Is China Excited for Microsoft’s Surface Tablets?

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’re probably aware that Microsoft recently announced two tablets it’s calling Surface. A cheaper model will run Windows RT [1], a “pro” version will run Windows 8, and both feature a very cool screen cover/keyboard hybrid, a built-in stand, etc. It’s got a slick design and some impressive features, but can it win the day in Apple-crazy China?

Right now — unsurprisingly — it’s not clear. Browsing through the reactions on Sina Weibo, it’s easy enough to find positive and negative comments about the Surface tablets. Many Chinese commenters are suggesting that price will be the deciding factor in whether or not they consider a Surface, but interestingly, I haven’t come across a lot of comments demanding the Surface be particularly cheap; most people just want the price to be “not too insane,” as one user put it.

The device clearly hasn’t made nearly as big a social media splash as the iPad does these days when new information is announced, but then again, it also hasn’t launched yet. Part of the reason for this is almost certainly also the lack of a price, since without one many people don’t know yet whether the Surface is worth paying attention to or getting excited about.

If the price is right, though, the Surface would have some advantages over the iPad in China. Chief among them is that most Chinese desktop apps are Windows only, or close enough. The popular QQ messaging system, for example, does have a Mac version, but it lacks many of the robust features in the PC version. Microsoft’s “pro” surface would run that, and any other Windows applications Chinese users care to throw at it. A more robust QQ may not be enough to convince Chinese users to abandon their iPads, but a tablet that can also run World of Warcraft or CS? That should sync easily with the software most people use at work? That is going to turn some heads.

Of course, the devil is in the details, and how well the Surface really goes over in China will depend in part on the price, in part on whether the things really work as promised, and in part on how Microsoft approaches branding and marketing them (which will be a stiff challenge in the face of Apple’s tablet domination). As nice as the iPad is — or so I’m told, anyway, I don’t own one — it definitely wouldn’t be a bad thing for Apple to have real some competition here.