Why? Did you even look at the specs? They are far in advance of the capabilities of an iPad. It's a full blown "PC as a Tablet". Even having a DisplayPort output and single USB port on a tablet device immediately makes it worth $200 more than any iPad.
Because you can get a much more powerful laptop for much less, if you need a "real PC". If you need a tablet, you can get one for far less too. Heck, you can get a great laptop + a great tablet for less!
This is a delusional move from a company that's so far behind in this area that it's no longer funny.
With that said, I'd generally agree that if you don't need all of those things, you can do a lot better price-wise. But the hardware itself, assuming it's improved upon the previous generation as claimed, was pretty good last time. They've also finally allowed double the memory and significantly increased the storage.
It's a very compelling, cheaper alternative for digital artists and programmers who want to develop for the Windows 8+ native UI. I didn't buy the first one because I wanted an 8GB+ option at a minimum and I thought the storage options were anemic as well. But the newly announced model is rather tempting.
However, the prices on the different options are still somewhat discouraging: "You can get Surface Pro 2 with a 64GB ($899) or 128GB SSD ($999) and 4GB of RAM, or if you want 8GB of RAM there are 256GB ($1299) and 512GB ($1799) versions as well. Surface Pro 2 retains the old front and rear cameras."
Wondering if you can get a cheaper version and upgrade the ram and SSD yourself. You can probably get a faster SSD than what they'd include, and pay less for it.
That is not a good comparison. That is like asking someone, why do they need a smart phone when they can get a regular phone + a netbook for half the price. Believe it or not there is a niche market for Tablet+PC forms. It was one of the main reason and the best decision I made when purchasing the Surface Pro. For travelling, I no longer need to carry my Laptop + Tablet. I just take the Surface Pro (It is setup to use my dev environments exactly as on the PC) and when I get back, I sync the changes to the laptop. Not only can I get real work done on the plane but can also switch to tablet mode and play some useless games when tired. However, that is my experience but your mileage may vary.
If this is aimed at a niche market, I suppose it makes more sense. I was just under the impression that Microsoft has hopes of remaining a major player in the computer business; if it's content with marginalizing itself into a niche, so be it.
Microsoft and their partners have been trying to sell to that niche PC-Tablet market since before the iPad was a thing. That market has been proven by multiple players to not exist, or at least not be big enough to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in capturing. Maybe they think its different now due to the iPad, but the market seems to indicate that it is not. People see the iPad as a big phone, not a small computer.
I don't think there is a laptop/convertible/tablet that you can buy with better specs for the price they are offering. Honestly, I think you are just uninformed.
