I don't think surface is perfect, nor does it match the iPad in every area, but a proper kickstand + keyboard/touchpad + office puts it in a completely differen

I don't think surface is perfect, nor does it match the iPad in every area, but a proper kickstand + keyboard/touchpad + office puts it in a completely different league to the iPad in terms of productivity. If you want to work when mobile, this is right up there. It is overpriced, but so is the iPad. As for 'cross contaminating', the convergence of tablet and laptop OSes is inevitable. IMO microsoft would be foolish to ignore it. Their moves toward convergence are also far better than Apples iOS influenced changes to OSX, despite being far more bold.