What is the market that MS are aiming for ?
Apple created a tablet that the Shiny Shiny crowd just love for watching Youtube and playing Angry Birds etc without then having to a tech genius - A very successful project.
Google invented the Android platform for the Non Shiny Shiny crowd who love it because it allows them to watch youtube and play angry birds.- It also gave the techies a great new toy to play with - A very successful projet.
Up until here there is a small relation between the two platforms. ( Youtube and Angry Birds is a clue)
RIM, HP - Lets not speak about them -they have failed for the moment.
Microsoft will bring out a new tablet that will allow you to do the same as the other two ( Apple and Google) but that in certain conditions ( Intel not ARM) allow you to also run MS Office.
BUT THE MAJORITY of users do not care about running office on a tablet. I have various office applications on my android Tablet and Phone and honestly it is a PITA using them for this purpose, everything is very fiddly. OK with a keyboard and a mouse things become easy but I don't carry a keyboard and mouse around in my pocket/bag, it would defeat the purpose of having a tablet in the first place.
So in others words the only advantage that the MS platform truly has, MS Office, is a non event. Most of the "commonn people" don't actually require the need to edit Word docs, Excel sheets and macros or Powerpoint slides on the go. That market is tiny compared to the Shiny Shiny / Green Bot Crowd and there is no way that the coporates will supply a tablet for anymore that 2% of its workforce.
I just don't see why the majority would ever be swayed towards the MS platform, they are already seem happy with what they currently have.
Quote Yoda : Tiles, a platform, does not make.....
MS are a huge Marketing machine, they will not fail in this project but I do not for a moment believe that they will achieve anywhere near the market percentages that they are hoping for.