I'm commenting this as a sold customer of Surface Pro 3. I have an iPad & a Galaxy Tab 3 but those are only used to pacify the kids. Can't really use those for work. You can say I'm justifying the need for a Surface Pro 3 or any Windows tablet for that matter. I'm currently using a Dell Venue 8 Pro because my old Fujitsu TabletPC battery is almost dead & Surface Pro 2 will never be launched in Singapore & delivery of SP3 is in August at the earliest.
To put it bluntly, iPad is a toy that can do some work. Yes, Office (Word/Excel/Powerpoint) is on iPad, I have it + I've Office 365 license. Can't do much with it coz not much features compared to PC (to be unfair). Still can't print to an office MFC printer. Want to do anything need to search App Store first & install app. One fine day, dev quit, app become useless when Apple upgrade iOS & it get unpublished & become abandonware.
At my company, there're many people who rely on their 3 yo iPad for work but now have to buy a new iPad because older gen don't support iOS 7 & our company app requires iOS 7. I wonder if my iPad 2 can be upgraded to iOS 8...
We also have to provide common PCs for iPad users because they can't print to the office printers or access corporate resources that are stored on LAN. Even our corporate website isn't 100% compatible with Safari so for certain functions, they have to fall back on those PCs that's been working fine for 5-8 years. And yes, still running XP with no plans to upgrade.
Global sales of tablets has also slowed down drastically as people realized tablets aren't very productive devices after all. They're great as consumption & gaming devices but as more people move to smartphones above 5", they're realizing that having a bigger smartphone-like device just doesn't make a lot of sense.
Lastly, support for iPad for corporate environment from Apple is virtually zero because these support can only happen in-house due to custom requirements & software. iPad is only starting to come into the Enterprise environment as a secondary device with most people still relying on their PC/laptop. Imagine for a minute these people only need to carry 1 device around with them & they don't play games on Line or FB because it already exist on their iPhone 5S or Note 3. Why do they need an iPad then?
Sorry to burst bubbles & make some people angry (that's NOT my intention) but in the real corporate world, few companies will buy Apple products for the Enterprise/Corporate environment especially if it's an MNC. Small shops where they can go fully Apple is fine, IF they're willing to pay the 20-30% premium over a similar spec PC but for larger department, no one will approve that kind of premium. You can even buy a second hand PC/laptop from Sim Lim Square with intact Windows License for $200-300 depending on specs & condition.
Having said that, Surface Pro 3 isn't for everyone as well. In corporate environment, many people are still familiar with a laptop & are resistant to change to a tablet. Many are ok with Hybrids (they will still use like a normal laptop) but these are generally not for the average worker. It all depends on how aggressive the vendor quote for the contract vs the perceived benefits.
But at least all runs Windows & it's possible to install & run 10 years old accounting software like MYOB on Win7 without upgrading to the latest version & spend another $1000 per license.
The Microsoft Surface Pro was created to evolve the whole PC environment to be mobile. It was created to compete with the iPad 3 years ago but its role today is probably to upgrade current laptop users to Windows 8.1 at a faster rate. This to ensure Windows & Office still has relevance in a world dominated by Apple & Google.