iPad Air 2 Still Can’t Beat Surface Pro 3

Apple’s latest and greatest tablet has only just hit the shelves at retails stores nationwide, and although sales of the device have been outstanding — as has come to be the expectation of new Apple products — tech analysts say the iPad has only one competitor across the gamut of devices on the market today.

And the iPad is losing.

Despite being host to a throng of new features and sporting a lighter, thinner build, Apple’s newest technological must-have can’t seem to escape the shadow left by the Surface Pro 3, of all things. It’s not surprising considering the Surface Pro 3 is more laptop than tablet, and therefore has the beefier specs to back it up. But benchmark tests posted by Laptop Mag show the iPad Air 2 has some ground to gain before it can be called “a Surface Pro 3 killer.”

This isn’t to say that it’s not a threat to Apple’s tablet market share. Sales figures of Microsoft’s Surface Pro 3 indicate there is a strong market of consumers looking for a fuller-functioning hybrid, and it’s been kicking iPads out of businesses since the original Surface Pro. The NFL is even using them on the gridiron to analyze plays and coordinate with coaches.

It’s not exactly an even match, however. The iPad Air 2 carries a price tag starting at $499 whereas the Surface Pro 3 comes in starting at $799, which doesn’t include the nifty Type Cover accessory that’ll add another $130 to the bill. Additionally, the two devices are in two different classes. As mentioned earlier, the Surface Pro 3 is a laptop disguised as a tablet, and the iPad is purely a tablet that isn’t designed to replace anything other than another tablet. Apple is hard at work on an iPad Pro that should fare better against the Surface Pro 3, but that shouldn’t be hitting shelves until sometime in 2015, armed with an upgraded version of the iPhone 6’s A8 processor.

If the iPad Pro benchmarks higher than the Surface Pro 3, it should be noted that it did so against a device launched over a year prior. By that time, however, Microsoft may have released or will be releasing a Surface Pro 4 to tip the scales back into its favor.

What does this mean for Apple?

In short, it means that Apple is now playing catch-up in a field it had essentially built. After the flubs they’ve recently made, like the iPhone 6 launch in which almost every aspect of the phone was pulled from Samsung, and the disastrous idea to force the new U2 album onto every single iCloud user’s music storage whether they wanted it or not, they’ve essentially become the monolithic, unfeeling corporation they were rebelling against in their famous TV spot. They seem to be upgrading rather than innovating, something they used to be able to say about their competition. Their ability to remain ahead of the technology curve has fallen completely flat, and now they’ve got a lot of work to do to gain ground to beat the Surface Pro line.

By the way, that corporation they were rebelling against? It was Microsoft.

What are your thoughts? Leave them in the comments below.

[Image via Microsoft]