Surface touches the right keys, but not a complete picture

It's not an Xbox. It's not a Kindle Fire-quencher. But while Microsoft's Surface reveals some unknowns about Windows 8 tablets, it has yet to address other important questions.

Hands-on with Microsoft's Surface tablet (pictures)

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LOS ANGELES--Microsoft debuted the Surface line of tablets here today, part of Windows 8's attempts to be all things to all people. The tablets are Microsoft's most aggressive entry to the tablet market to date, but the company has yet to do more than whet our interest.

Two Surface-branded tablets were announced today. One will be running Windows RT, the other Windows 8 Pro. There are somesharp differences between the two versions of Windows 8, but it's telling that the company doesn't even have names locked down for them yet.

Names are both superficial and belie what a device is capable of; the also reveal a company's one-word summation of hope and strategy for a device. What kind of company reveals a product line as aggressively as Surface without product-specific names? It feels amateurish for 2012. But there's more missing than just a name.

We have some hard facts. The Windows RT Surface will weigh 676 grams, be 9.3mm thick, have a 10.6" ClearType HD display, and be available in 32 GB and 64 GB models. It will have a microSD card reader built-in, along with a USB 2.0 port, micro HD video port, and 2x2 MMO antennae.

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The Windows 8 Pro will have the same screen but weigh in at 903g, be 13.5mm thick, and initially offer 64 GB and 128 GB hard drives. The card reader will be a microSDXC, the port will be USB 3.0, video will be Mini DisplayPort video, and it'll have the same 2x2 MMO antennae.

Both will work with today's announced keyboard covers, the Touch Cover, a super-thin, flexible keyboard; and Type Cover, a slightly thicker, more laptop-style keyboard. The Windows RT version will come with Office 15 apps, as expected, and the Windows 8 Pro Surface will come with a digital ink stylus.

One important unknown is price. If Microsoft wants the ARM-powered Windows RT Surface to be competitive, it will have to be in the $500 range for an entry level device. The Windows 8 Pro, Intel-powered Surfaces will have to be comparable to the Ultrabook entry point of around $700-800.

Another important question is apps. The Windows Store made dramatic leaps of improvement from the Windows 8 beta to the Windows 8 release candidate, but app development will naturally lag behind the Windows 8 public availability for some time -- maybe even years. While gives the apps a platform, killer apps drive interest. Things like semantic zoom and deep widescreen viewing give Windows 8 apps a unique look and visual depth, but those aren't a guarantee of that must-have app lust.

A closer look at Microsoft's Surface tablet (pictures)

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Third, what in the system of Sol will Microsoft's manufacturing partners think of the tablets? Microsoft was careful to name-check them, and legacy Microsoft hardware like the mouse and webcam, as drivers of innovation. Competition could be a very good thing for the market, and drive down the price of early Windows 8 tablets. But given that there are three versions of Windows 8 available -- Windows RT, Windows 8, and Windows 8 Pro -- it's not hard to imagine OEMs simply ignoring the OS they like or believe in the least.

The Surface line of tablets are an excellent start for connecting innovative hardware to Microsoft's big push to reimagine its OS with Windows 8. A tablet with a stand and a physical keyboard that can also run Adobe Lightroom and knows the difference between a stylus and a fingertip is a seriously compelling piece of hardware, but only if people can afford it, and if they think it can work for them.

From updates to viruses to peripherals with buggy drivers, nobody wants yet another computer to be a slave to.

Microsoft Surface unveiled: The first Microsoft-branded Windows tablet

Five key takeaways from Microsoft's Surface event

Not to be confused with its table-top cousin, the new device isn't just aimed at iPad and Android tablets.

Microsoft's Surface tablet.

LOS ANGELES--Microsoft managed to keep its latest new product well under wraps, though as they say, the cat's out of the bag.

Microsoft hopes consumers will purr at the Surface, a new tablet family -- not to be confused with its pricy, table-top computer -- that will run on its upcoming Windows 8.

You can read some of the details about the product, see shots of it in human hands, and more right here. In the meantime, here are five things you need to know about it:

1. Don't confuse this with the table thing.
The Microsoft Surface as we've known it for the past five years is now called Microsoft PixelSense. That's the namesake technology Microsoft debuted at last year's Consumer Electronics Show alongside its second-generation 40-inch tabletop PC. Using an array of 2 million sensors that have been built into the panel, the technology picks up visible or infrared light to pick up data and crunch it in the built-in Windows PC.

Of note, this isn't the first time Microsoft's gone with one brand and used it for something else. Remember Zune ending up a content channel on the Xbox 360?

2. This isn't just aimed at the iPad and Android tablets
If you were waiting for Microsoft to roll out an iPad competitor, and didn't quite understand where the company was going with Windows 8, this is the answer to that. It's a specialized, opinionated piece of hardware, designed to compete with an ever-growing crop of tablets running Apple's iOS and Google's Android.

What's interesting here is how Microsoft's angling it with a work flavor built on Windows 8 Pro designed to take on ultrabooks. That can be seen in special keyboard accessory with tactile keys, and the idea that your tablet can work like a PC, complete with a full version of Windows.

3. This thing is high tech.
Microsoft made it a point to go into detail about just how much technology went into making this device and its accessory line. From magnetic, hydrophobic, touch keyboards, to a built-in stand that's been acoustically tuned like closing a luxury car, Microsoft is positioning this line as a premium device.

