The typical support lifecycle for a tablet seems to be around two and a half years if you ask Apple; or until you reach the parking lot if you buy from an Android OEM. When Microsoft released the Surface last month we had no reason to believe they would be pushing for anything different, but then again, they want you to believe its more laptop than tablet right? Microsoft has finally professed their support intentions for the Surface, and we are cautiously optimistic they are moving the bar forward.

Microsoft wanted us all to believe Windows 8 would spark a new wave of consumer upgrades, and finally put to rest all the doom and gloom stories about declining PC sales. Skeptics were skeptical (surprise), but at least a few of these naysayers have been proven right. Windows 8 hasn’t lit the PC world on fire, but can we all at least agree it’s just a bit too early to say Windows 8 is a flop? Blogs from around the web pounced on the Supersite’s headline declaring Windows 8 a failure, but the story here is much more complicated.

Exact sales figures on devices can be somewhat hard to come by. Apple will occasionally share how many “iOS device’s they sold in a quarter”, they might even be generous enough to separate phones and tablets, but they rarely break it down by model. The Surface RT has been on sale now for about two weeks, and while we don’t exactly have specific numbers to go on, we do know what Steve Ballmer thinks of its sales performance in general.