Again, how did Microsoft learn this lesson? By watching Apple sell a metric butt-ton of iPads. Previously, Redmond was content to ship "Windows slapped on a tablet," because it didn't have a better idea and it thought that people just weren't interested in tablets.

Actually John, iOS IS built on top of Mac OS X and its core principles. It is common knowledge that it is a modified version of OS X with a touch centric shell on top.

Actually, Aaron, that's not true. iOS and OS X have the same core OS, but different user interfaces, which is just one of the things that differentiates them. You're basically arguing that a hammerhead shark is really just a great white shark with a hammerhead hat on it, because they're both sharks.

In the future, Apple are going to slowly wean people into the idea of using their iPads more and more for creating but we are hardly at that day today. Microsoft, on the other hand, are looking to make tablets that are full screen computers which you can do anything/everything with -- dock them as full computers, do full-screen computing using things other than touch -- off screen gestures, voice control, etc.

First of all, there are plenty of people using the ; the Macalope frequently writes his columns on one (and with hooves, no less). Second, don't you see the inherent problem with saying Windows-based tablets are going to do everything? What specifications are they going to have in order to be able to run a full version of Office smoothly? How much are they going to cost? How is Microsoft going to keep OEMs from making they've been making for years?