I'm not sure how they'll sell it for $199 while also paying Apple for the design patents. Unless of course they're taking a significant loss.

Surface may guarantee that other OEMs stick with Android. Which may not be such a bad thing for Microsoft considering they're making money there too.

IMO, this was the only reasonable play for MS, it's just a shame they're (so far) realy bungling the positioning/marketing. No more "metro," the UI is now called "Windows 8 Style" - what happens when Windows 9 comes along? MS has really been failing in the strategy department since Windows XP. I'm not confident Microsoft will hold on to their long-established desktop-OS lead long-term.