Because Gates managed to more or less bootstrap Microsoft, he and Ballmer have maintained a significant degree of control. This allows them to orient the company toward the long term, rather than chasing this quarter's advice from Wall Street analysts.

Microsoft has always approached relationships with a B2B strategy - the mea culpa following the red ring of death shows the way in which that culture extends into the consumer side of the equation. Management's job is to make sure that there are dividends going to all those pension funds which own their stock, not to entertain bloggers.

If Microsoft is actually releasing their own tablet hardware as a long term strategy for extending an existing franchise (such as Xbox), it's probably because their is little interest in Windows Tablets from existing hardware manufacturers. Releasing their own hardware also brings the Windows RT restrictions regarding BIOS into a sensible light - not that dearth of consumer interest in Linux tablets made all the whining sensible.

I suspect that Microsoft has looked at the existing tablet landscape and sized it up pretty accurately as people want eReaders and iPads, and believe that the best way to expand the market is to get telemetry on how tablets are actually used.

Unlike your local paving company, Microsoft is gambling their own money, not driving up profits by looking for change orders.