Implicit in Kan's criticism is that companies like Acer are good at making touch tablets, while Microsoft is not.

Really?

Over the years, Acer has made some very good, very solid laptops. The company has also made pretty good desktops and tablets.

But Acer has never made a single hardware product that's groundbreaking, category leading or even exciting -- unlike Microsoft.

Acer products are solid, but bland and safe. Acer industrial design is clunky and unsophisticated and firmly stuck in the PC world of the 1990s.