Microsoft’s biggest partners aren’t happy about the Surface Book

Microsoft may be looking at thawing the ice given the cold reception PC partners showed the Surface Book. Even though consumers appear excited about Microsoft’s first foray into the laptop space, OEM partners were less than pleased that Microsoft had encroached in the notebook space with an expansion of the Surface business. “We’re not happy about that,” said Dell President of Enterprise Solutions Marius Haas in response to Surface Book. And despite Dell being a reseller of the Surface Pro 3, Haas said that his company has no plans on reselling the Surface Book in an interview with The Register. Rival HP agreed, saying “that was a good answer,” but conceded that the Surface Book may be a good product for the industry “as far as creating demand for $2,500 (£1,615, AU$3,3437) devices.” Industry analysts forecast that the premium space will be dominated by Apple and Microsoft, leaving OEM partners to fight over the mainstream market with devices priced between $500 to $1,000 (£323-646, AU$687-1,374).