At the end of the show, you asked how the Retina display affects videographers. I asked that question Monday and the response was that for presentations its great but for the actual process of creation its not very useful. The reason is the display is 8bit per pixel while they prefer 10bit per pixel displays like the HP Dreamcolor http://h20331.www2.hp.com/Hpsub/cache/596803-0-0-225-121.html
PC Hardware, HP could engineer an Ultrabook without the aid of Intel and had several models that could have been classed as Ultrabooks before Intel developed the spec(Toshiba did also). HP's problems is simply 5 CEO's in 5 years the previous from last whom wanted to sell off their PC and Printer division. The criticism you leveled on the other OEMS is perfectly valid . They have not innovated anything in years. It is just a price race to the bottom. Outside of Samsung, Toshiba and Sony none of them ever try anything new.
Look at the industry, PC manufactures are called OEM, Other Equipment Manufactures. If there other who are the other to, IBM? IBM sold off their PC division to Lenovo. The PC market is derivate and there is no one for them to follow. Microsoft was also an OEM to IBM. Co-developing PC DOS with IBM while still allowed to sell MS-Dos to the others. Microsoft has displaced IBM in software no one has stepped into IBM's role as the Hardware leader. Microsoft has finally taken the steps to deliver Hardware and Software as a vision, like IBM did and Apple still does.
BTW the surface has no release date but there are several Windows Tablets on the market now that run the Windows 8 Preview release perfectly. So you are able to get an idea of what prices devices will fall into in the fall
http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msstore/list/parentCategoryID.44066900/categoryID.54536100
ASUS - Tablet- ASUS Eee Slate B121
Currently the best IMO is the Samsung Series 7 to compare it to the proposed Surface the SS7 is 11.6" .12mm" thick and 1.97lb Gen2 Core i5, runtime is 4.5 hours video playback, 7 hours normal usages. The MS Surface will be 10.6" 3rd gen Core i5 1.9lb intel 13.5mm 1.5lb 9.3mm ARM. Based on what’s already on the market there is no question Microsoft can deliver on this design. Then the only remaining question is how well Metro will be accepted.
