4 Lessons Microsoft Can Learn From the Apple Mac Studio

Apple's new Mac Studio delivers what Microsoft Surface Studio fans have been requesting for years

- By Mark Hachman

Apple's new Mac Studio (fave.co/3JtvwBb) not only includes what could be the most powerful processor in the PC landscape, but also exposes and solves) many of the weaknesses of its direct rival, Microsoft's Surface Studio. If Microsoft takes these lessons to heart, however, imagine what a Surface Studio 3 could look like.

Microsoft's gorgeous all-in-one hasn't been refreshed in years, but its iconic swiveling 28-inch PixelSense touch display captured both hearts and minds when the $4,100 Surface Studio first debuted in 2017 (fave.co/3pgYlti). Now Apple's Mac Studio, a $3,999 small-form-factor Mac, has stepped in to fill the void, with the $1,599 Apple Studio Display (fave.co/3iqLFew) sitting alongside.

Microsoft's hardware division has held its head high throughout the last decade or so, shipping everything from tablets to laptops to unique combinations of the two (fave.co/3LQurF9). Apple, meanwhile, has garnered a reputation for quietly watching trends take hold, adopting them, and trumpeting the outcome as something new. That criticism doesn't really hold true here. In fact, Apple has set some new standards that Microsoft might learn from.

1. SHIPPING IT

Simply put, it's been three and a half years since Microsoft announced the Surface Studio 2 in October 2018 (fave.co/3uhMYSC), about 18 months after the Surface Studio shipped in April 2017. Yes, the pandemic has played a role, as have Microsoft's other priorities. But with a seventh-gen Intel Core chip inside the Surface Studio 2 as well as an aging Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070, it's hard to argue that the Surface Studio 2 is the preferred tool for creators within the Windows ecosystem.