cnet's News.com reporter Ina Fried is reporting that Steve Ballmer is anxious to bring to market a consumer version of the Surface PC. Reports last year were that Microsoft would unleash a commercial version by end of year 2007, but it now looks like a Spring '08 release. At the time the outlook for a consumer product was about 5 years, but Ballmer says "We're going to follow our nose," referring to the public demand that could drive an accelerated development cycle. I, for one, will be sitting on pins and needles waiting to that happen! This is much more exciting than a Yahoo! hostile takeover...
