The surface book has the potential to propel Microsoft past apple. I was so amazed at everything that the surface book offers. dedicated graphics, pci storage, the design, and the convertibility. I highly believe that 2 in 1 hybrids like the surface book will be the future. A device like this embodies everything that we have come to love with technology in this time and age. the tablet form, touchscreens, portability, performance, sleekness, applications.

I currently use a toshiba click2pro [1] as my laptop of choice. This device has the same spirit as the surface book, but fails on many ends where I see the surface book exceeding. So far I have not seen any other manufacture crack the right formula for this type of device. The Asus transformer book, HP Spectre, Toshiba click all have their drawbacks or just weren't design right.

Take my Toshiba click 2 pro for example. 1. the weight of the LCD is heavier than the keyboard dock causing the laptop to be top heavy when moving it around. Toshiba circumvented this by docking the screen not at the the where the dock and keyboard meet, but by moving the docking location in a bit the lcd will stay without being top heavy and failing over. 2. The keyboard dock has potential to add components such as extra internal storage when docked, adding another battery cell in the dock, adding dedicated graphics. 3. The docking hinge is awful this is the main problem that I currently see with these devices. All the 2 in 1 have terrible hinge technology to hold the device together.

Now Microsoft has gone and put a lot of thought into this device and I believe they have a winner. The have set the bar for this type of device and other manufactures will be coming with their own devices. The hybrid 2 in 1, a true laptop and tablet device.
Why Microsoft will succeed is because they have not only looked as design, but they have put a lot of thought into performance and functionality. From adding dedicated graphics to the keyboard dock it transforms the tablet to a true power house of a laptop. Also from what I saw, they added extra batteries in the keyboard dock by doing this they have distributed the weight of the components. I hope to see more analysis on the weight and feel of the device. The hinge looks to be highly in house designed. There was a talk about how Microsoft built the surface pro 3 [2] and watching the talk you can see that Microsoft spent a lot of time designing the components to be functional. I highly believe that the "dynamic fulcrum" hinge is a step way above of what other manufactures have done so far for a device of this type. I hope we get analysis on the hinge.

A device that blurs lines between the laptop and tablet. Between entertainment and performance. For some time we were split between a tablet device running an OS system that was designed for entertainment consumption, not being able to have the power to do more intensive tasks yet manufactures trying to sell it as if it could. (iPad Pro, the new Pixel C) to having to choose between OSX or windows for when we truly needed the power of full operating system.
Like another comments stated we are seeing where Microsoft and Apple are heading. Microsoft is blurring the line of devices and like they stated are making us the hub where we are allowed to use our devices in different ways. To docking your phone to enjoy the desktop experience under continuum to using the surface book while lounging around and browsing as a tablet. I am liking where Microsoft is heading.

[1] http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2468274,00. [2] https://channel9.msdn.com/Events/Ignite/2015/BRK3302