[citation][nom]jabliese[/nom]I am curious why you think Microsoft marketing would be against paying people to post positive comments on pre-release products, as you seem to think Microsoft shills do not exist.[/citation]
Just because something exists does mean it's a rampant problem. Add also, the lack of "shills" here indicates they were not paid for their bias opinion or they'd be here try to save the surface's face. I thoroughly enjoy Windows 8 and have been more than interested in the tablet despite the price. I love how people will say "Oh no one will purchase it, it's $499!" yet people were purchasing the PS3 when it launched at a cool $2000, courtesy of ebay sellers. Yes, I saw that with my own eyes the day of launch while I was at work. The average consumer is a damn retard.
For just entering the Tablet market a 21% standpoint isn't bad. If this article has any proof behind it (which I doubt, considering Tom's article quality lately) that's still no reason for developers to lose interest or not have any interest at all in the Surface, it just sounds like those shitty cellphone app designers will lose their position because the surface offers Laptop level computing on a Tablet device, which means people will be more interested in full games instead of Angry Birds.
This article, while the statistics may be true, the rest is pure speculation and garbage if you ask me. I'm beginning to think at this point that Tom's team just googles a random phrase like "Apple Lawsuit" or "Google Maps" or MSFT Surface sucks lolololol" and write an article based on the first search result.
Back to your comment though, no. Just because someone likes something you don't doesn't mean they're anything but a consumer.