Microsoft Surface, Will it kill the i-pad? Options

[Licentia Per Ori...]

So unless you have been hiding under a rock for the last couple of months you will know that Microsoft are planning to jump into the tablet space.

This is currently dominated by Apple.
Will Microsoft take apples crown?

many people are of the opinion that it's going to give apple a serious kicking, and will migrate more people to the microsoft eco-system, resulting in lower future sales of i-phones and i-pods to boot.

Personally i think it will do more, It has the capabilities to dominate the tablet market.

my reasoning is that.
1. It works at work.
I pad is great and that, but if you work in an office chances are you use windows there. You will use MS office,
The i-pad does not work well with Windows, The surface will be designed to work with it seamlessly.

2. It out specs the i-pad.
Microsoft are releasing two versions with the pro version packing an Ivy bridge i5!
It's a serious but of kit.

3. the keyboard.
Yea it's a tablet, but putting the keyboard on it.
(and crucially giving it away for free)
make the windows tablet a true contender for laptop replacement.
Even the biggest apple fan-boi out there will admit that the i-pad is good for consuming content (watching and reading things)
but is completely crap when it comes to creating content (like forum posts)

So what are your thoughts?
are Microsoft going to dominate in the hand-held market?
the i-phone 5 is launching, and no one is excited about it.
But the new Nokia phones are far more exciting,
and will having your PC, Tablet, Phone and Games console all operate on a single integrated eco system attract customers to Microsoft?

[Kaust]

The Ipad was always an impractical invention- its bad enough not having usbs (in this day and age...fer realz?) but everything else made by Apple needs a usb somewhere along the line (charging, syncing, whatever), making a tablet without it just seems ridiculous (especially since I remember one of their ad campaigns being about how well all Apple products work together).
Admittedly, I don't understand the desire for tablets anyways; their crazy expensive, don't seem to have any unique features, their fragile (making them more expensive), and touchscreens, while looking futuristic, are just way more impractical than keyboards. But, while adding a keyboard initially comes across as a plus, it also seems to defeat the point of a tablet rather than revolutionise it- what separates it from a laptop other than it doesn't fold on itself?