Last night, during the Grammys, Microsoft ran a very music-friendly ad for the Microsoft Surface Pro, which played up the stylus, touch interface, and peripheral connectivity.
The commercial was directed by the same person who directed the Microsoft Surface RT ad, which had a similar Stomp-like beat behind it. Called "The Vibe" it's an interesting mix of the very-Microsoft "office" atmosphere, with a cooler, younger, fresher energy - think preparing spreadsheets and power point presentations in business attire, but to a dub step beat.
At no point did I see anyone playing Angry Birds on their device, and the only non-business app I saw during the whole ad was a beat-boxing executive assistant creating the aforementioned dub step through an audio app on the Surface Pro. The takeaway from this commercial seems to be that Microsoft Surface Pro is a tablet for doing business, although doing business in a fun and extremely kinetic way.
This is coming out while Microsoft is having trouble keeping the shelves stocked, after most places sold out this weekend. The 128GB Surface Pro sold out online very quickly, while brick-and-mortar stores like Best Buy also saw huge sales, according to CNET.
"We're working with our retail partners who are currently out of the 128GB Surface Pro to replenish supplies as quickly as possible," wrote Panos Panay, the Surface launch-team head at Microsoft.
The Surface Pro is selling well after a lot of initial skepticism about its storage capacity surfaced online, with the 64GB version of the device losing more than a third of its available hard drive to the gargantuan Windows 8 operating system. The Surface Pro 64GB is $899 and the 128GB version is $999.