And I think it makes a big difference that they're meaningfully aiming to transcend the iPad, not just imitate it.
When I think of an iPad, I think of something that's a natural progression from the iPod and iPhone, running bigger and better versions of the apps you can get from the Apple walled garden. It's a fantastic piece of hardware and a tight ecosystem.
Microsoft isn't just trying to compete by offering its own similar piece of hardware to run its own similar apps. They are looking to offer high-performance hardware (an Ivy Bridge chip in a tablet!) with great design, and they're looking to run full-fledged Windows applications.
They're not just competing with iPad, they're offering a possible desktop replacement tablet. That's a bold move.
This is much slicker and powerful enough to amount another try, but "bold"? More like stubborn.
seriously, other than PC games, I don't know a single windows app I want to run on a tablet form factor.
Fans and vents on a tablet... I just can't see that catching on for many people. The ARM model is more promising, but this competes much more closely with the iPad.
Also, the video was very funny with the pen input -- his palm interferes with the initial demo and 20 seconds later he's talking about their amazing palm rejection technology. Don't even get me started on the fact that none of the presenters seemed able to get the swipe-in-from-the-side gesture to work on the first try.