Yesterday, with minimal fanfare Microsoft introduced the Surface Tablet which is essentially the first product Microsoft has released to directly compete with Apple's iPad.

Yes it may well be three years late, but there is no doubting that 'Surface' is looking to be not just a competitor of the iPad at home, but in an enterprise situation such as schools the surface tablet maye some clear advantages the iPad.

Some of these reasons have been listed below that might make you want to seriously reconsider your next purchase of hardware for your school.

1:  Flexibility - The Surface tablet is both a standalone tablet exactly like the ipad with a beautiful screen, camera and tens of thousands of apps; essentially all the features of it's competitor but it is also a 100 percent operational windows 8 PC without any limitations of a desktop or notebook.  This is the first ever do everything tablet.  And to further enhance the experience Microsoft has built in a full keyboard and mouse into the case of the Surface tablet.  - Every box Ticked.

2:  Printing:  Yes it prints, to any printer remember it's also a windows Based PC.  It can Print without any need for AirPrint or the like.

3:  Fully networkable:  Surface can log into any windows based network with the exact same functionality of a desktop or mobile PC. 

4:  Microsoft Office:  Not a scaled back or mobile version but the complete version of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Onenote, Outlook and the works.

5:  Flash:  As great as HTML 5 is.  Flash is still one of the webs greatest technologies and is still being improved and enhanced.  All of your old flash sites will work as well as the new HTML 5 format too.