Microsoft Surface Pro: delight or disaster? In June last year, Microsoft signalled its biggest shift in a generation: not from one numbered version of Windows to another, but from being simply a maker of software to a company that made fully fledged computers. Finally, the Seattle-based company that changed the face of computing was to follow the approach pioneered by Apple and BlackBerry. Its product, to be called Microsoft Surface, would be a tablet with a unique cover that combined protection with keyboard and looked better than any rival. The first version would run a cutdown version of Windows while the second, Surface Pro, would do everything other computers can. Today in America, the Surface Pro finally goes on sale and it has a lot of work to do. Although the original Surface was greeted with broadly positive reviews, research from analysts at Canalys found that only three per cent of tablets shipped in the last quarter of 2012 used a Microsoft operating system. Surface was only available for two of the three months in the period, but it was not the only Microsoft tablet on the market and it should have benefitted from the excitement of a new product released in the run-up to Christmas. When Microsoft took over almost every billboard in New York's Times Square for the launch of a shop dedicated exclusively to selling Surface, three per cent was probably not what they had in mind. Canalys goes on: "The software giant's entry into the PC hardware market was something of a non-event." It blames that cut-down version of Windows, called RT, for the problems and that makes the Surface Pro an even more important product for the future of Microsoft. The company's aim was to demonstrate to its manufacturers that there was real demand for a beautifully designed tablet running Windows, and to provide some leadership. Although many manufacturers disapproved of a new rival in a very tough market, most accepted that Microsoft could do things they couldn't, and raise the profile of the latest Windows 8 software. It mimicked the largely successful approach taken by Intel, who subsidised manufacturers to produce computers that looked as good as the Macbook Air. So reaction to the new Surface Pro should be watched all the more closely, and Microsoft has few reasons to be happy so far. Where the original was aimed at a market who wanted a tablet that ran Windows but didn't want a full-blown computer or the price tag that goes with it, the Pro will start at $899 and runs every programme users can throw at it. That said, users then also need to spend another $100 on a keyboard cover to get the full experience, more money on Microsoft Office and if they buy the cheapest version get barely 25GB of storage for their own programmes thanks to the size of the operating system itself. The 10" screen has been criticised as too small for such a capable specification machine, and the design makes the device slightly too heavy and bulky to be used quite as people are coming to expect to use tablets. Battery life, too, is less than other devices. Microsoft's ambitions for the Surface remain lofty however: they want to bring PC operating systems to tablets, rather than the mobile-specific versions such as Google's Android or Apple's iOS, both of which are born from phones rather than PCs. And as such many critics have praised the new Surface for both its ambition and for the direction of travel it establishes. So Surface may, according to American reviewers, not be a product to yet rush out and purchase. But it could also foretell the future story of computing. That means keyboards that take up hardly any space and are optional extras for devices that primarily use large touchscreens. Perhaps ironically, a product lambasted as compromised in every direction may actually be showing rivals the way to go. Expensive though it may be, it does indicate Microsoft's commitment to providing leadership.