It was roughly six years ago that on a whim I splurged on my first MacBook Pro. An unexpected pay bonus, a couple of lunch margaritas and the urge to shop couldn't stop this moving train from swiping the Amex and taking home my first Steve Jobs-designed laptop.

At the time I didn't know much about Apple products or the operating system other than grooving with my iPod and a brief stint in a computer academy where I learned to program the Apple IIe and the sleeker Apple IIc as a child, and spent endless hours hooked by Castle Wolfenstein and a myriad of other games. I was a devout PC user and stereotyped all Apple junkies as self-righteous hipsters. I wasn't one of them, but it didn't take long before I made a full 180-degree turn, swearing off anything that didn't have a cool lowercase "i" in front of noun.

So when the iPad came out, it was another impulse purchase.

Now here it comes, making a debutante grand entrance, Microsoft's Surface. This techie toy challenges Apple head on.

Sure, the name may not be sexy, but neither was the iPad when it first emerged on the scene, earning jokes of feminine hygiene products, bodily functions, something to sit on and so on. Rather, the Surface is (seemingly) well designed, it's aesthetically pleasing, it has all the moving parts it needs, the cover doubles as a keyboard and is available in black, pink, red and blue.

But despite the fact that I most likely will never be the target end user for the Surface, the battle tablet is something that can only mean good news for all computer geeks, and even for Apple consumers.

Here's why: Since the release of the iPad two years ago, Apple roused a market where there wasn't one before, convincing people that, like a computer, a smartphone and a Facebook account, a tablet is something you can't live without. Or was Apple appropriating customers who would have otherwise bought a PC?

A recent article in CNET News points out that since March 2010, Apple has "surged from fifth place in the global PC market to a dead heat for first place with Hewlett-Packard — if you include tablet sales as part of overall PC sales." There's no denying that the iPad served Apple well.

If PC users adopted the iPad because suitable Windows-friendly hardware wasn't available, then the iPad holder is a melange of both hardcore fans of Apple and those who felt didn't have a Windows-compatible choice. This new breed of consumer, the technologically bi, is who's up for grabs.

Individuals use tablets for consuming the Internet and not for content creation. For those who spend most of their computer time browsing cyberspace, emailing, playing on social media and watching video, the tablet is a convenient replacement for a notebook, regardless of the operation system. Though for many years corporate entities have shied away from Apple products, typically at the recommendation of IT departments, better business features like Microsoft Exchange are starting to change that.

In an effort to keep those clients from returning to Windows-land, this healthy competition will continue to keep Apple on its toes. Not that it isn't a leader in innovation already, but we often think as Apple and PC as technologies of a completely different microchip.

But that doesn't have to be the case.

The iPad started that mixing and mingling and the Surface that will keep it going, with a little competitive friction thrown in for good luck.

Who knows how Apple will respond?