The more reporting I see on the Microsoft Surface announcement, the more confused I become about Microsoft's planning. The following article discusses the "hands on" time that journalists had with the Surface at Microsoft's event. More evidence that it was too little too soon.

Hands-Off: Microsoft Surface Tablet Review

It starts to look more and more like a small evolutionary step from the efforts Microsoft made 10 years ago, but with the benefit of having watched Apple and Google succeed and fail (respectively, to date) in the tablet space. The difference between a Microsoft tablet of 10 years ago and the Surface is that small thin form factors are possible without sacrificing too much power and they have a more measured attempt at touch based interfaces (on half of the Windows solution via Metro, no confusion there). Their mindset still has one foot firmly planted in the idea of a touch based veneer on top of a laptop form factor.

The end result ends up looking like a defensive play rather than an innovative risk and I think Microsoft should have continued with the innovative risk they started with Windows Phone.

If they can convince IT departments that a hybrid desktop/tablet solution is "good enough" to force on their users, Microsoft can continue a healthy business of producing products few people really likes but are willing to put up with. This may work in the enterprise, but I'm highly skeptical that the consumer market will go for this approach. Apple is moving toward making computing devices more like appliances - these are instant on devices with focused purpose via apps and little need for understanding or even knowing that underlying structures like file systems exist. For most uses, this is a great approach to take. Microsoft, even in addressing the new wave of touch based UI and tablet computing, is holding fast to computing paradigms started in the 80's. There is a place for that and transitions take time... Hopefully long enough to let Microsoft adjust if their current gambit doesn't play out in their favor.