The surface hasn’t even hit the stores yet, but that hasn’t stopped everyone and their mom’s dog from commenting on it.

Although Apple’s higher-ups don’t usually comment on other companies’ products, Tim Cook didn’t hold his tongue when asked about Microsoft’s new Surface tablet on the company’s earnings call.

“I haven’t played with a Surface yet, but what we are reading about it is that it is a compromised and confusing product … One of the toughest things you do is make hard tradeoffs and decide what a product should be, and we’ve done that with the iPad”

Despite not having actually used one himself, Cook went on.

“You could design a car that flies and floats, but I don’t think it would do all those things very well … I think when people look at the iPad versus competitive offerings, they will continue to want an iPad”

Granted, he doesn’t appear to be talking directly about the Surface tablet. He instead appears to be commenting on what he has heard about it from others, and he does so in a vague manner without mentioning specific details about the product.

Cook also defended the iPad mini’s $329 price point, compared to its competitors’ $199 price points.

“We try to create a product that people will love for months and years after they’ve purchased it. That’s what iPad Mini is designed to do,”

While Tim Cook professes Apple’s commitment to compromises and the quality of their user experience,  Steve Sinofsky, head of the Windows division at Microsoft, took a different approach in an ABC Interview.

“We have a different perspective, a different reason why we would want to make a tablet computer and that is really rooted in PCs being a general-purpose device that works within a broad ecosystem, that connects to a lot of peripherals, and represents an open platform,” 

Both sound like compelling arguments to me. What do you think? Is Cook speaking too soon, or is he right on the money? Let us know in the comments.

Via: ABCNews