In Pictures: 20 best tech devices of 2012 (so far)

Microsoft Surface for Windows Pro

Although the two tablets that Microsoft recently announced--the Surface RT and Surface Pro--are not yet on sale, there's no question that Microsoft's decision to build its own tablets changes the market considerably.

For one thing, why buy a classic laptop if you can purchase a tablet that quickly and elegantly becomes one when you need it to be, without sacrificing performance, interoperability, or functionality?

While it's unclear how much market share Surface tablets will take away from sales of Apple's iPad, the new Microsoft hardware certainly will make things tougher for tablets running Google's Android operating system, which have fared miserably compared with the iPad.