Surface: The Embodiment of Microsoft's Vision

Surface largely was the brainchild of Steve Ballmer, the last CEO of Microsoft, and it resulted from a similar thought process that created Zune. In other words, the OEMs weren't building a product that was competitive with Apple, and Microsoft got frustrated and felt it could do a better job. In both cases, the conclusion that ultimately should have been drawn was that OEMs alone weren't at fault. However, that didn't mean Zune had to fail -- nor does it mean Surface will fail. The latest iteration actually is quite good.