Scott Stein/CNET

During Lenovo's first fiscal quarter 2013 earnings call, executives didn't mince words in attacking Microsoft's Surface strategy.

"Although we don't like Microsoft providing hardware, for us, it just adds one more competitor," Lenovo CEO Yang Yuanqing said during the conference call in response to analyst's question.

"[They're] just one of our many competitors. We are still confident that we are providing much better hardware than our competitors including Microsoft," he said.

Yuanqing continued. "They are strong in software, but [we] don't believe they can provide the best hardware in the world. Lenovo can."

He tried to temper the criticism by offering the obligatory comments about the partnership with Microsoft.

"To be frank, we're not that worried about [Surface]. Microsoft is still our strategy partner. We are very optimistic on the Windows 8 launch so we will fully leverage that to launch our new products," he said.

The Microsoft Surface tablet marks the first time Microsoft has launched a branded PC product.