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That premium idea is also based on materials. Surface is made out of something called VaporMG casing (reads like "Vapor Mag"). Microsoft promised this as thin, strong and maybe just made out of alien spaceships based on a neato promotional video. Panos Panay, Microsoft's general manager of the Surface, even spent a good portion of today's press conference holding up a credit card to show how thin the metal was.

The key takeaway here: Microsoft's showing that it has industrial design chops, and this thing isn't a plastic rectangle.

4. You can't buy it yet. One of the key things people want to know is when you can buy a Surface device, and how much it will cost. Microsoft kept that as vague as possible, saying only:

"Suggested retail pricing will be announced closer to availability and is expected to be competitive with a comparable ARM tablet or Intel ultrabook-class PC. OEMs will have cost and feature parity on Windows 8 and Windows RT."

Reading between the lines, that suggests you could pick one of these up -- at least the Windows RT flavor -- for about $500. With the Pro version flirting beyond the $1,000 mark.

5. This is just the start
Microsoft is positioning Surface as the beginning of a family. Instead of the giant, difficult to differentiate wall of computers the company has demoed at CES the last couple of years -- this is simple. There are just two ideas from the get go: a Windows RT version and one running Windows 8 Pro. One's for basic consumer stuff, while the other's for business users, and people who want an entire replacement for a high-end notebook.

Who is the Microsoft Surface for, exactly?

The new Windows 8 and Windows RT tablets could be a bridge for Windows fans... maybe.

 

A tablet for Windows fans who want to use Windows on a tablet that's not quite the same as regular Windows. Huh?

Microsoft threw a surprise hail mary in Los Angeles today with the unveiling of its new line of Windows 8 and Windows RTtablet-laptop hybrids dubbed simply "Surface." But some big questions remain, like -- when? how much? and who is this for?

Surface is a bit larger than an iPad with an HD display, full-size USB port, Microsoft's next-generation operating system, a built-in kickstand, and a detachable cover that doubles as a flat keyboard and touch pad. That's what we know from today's unveiling, but there's much more that we don't know.

The biggest question mark -- the price.

The company says Surface will be competitive with comparable ARM tablets for theRT device and the Windows 8 Pro version will hold its own against ultrabooks with similar specs. OK, so that's maybe $500 for the lower-end tablet that comes with an RT version of Office Home and Student 2013. Sounds like a nice deal, until you realize that this extra is likely to ease the pain of the fact that your existing Windows applications aren't likely to run on the ARM tablet. That brings us to another of those questions -- who is this thing really for?

Staying with the RT tablet, it seems it's for anyone who's been waiting very patiently to pay iPad prices for the Windows environment on a tablet, even if that Windows environment is about as familiar to most users as the roster of names on Greenland's soccer team. But you do get a pretty cool keyboard as part of the deal -- maybe. It wasn't completely clear if the keyboard cover would be an added accessory or included in the price of the tablet.

Knowing what little we do right now, it seems that low-end tablet might be a hard sell to anyone but the Windows faithful, and we all know how that approach worked out for RIM and its PlayBook.

The Windows 8 Pro Version could be a little more interesting, even with a higher price tag, provided that it does really deliver the same level of performance as an ultrabook and top flight iPad rolled into one. An awful lot of people in the world still live their lives in Windows (a disturbing number of us in XP), and it continues to be awkward to live a double life of sorts between assuming our Windows persona in the office and then having to change into our iOS / Android outfit every time we go out or hang around on the couch with a mobile device. Surface could be the bridge between at-the-desk computing and being connected everywhere else.

There's an awful lot of outreach to developers that's going to need to be done to the lay the foundation for that bridge in the meantime.

Not long after the iPhone came out, I opted instead to purchase a Windows Mobile phone in the hopes that it might be that bridge. Oh, how wrong I was. Even today Windows Phone struggles to bring a little bit of Windows to the mobile experience while also trying to compete with Android and iOS. In fact, it's not doing terribly well at either. Windows 8 could truly be a revolutionary operating system, but only if Microsoft is participating in the revolution and the universe of developers creating for Android and iOS stay on the sidelines, Surface could end up hanging out with Microsoft Bob in the annals of great Redmond flops.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer toldthe Verge after the unveiling that the idea behind Surface is to "prime the pump" for Windows 8 and get more of those developers and partners on board.

But Redmond didn't even seem to get the memo about Surface to all of its own departments.

So far there's been no word of how Surface might integrate with other hit Microsoft products like Xbox or the recently announced Smart Glass concept, which would seem like a natural feature to integrate into a new tablet, or any new piece of hardware, for that matter.

Of course, there's still another Microsoft event coming up quick, this one having to do with Windows Phone, so we may be hearing more about how Surface plays into Microsoft's plans in the coming days.

But for right now, with no word on pricing, availability or any other way to actually get your hands on one, I can say confidently that in the near-term Microsoft Surface is for...nobody.

Microsoft unveils Surface tablets

The new tablets will be powered by Windows 8

Microsoft has unveiled Surface - its own-brand family of tablets.

The touchscreen computers will be powered by its upcoming Windows 8 system and contain either an Intel or ARM-based processor.

The company's chief executive, Steve Ballmer, said it had wanted to give the software "its own companion hardware".

However, the move puts it into competition with other manufacturers who will also be releasing tablets designed for the system.

The devices have a 10.6 inch (26.9cm) display, are 9.3mm (0.4 inches) thick, have a built-in kickstand and are housed in a magnesium case - which the company described as the first of its kind.