The root of my disappointment is this: I think Microsoft has, for the first time in a long time, created a product that is truly innovative. It's Windows Phone 7, which does not feel like an iOS photocopy (as opposed to Android and WebOS, which are very clearly inspired by the iPhone's interface). Windows Phone 7's interface design, "Metro," offers a fundamentally different approach to a touch interface. Microsoft went its own way with Windows Phone 7 (although sadly not with its name) and it made me enthusiastic about the possible innovations that interface could offer on tablet devices.

But with Windows 8, Microsoft has embraced Metro while rejecting the concept that touch devices and PCs are different classes of products. There will be no "tablet edition" of Windows Phone 7, --whether you run it on a tablet or a desktop PC or something in between.

Perhaps it should come as no surprise that this means Apple and Microsoft are apparently taking entirely opposite approaches to the future of personal technology.

There are a couple factors at play in Microsoft's decisions to create a single operating system for tablets and PCs. First and foremost, this is Microsoft. The company does not believe in a post-PC world, which you might expect from the folks whose software runs on most PCs. Microsoft has a real, business reason to try and keep everyone in the Windows ecosystem, where it dominates, rather than a mobile ecosystem where it's way behind.