Microsoft’s must- see tech event takes bite out of Apple

A funny thing happened when Microsoft and Apple held dueling product events last week. Microsoft hosted the grabber. The contrast between the two events was stark.

In Cupertino, Calif., the iPhone maker was making a small tweak to the way we work today with the unveiling of a slim interactive function bar to its MacBooks. In New York, the onetime software giant was unveiling tools for the way we will work that included a massive interactive drafting table and 3- D design software.

Evidence is mounting that the software giant, a foil to Apple for decades, is now the more compelling, innovative company with forays into virtual reality and artificial intelligence. Apple, by contrast, seemsmore of the cautious, incremental company, building on its mountainous cash pile ($ 237.6 billion) with refinements to existing products.

Apple CEO Tim Cook has talked in interviews about the importance of mixed reality; Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella wears the company’s vaunted HoloLens headset around his house.

The notion seemed unlikely the past decade, as Apple pumped out iPhones, iPads, MacBooks

and Apple Watch while Microsoft sifted through the debris of a crushing $ 7.2 billion merger with Nokia and bounced former CEO Steve Ballmer, now owner of theNBA’s Los Angeles Clippers.

The announcements included an ingenious new Surface desktop with elaborate hinges that transformed the monitor at the push of a finger into a futuristic drafting table. On the software side, Nadella was passionate about how the company would be enabling the creation of 3- D content for a new generation.

In contrast, Apple’s event took place on its modest Cupertino campus in a small auditorium.

Cook did not have the opportunity to showcase a new category of product, but instead introduced a new laptop that features a small screen where the function keys used to be.