Microsoft's New "Surface" Tablet

Not that I care about consumer tech, but thought this analysis of the change in Microsoft strategy was interesting. Key points:

• The only hard decision they made was the big one: to turn against their OEM hardware partners.
• After 37 years, Microsoft agrees with Alan Kay: "People who are really serious about software should make their own hardware."
• it directly pits Microsoft not against Apple but against Dell, HP, Toshiba [...] the radical shift in Microsoft’s strategy is about the fight over the profits that remain after Apple’s. The math no longer works out for the Windows you-sell-the-hardware-we-sell-the-software model. It works for unit share (cf. Android), but it doesn’t for profit share.
• Microsoft Surface is not fundamentally about Microsoft needing to control the entire integrated product in order to compete with the iPad on design. It’s about Microsoft needing to sell the whole thing to sustain its current profitability.

No position.