Microsoft needed to introduce surface to get the rest of their partners attention to do better. Am hoping surface does such a good job that Microsoft will gain on apple. If intel can't get their act together with arm, time to move on to someone else. Heck, a very low voltage i3 would work nice in a surface tablet.

imho - the Ms-Intel alliance is falling apart because the world is passing up using full laptops/desktops for more mobile devices like phones and at best ever 20-25% tablets. Ms had a distinct early advantage over the last 4 years in portable devices, but they have wasted it. Now they are trying to catch up. The battle now is 50% android, 40% apple, and 10% everyone else (Ms, Blackberry, etc.). Ms should have bought Nokia 3 years sooner than they did.

The Surface tablet is demonstrated on a$1000usd Ultra Book. Ultra books will become obsolete like netbooks. All these portable devices (Phones, Tablets) are consumer driven, not business.

Why would you as a consumer spend $1000 for a Ultra book, when you can spend $500 on a real computer full featured laptop. Even most business customers I know will not buy these Ultra books after comparing to a full laptop. They do not care about the extra 2-4 pounds weight after weighing the cost.

Microsoft will rule the full desktop market for a few years more and even longer in the server market. But in the phone and tablet market Ms sat back and watched it pass them by. Too late now to catch up.
IMHO