I think this device really shows the different approaches of Apple and Microsoft to "tablets".
When the iPad Pro was announced, many joked about the fact that it was just like a surface. With the release of this device from Microsoft, the look even more similar then before from the outside.
Still, the huge difference in the approach is the software. Microsoft is bending a computer operating system, with a full hardware keyboard and an interface made mainly to be used with a mouse, to adapt to touch and the use of a tablet. Apple instead is slowly expanding the functionality of a pure touch operating system that reject the idea of a mouse and a cursor entirely, to accommodate more computer uses, adding a keyboard and a pencil.
Microsoft isn't bending anything. Windows 10 has two distinct APIs for different types of program. The old Win32 API handles traditional desktop software and the separate Windows Runtime is used for sandboxed apps that can be installed and updated from the Windows Store.
If you're writing for Windows Runtime, you are as fully touch-enabled as you are with an iPad, and the apps run in a similar way.
The complaints about Windows 8 were that the two environments were disparate. Windows 10 does a reasonable job of integrating Runtime apps for desktop users (eg scaleable windows and mouse control options). It could do with further improvements, but it's still being developed.
If you're, say, a photographer, you can use full-strength Photoshop, Lightroom etc on Windows 10 then switch to an iPad-style app for viewing or showing stuff to other people. It's actually very convenient.
When the iPad Pro was announced, many joked about the fact that it was just like a surface. With the release of this device from Microsoft, the look even more similar then before from the outside.
Still, the huge difference in the approach is the software. Microsoft is bending a computer operating system, with a full hardware keyboard and an interface made mainly to be used with a mouse, to adapt to touch and the use of a tablet. Apple instead is slowly expanding the functionality of a pure touch operating system that reject the idea of a mouse and a cursor entirely, to accommodate more computer uses, adding a keyboard and a pencil.