Microsoft Introduces New "Surface" Tablet

I think that should be obvious. It's a computer.

two models with different processor architectures and significantly varying weights

God forbid they release models for the two processors they support. You'd never see Apple making different models with different processor architectures and different weights.

awkward portrait 16:9 aspect ratio

Sort of like every laptop on the market right now. They're all really awkward.

no mention of... vents and cooling fans

Perimeter venting. See [1] and search for "venting". They did mention this.

This strikes me as a reactionary announcement

Reactionary announcements tend not to be well-planned or thought out months or years ahead of time. A product with this tight of tolerances can't be rushed in a defensive move. Is it a reaction to the changing world of computing? Yes. It is a reactionary move as in immediately defensive? No.

The surface is trying to be all things to all people.

That's been Microsoft's mantra since day one. A computer in every home, on every desk. Running Windows.

[1] http://www.trustedreviews.com/microsoft-surface-tablet-for-w...

Similar to how Apple (and Microsoft, and Google) would drop machines in schools to indoctrinate the next generation, Microsoft is going after users where they use computers the most: in the office.

Those that do not get "Surface" per se, will at least be familiar with it in a few years, after they have been exposed to other Windows 8 profiles at work (or on new home computers).

As recently as last year Microsoft was singing the praises of being able to kinda-sorta-use desktop software on a tablet and pushing the notion that things without desktop operating systems were 'consumption' devices, at best.

So, yes, their sudden reversal on what people want in a tablet is worth noting and easily justifies the same kind of quips and barbs that people lob at Apple over Jobs' similar reversals [1].

And it's pretty easy to be ahead of the curve on blending mobile and desktop operating systems when Microsoft is the only party who sees a problem to be solved in the first place. [2]

Because this entire concept -- that people want both -- comes apart at the seams about a month after you've owned an Apple or Android tablet. [3]

Simply: there's no user-facing problem being solved here.

People use tablets for what they're great at and desktop PCs for what they're great at. And no-one who's ever put their tablet down to use their laptop is looking at that Microsoft Surface tablet and saying "this will mean I don't have to put the tablet down for these tasks anymore". [4]

Microsoft is attempting to solve it's own problem with this blending concept and the degree to which this tablet succeeds, is going to strongly track the degree to which Windows stays out of the Metro experience [5].

[1] "No-one wants a widget." (Smash cut to 18 months later) "Introducing Apple's new iWidget!"

[2] That Windows is irrelevant in a growing computing market.

[3] And I say that as someone who has been pro-tablet for a decade and only grudgingly gave Apple's "big iPod" approach a chance.

[4] At best, the typing-heavy market is saying "I wonder how long it will take someone to make an iPad keyboard case that slick."

[5] Metro is a unique, interesting and a refreshing change from Apple's icon grid. And I've heard far more praise for it from the design folks that get written off as Apple fanboys, than I have from the Windows crowd who generally echoed Microsoft's 'consumption' FUD.

What do MOST consumers need full Windows for these days?

Office? Most consumers could get by on iWork.

I guess if they want to use their favorite virus scanner or anti-malware program they would now be able to do that.

Windows dominates the market for consumer PCs because it's cheap and because of games. These same games will not work well on tablets. iOS already has enough games, Windows is at a severe disadvantage in terms of touch friendly games.