Jason Kottke:

For a piece of portable networking technology like a smartphone or tablet to be successful on the scale at which Apple operates, you need to have an ecosystem, a network of interacting devices, software, products, and services that work together…hardware + software is not enough.

And, suppose the Surface does strike gold, Horace Dediu asks if Microsoft’s software and hardware integration will be self-disruptive:

The challenge for Microsoft therefore becomes to build hundreds of millions of these devices. Every year. Sounds like they need a Tim Cook to run it.

How to Build an iPad Competitor