You really don't get a sense of just how limited the iPad is until you actually explore the Surface tablet that Microsoft released last week. It is like the designers sat down over beers and argued over every single shortcoming they found in the iPad and then built into Surface just the right features to make the iPad look inadequate. It is as if they put their decade of frustration over Apple kicking their butts with the iPod, iPhone and iPad into one vengeful response - and that offering is the Surface tablet. What I think will make this response even more painful is that Apple just launched its iPad mini at a price that's 60 percent higher than the competition, and I doubt that will turn out well. So the new Microsoft tablet could actually significantly outsell the new less-expensive iPad mini in its debut quarter, and Microsoft has never done that to an iProduct. My product of the week has to be the Microsoft Surface tablet - an offering that turned out far better than any of us expected.