Metro Manila (CNN Philippines) — In what was supposed to be its “special event” to launch its hottest gadgets, Apple shared the stage with its tech rival, Microsoft, on Wednesday (Thursday, September 10 PHT).
The competition between Apple and Microsoft have long been cutthroat. Apple filed a lawsuit against Microsoft in 1988 for copyright infringement, but it was dismissed in 1993. The two tech giants are largely responsible for the computers and devices we use today.
But all the rivalry was forgotten when Phil Schiller, senior vice president for marketing, introduced Microsoft to take the Apple stage.
“Who to know better about productivity than Microsoft.”
When the crowd didn’t respond to Schiller’s excitement — most likely because they were too shocked to hear that a Microsoft executive will actually speak at an Apple event — he coaxed the crowd, “Yeah, these guys know productivity!”
Then in came Microsoft Office Corporate VP Kirk Koenigsbauer.
The two prominent personalities of their respective brands shook hands before Koenigsbauer took the stage.
Koenigsbauer demonstrated how to richly maximize Microsoft Office by using the newly-launched iPad Pro and Apple Pencil.
Related: Tim Cook unveils new iPhone 6S, Apple TV, iPad Pro
“We are supporting Microsoft Office on Apple platforms. We are reinventing productivity to help people do their best work anywhere,” Koenigsbauer said.
‘Hell has frozen over’
The Apple-Microsoft team up got netizens talking — so much talk that even Microsoft trended on Twitter that day, just for taking part in Apple’s event.
Fortune’s Adam Lashinsky tweeted what most netizens thought about the team up: “Hell has frozen over. This is fun.”
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Watching MSFT onstage, meaning MSFT got advance look at Pencil, I think I chose wrong metaphor: Hell has frozen over. This is fun.
— Adam Lashinsky (@adamlashinsky) September 9, 2015
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Many netizens also noted the glaring similarity of the iPad Pro to Microsoft’s Surface Pro 3 that was launched in 2014.
This Apple-branded Microsoft Surface is pretty impressive.
— Jamelle Bouie (@jbouie) September 9, 2015
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Apple did a pretty awesome job of inventing the Microsoft Surface
— bobby daniels (@BobbyJDaniels) September 10, 2015
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So buy making the iPad bigger, adding a stylus and keyboard, Apple
just announced the Microsoft @surface?—
Andrew Smyk (@andrewsmyk) September
10, 2015
The iPad Pro has a screen size of 12.9 inches while the Surface Pro 3 is 12 inches. Both could be a welcome replacement to laptops with its smart keyboards as its necessary accessory.
Apple CEO Tim Cook reportedly took a potshot at Microsoft’s Surface tablets in 2013.
“Our competition is confused. They’re turning tablets into PCs and PCs into tablets.”
