Apples and oranges

That's fine and dandy, but the license restrictions on the 'Home and Student' versions supplied with the Surface RTs mean you, legally, can't write/create anything for profit. And the Surface Pro doesn't come with Office, it comes with a 30day free trial of Office 365

>Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote (“Office apps”) are Windows apps included with Windows RT. Office apps are governed by some additional terms and are part of Microsoft Office Home and Student 2013 RT or Microsoft Office 2013 RT. Office apps are licensed to you for your personal, non-commercial use, and you may not use them for any non-profit, commercial, or other revenue generating activity.

   Since we launched the Surface line of tablets last year, one of the themes we’ve consistently used to talk about them is that they are a terrific blend of productivity and entertainment in one lightweight, affordable package. In fact, we’re confident that they offer the best combination of those capabilities available on the market today.

At least someone is because last I checked, in the whole scheme of tablet sales, you basically sold zero Surfaces.

>The good news is that Microsoft understands how people work better than anyone else on the planet.

Yes, that's why you gave us the shitshow that is the ribbon interface, poorly scaled on a touchscreen

> 2. Faster and more precise input methods like keyboard/trackpad.

Only if you but the $120+ covers...which you could do with an iPad too.

My favourite part, "… come with full versions of Office 2013, including Outlook, not a non-standard, non-cross-patform, imitation apps that can't share docs with the rest of the world" He shouldn't have included "including Outlook". Outlook is the worst email program to conform to standards. ;)

I love that Microsoft built an interesting device that nobody bought, and is defending it like it's a bestseller.

Surface -- For whenever you want a tablet so you can type word documents

I just sold my IPad on Ebay, it was performing very badly after the IOS upgrade. I am seriously thinking of getting Surface 2. Bottom line, all apps I use are on surface + the office suite. Hopefully Flipboard will be in soon. I know there are too many Apple/Android fans out there actively trolling all over the internet - I think MS deserves a fair chance.

If Microsoft had gotten Office on the iPad[1] then it wouldn't matter what Apple does with iWorks. Now, Apple is very close to good enough that Office might never be able to get a foothold.

1) and gotten experience they could bring to their own offerings, oh, like the did with Excel back in the day - that seemed to work out fine

I wonder if this gentlemen believes in his heart that Microsoft has built and released a better tablet for people than Apple.

Reminds me of the way Ballmer dissed the iPhone.

EDIT: And to be fair, the way Jobs dissed netbooks.

I like how he makes reference to the "Reality Distortion Field" and then goes on to immediately state a half truth; that the Surface comes with Office. It comes with hobbled versions.

The fact that Microsoft felt the need to respond to the announcement in this way tells you that they are concerned about it.