They're trying to "lead the herd" in creating a feasible merge of the "desktop" paradigm and the "mobile" paradigm, keeping Windows in the center. This is extremely important to Microsoft, since they have no foothold in the mobile market, and that's where the entire consumer market is headed. We can expect the merge of the desktop paradigm and mobile paradigm (i.e. keeping both battery-life, light weight and performance) to happen at some point in the future anyway, but meanwhile, Android and iOS/OS X are growing at a rapid pace, all at the cost of Windows marketshare. If mainstream users move to these OSs, the merge will happen with Android and iOS as center, and Microsoft will have a real rocky road ahead.
Trust me, Microsoft is willing to throw tons of money at this problem.
It's not even available yet...