I have no use for a tablet or "flat surface" computer (Surface, iPad, etc.), which is why I kept my answer simple.
I
have spent some time with an iPad (about 2-3 hours) a co-worker of mine had, and let's just say I was left with a pretty sour taste in my mouth. I was really disappointed at how much general stuff I couldn't do -- not highly technical stuff like what I do professionally or personally, just very simple/common usage things did not function correctly or work at all. Lack of Flash, for example, really made me laugh (I hate Flash as a technology, I wish it'd die, but let's face it, it's one of those necessary evils). I did like some of the "fancy" visualisations/UI features, but those are just ooh-ahh material and lose their appeal after you've seen them a hundred times.
My mother, who's almost 60 but is semi-familiar with technology (she used to help assemble original Pong machines for example), finds these products "strange" for the exact same reasons I do. She scoffed at the price too (as do I). I imagine the Surface to fall into the same category.
I really want to know what demographic these products are intended for. I'm not trolling -- I really am serious.
The only thing I can see them being used for is to act as a glorified book and web page reader, and I imagine they do those tasks quite well. But to me, they look like a big mobile phone, and I
abhor mobile phones (haven't had one for over 10 years).
I use my computer(s) differently than the masses, so my reluctance and disapproval is understandable. But like I said, my mother, who is pretty much a "simple computer user", does not understand what these things are for either -- especially for how much they cost.
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