didn't hold back his criticisms of the big M's first foray into the burgeoning tablet market.
“I suppose you could design a car that flies and floats, but I don’t think it would do all of those things very well. And so I think people, when they look at the iPad versus competitive offerings are going to conclude they really want an iPad.”
While Cook admitted he hadn't had a chance to play with a Surface tablet yet, he claimed the news coverage he'd read about the new device had left him thinking it was a “very compromised and confusing product".
While we're not enamoured with the iPad mini either, we can see where Cook's coming from. Microsoft haven't been able to wrangle a unique space for their new tablet and OS, and so it appears to be a bit of a slap dash effort that's a jack of all trades and a master of none.
Hopefully we'll have a Surface review up soon, but with Apple going after Google's Nexus tablet at their press conference, publicly attacking another competitor, and suing anyone who looks at it cock-eyed, it's fair to say the tablet battleground is getting bloody.
