how is turning a tablet into a half ass notebook innovation?
do you realize that the goal of the ipad was to eliminate the use of keyboard or anything other than your hand as the input device?
steve: i want to make a computer with no stylus and no keyboard
microsoft: lets innovate the ipad by adding a stylus and a keyboard
Innovation means doing something useful and new. Microsoft beat Apple to the tablet format by many, many years. What made Apple innovative with the iPad was that they realized that there was a consumer market for a cheap, underpowered tablet device that could only perform bare-bones functions such as web browsing.
Part of Microsoft's problem was that they overestimated the average consumer whereas Apple understood that most people were willing to settle for significantly inferior hardware and software if it were easy to use and able to accomplish a few basic functions, like web browsing, that increasingly dominated PC usage.
What makes the surface and surface pro innovative is that they took something that basically is in the form and similar in size to an iPad, and gave it many new, useful features. For instance, few tablet PC's before the Surface Pro 2 had such a slim size, weight, and long battery life. Few tablets as small had an active digitizer. Few tablets had a really good keyboard attachment or kickstand.
You mention some of the real problem with Apple in your post. Apple just does not give you options. If you want just a basic tablet, Microsoft gives you the Surface. If you want something that is light enough to replace a tablet, but heavy duty enough to replace a laptop, Microsoft gives you the surface pro. If you want to use your tablet to do word processing, Microsoft gives you Office, really high quality keyboard, and a built in kickstand.
Apple does not give you those options because the all-and-mighty Steve Mobs says you don't need to be able to write a cover letter on your iPad. If you want to do that, you should spend $1000 or more on a fancy new Macbook or struggle with the onscreen keyboard. If you want a tablet that runs photoshop and allows touchscreen stylus input, well, you're not going to find it from Apple because Apple thinks you don't need it. Instead, you should spend $10,000 on a Mac Pro and a Wacom digitizer input.
The option to take away the keyboard when you don't need it. Now considering that you can also get a Bluetooth keyboard case for the iPad, I say meh.
I've been considering the upgrade to an iPad 5 for a while now. From my iPad 2. But I'm going to wait a few more months before deciding if 64 bit is worth anything. I never cared for retina...
Well, it is not just that. I have owned several Microsoft Tablet PC's and, unlike the Surface Pro, they simply are too heavy to hold comfortably in one hand for an extended period. By contrast, I have no problem holding something as heavy as a macbook air in my hand for extended periods and the Surface Pro 2 is lighter than a Macbook Air once you remove the keyboard cover.
The keyboard cases for the iPad add a lot of heft and bulk, and they still do not add the ability to use an accurate stylus or run an application like Office, Photoshop, Mathematica, or Matlab.
