It's deeper than a management failure, it is management that is literally incapable of doing what it is being called on to do. MS is starting from scratch, they don't know what they are doing and it shows.
Their strategy with Surface is hitting a ladder of price points while they figure out how to market the tablet/computer. On the hardware front, they made a netbook/tablet, then crippled it (RT) so they could sell against the iPad.
It's design by committee with no holistic sense, like the Simpson's episode where Homer designs a car. Or more to the point, they brainstormed a list of features that made the iPad a success and then added all the stuff that was "missing." They literally do not understand why simplicity is a factor in the iPad's success.
The other big issue is that Apple gets huge discounts on scale for better parts that make the experience much faster. MS is priced out of delivering compelling hardware at a price cheaper or even equal to the iPad. Throw the design inferiority into the mix and I'd be surprised if there isn't another write-down next quarter, followed by killing the RT entirely.
I almost think MS would be better off claiming that tablets were completely dumb and dig in on "don't you want a real computer?" Stick with the Surface Pro and sell Windows 8 with touch as the only computing paradigm for the future. At least it would be something their company culture could understand.
