When Microsoft unveiled the first Surface tablet five years ago, it was a spectacular failure.
At the time, the Apple iPhone was well on its way to conquering the technology industry, and the iPad appeared set to lead an even more devastating invasion of Microsoft’s office-worker kingdom. Microsoft conceived of Surface, an innovative laptop-tablet hybrid, as a way to show off the versatility of its software. Windows machines, it argued, could work as phones, personal computers and tablets. And didn’t everyone love Windows?
Nope. Microsoft soon took a $900 million write-off for unsold Surfaces. Another effort to break into the hardware business,