The higher-end Surface will ship with a full Windows 8 build that supports the traditional desktop. It's meant for legacy customers with big investments in trad

The higher-end Surface will ship with a full Windows 8 build that supports the traditional desktop. It's meant for legacy customers with big investments in traditional line-of-business stuff (banks, insurance, traders) who run .NET apps on the desktop. This device is intended to compete with computers. The lower-end surface will be for consumers. It will run Windows RT (previously called WOA, "Windows-on-ARM"), and support Metro (touch) apps exclusively. Main expected software distribution channel is the Windows app store. This device is positioned against the iPad; it's an Apple-style "shrinkwrap" experience that resets everything for the sake of this version, which wouldn't ever fly in the business world. I've been studying this extensively because my company (Crittercism) will have a build of our mobile crash instrumentation on Windows RT from the day it launches. Email me at david@crittercism.com if you want access to the beta.