"I see [the Surface] as priming the pump," said Gottheil. "Microsoft wants to establish the viability of the Windows tablet and get a foothold. But it doesn't want to be in an Apple situation where it does everything. It likes the OEM model, and it doesn't want to kill off the very important licensing business."

Microsoft has not committed to a ship date for either the Windows RT or Windows 8 Pro Surface tablets, but has promised that the former would debut around the same time as the next Windows' release -- most expect that in September or October -- and said the latter would follow 90 days later.

Gregg Keizer covers Microsoft, security issues, Apple, Web browsers and general technology breaking news for Computerworld. Follow Gregg on Twitter at , on or subscribe to . His email address is .

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