Microsoft unveils new Surface products

Yahoo Finance's Dan Howley and Akiko Fujita break down the new Microsoft products unveiled at its annual conference.

Video Transcript

AKIKO FUJITA: Let's talk about one of the stocks that Jared did mention. And that is Microsoft, announcing a slew of new products at its annual Build conference. A lot of developers flocking to the Seattle area usually for this annual conference. But, this year, it was all held online, Dan Howley, tracking all of that for us.

And Dan, you know, we've talked a lot about how Microsoft has benefited from the last two months of these closures. And there were some products out here that were announced this week that certainly added to or help them build on some of the gains they've seen, right? I'm looking at things like cloud for health care, which is something that they've looked at, more sort of the collaborative work type of software as well. What stood out to you?

DAN HOWLEY: Yeah, there have been a few things that Microsoft announced this week at Build. One of them that I thought was really interesting was their new AI platform that they're launching. It's a supercomputer built in conjunction with the OpenAI group. And that's something that was founded by the likes of Elon Musk.

He's since left that. But the idea there is to develop general intelligence or general artificial intelligence. And that's AI that would be on a human level and, at some point, surpass human intelligence when it came to certain tasks.

This is far beyond what we have right now as far as machine learning or current AI. It really is something that is very future-focused, focused on safety, according to OpenAI, so it doesn't get out of hand and, you know, doom us all terminator-style. But that's really something that, I think, is important.

There was another announcement that they had about an anti-bias tool in AI. And that's something that has become a major issue for machine learning algorithms. Basically, the developers or the programmers who come up with these algorithms unknowingly enter their own bias into them. And, as a result, it ends up creating a biased outcome. This is something we've seen in things like facial recognition technology from the likes of Amazon, Microsoft, IBM. So it's been an issue at Microsoft, really trying to push away from that.

But then we also this week had our chance to get our hands on some new Microsoft products. And we actually talked to Microsoft's chief product officer, Panos Panay, earlier today about it. Let's take a look at that.

PANOS PANAY: We just launched Surface Go 2. We launched Surface Book 3. One is a great kind of a super mobile, cool device in Surface Go 2 and, Surface Book 3, a very powerful product. I think I just saw you review it. The-- we also launched Surface headphones and Surface earbuds. And these are products for the times that we're living in today, that they land pretty well in the sense that what they can be used for is you work from home play from home.

DAN HOWLEY: And so this is actually the Surface Go 2 that I have right here. It's one of the devices that Panos was discussing there. It's a new kind of tablet. It's a sequel to one they had previously.

But it is more along the lines of something that's for the audience who wants a portable device that doesn't do too much but is able to take care of just standard web browsing, things along those lines. So this is a low-cost device. It's really Microsoft's entry or attempt to enter into the education space alongside the likes of Google's Chromebook line as well as apple's own iPad. So this is something that could really help them in that space.

And then they have, obviously, that Surface Book 3. That's more long lines of something for the high-end developers. But a lot of interesting things coming out of Microsoft not directly related to its Azure business.

AKIKO FUJITA: Yeah, Dan, I mean, you talk about those products, covering the low-ends and the high-end. If you look at something like some of their higher-end products, they certainly had loyal customers for Surface. But the perception has always been that they're still lagging behind in Apple. With the new products out there, how significant of gains do you think they can make?

DAN HOWLEY: It'll be interesting to see. I think, you know, when it comes to the Surface line, there's not very much visibility outside of people who are really tech enthusiasts. It's not something that you would see the average consumer look at as opposed to something like a Dell product or HP.

And it's, frankly, a shame, considering these products are incredibly well-built and designed. They are really the reason why the likes of Dell and HP have had to force themselves to step up and become as good as they are now. And, frankly, Dell has one of the best laptops on the market with its XPS 13. I recommend that to anybody who's looking for a Windows device.

And then there's HP with its own Envy line of products that, again, is fantastic. Then you have the Lenovo lines, which are also really good PCs. So Microsoft has pushed all of those companies to become as competitive as they are as far as the design of the products they're pushing out there.

And they are as good as what you can get from Apple in terms of performance and, in some ways, better. So I think what Microsoft needs to do is get more visibility on products like this, the Surface Book 3. And, you know, if they can do that, then, perhaps, they will garner their own kind of market share. But I think they want to tread lightly to not annoy their OEM partners like the Dells, HPs, and Lenovos.

AKIKO FUJITA: Yeah, there is that all-important partnership right there, right, that they have to maintain. Thanks so much for that, Dan.