Let's look at the surface rt (also if it has a really low market share in the tablet worldwide market), it has destroyed the others wrt-tablet. Look at microsoftnok... ehm, nokia. They are pratically a branch of microsoft and infact they have discouraged other competitors to join the windows phone ecosystem.

It means that, if microsoft starts to make its own hw also for the pcs market, there will be a big problem for other manufacturers to stay in the same market.

Apple may live in a world where it is they only manufacturer for the hw in which runs his sw because they have create the first recognized brand in the world and they are like the "cool people of tecnology", but microsoft can try it? Looking at the actual marketshare of wp8 and surface RT or PRo, i think nope.

Their first iteration of Surface was weak. Win8 is really rough around he edges, and the hardware was awkward in some areas.

But they have strong points too, and the next version will probably be better. They are still experimenting, trying to figure out exactly they want to do.

Market share right now means nothing.

Intel has known for a while that it has to take the lead in designing and marketing (the Ultrabook is an excellent example) if they are to stay relevant. I'd say Microsoft is in a similar position.

I wouldn't want Intel to think I am to be dependant. The Surface RT line makes a statement. A weak one but it is nonetheless a statement.

Even still, they relied on nVidia to design their SoC. I don't see any rumblings of Microsoft starting up a silicon design shop.