A Surface Disaster for Microsoft

By Kyle Thomas

Twitter: @Kyle_T8

In 2013 the National Football League struck a $400 million deal with Microsoft. The basis of the deal was for Microsoft to be the main sponsor for sideline technology. "The Official Sideline Technology Sponsor of the NFL," in theory this seems like a fantastic marketing idea to have several NFL players and coaches holding the Surface Pro Tablet on the sidelines while millions of people watch.

Well the marketing idea hasn't really gone accordingly yet and it probably won't. The press has been absolutely terrible so far for the Microsoft surface tablet. First off, NFL announcers have mistakenly been calling them iPads when coaches or players are holding them. Its just a bad look when the company that got paid $400 million doesn't even endorse your product correctly.

Probably the worst publicity the surface tablet has received so far occurred last Sunday, when the Broncos played the Patriots in the AFC Championship. Suddenly all the tablets for Patriots stopped working, which was a big disadvantage since the Broncos tablets were working fine. The announcers were complaining and saying that this is what happens when you count on technology.

Not only were the tablets not working while most of the United States was watching, but the icing on the cake was the head coach of the Patriots Bill Belichick said the "problems occur fairly often". Hopefully we don't have any disasters in the Super Bowl. I would hate to see the biggest game in the world decided on if a tablet works or not. If your on the tablet market maybe look elsewhere besides the Microsoft Surface Pro tablet.