What changed between 2007 and the present? Well, obviously, the iPad was introduced, ushering in a "post-PC" era which Microsoft could not help but recognize as an existential threat. Steve Jobs' brickbat thrown through the window of PC manufacturers has been so compelling to users that it has in every way forced Microsoft's hand.
Everything about today's Surface presentation screamed "Apple," from the central role in the event given to designer Panos Panay (do you think he and Apple's Jonathan Ive ever hang out and swap stories about how awesome it is to be in charge of billion-dollar product lines?) to Microsoft's move into an integrated hardware / software package, which Apple long ago demonstrated is necessary to achieve the level of control required to deliver a truly satisfying user experience to non-geeks, i.e. the mass market.
Indeed, the entire event seemed to have been architected not by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, but rather by absentee puppetmaster Steve Jobs, whose dominance of this space has forced even Microsoft into the Apple mold. From the perspective of those of us who have been following this saga since Apple meant 8 inch black and white screens and a fight for survival against the dominance of the Wintel monopoly, this spectacle is truly surreal.
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