Since it first debuted its new Surface tablet, Microsoft has insisted that the device will not alienate its longtime PC manufacturing partners. The party line: By developing internally the tablet it evidently didn’t trust its partners to build, Microsoft isn’t stepping between them and their customers, it’s simply providing a reference design meant to guide their development process. As Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer told attendees of the company’s recent Worldwide Partner Conference, “Surface is just a design point. It will have a distinct place in what’s a broad Windows ecosystem. Read the full story at All Things D.