it's more of a tie as that laptop screen is 141ppi and the Surface screen 148ppi

the smaller your display is the more important is resolution to fit similar amounts of content onto the screen while still having it clearly readable/discernable

That is true for sure but for smaller decives. At 10.6 inches, Surface is quite large and should be able to to get away with a laptop like resolution.

It's also down to how the OS is handling this resolution and what it's doing with it. Metro is quite BIG when it comes to fonts text and tile sizes.  I've been using a 10.1 inch device with Windows 8 on it for almost a year now at resolution of 1280x800 and it looks perfectly fine.  Ipad 2 on the other hand, looks worse with similar ppi resolution.

Um. Are you guys just not realizing that the Ipad 4 doesn't exist yet? Apple just announced the IPad MINI, not the IPad 4.

Mmmmm, never thought of that, could be right.

They did announce Ipad 4. Not sure what you mean either. 

http://www.apple.com/ipad/overview/

It's more of just a slight refresh. It has an A6X SoC (previously A5X) for double the cpu power and double the gpu power, they updated the front facing camera to HD (previously was VGA). It also has the new Lightning connector that debuted on the iphone 5. (instead of the old 30 pin connector). Same price as the ipad 3rd gen.

Isn't iPad Retina (4) a revision of the New iPad (3)?
They didn't even mentioned the "New iPad", only iPad mini, 2 and Retina.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6385/microsoft-surface-review/5

This isn’t to say that Surface’s display is bad, in fact I think it’s quite good and I’d argue that it was never a problem in my testing, but it’s definitely not the best on the market today. I’m also not sure how much of this has to do with Microsoft’s panel selection vs. software calibration. None of my calibration tools work under Windows RT so I couldn’t really tell you.

http://www.theverge.com/2012/10/23/3540550/microsoft-surface-review

The display on the Surface is — as mentioned — a 16:9 screen, which means wide but not very tall. The display uses Microsoft's ClearType technology, which supposedly produces better looking graphics and typography, even against displays with a much higher resolution (hello new iPad). The colors and blacks on the 10.6-inch screen do look stunning, but all the technology in the world can't make up for pixels that aren't there. At the size of the Surface screen, 1366 x 768 resolution leaves much to be desired — and even though things are sharp, text and some of the starker elements of the Microsoft's new UI would clearly benefit from a higher res display.

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2012/10/microsofts-first-stab-at-a-pc-surface-reviewed/4/

To prove its point, Microsoft set up a blind test. A Surface and a "Retina display" third-generation iPad were placed side-by-side with their bezels and logos hidden, so that we could not see which was which. In a scenario with relatively bright and even ambient light, at viewing distances typical of regular laptop usage, the Surface more than held its own against the iPad, with Microsoft's device producing both text and images that were clearer and easier to read than Apple's thanks to reduced glare and better perceived contrast.

There's nothing wrong with Microsoft's science as such. It's just that it doesn't tell the whole story. Tablets are designed to be picked up and held. Do that and you tend to bring the device closer to your eyes, pushing the advantage in Apple's favor. Reduce the level of ambient lighting and again the advantage tilts back in Apple's favor.

So while there are certainly situations where Microsoft's screen looks better than Apple's—and these situations might even be commonplace if we were comparing laptops—as a tablet screen it would be better served with a higher resolution. If that means that battery life is worse, the solution is to enlarge the battery. After all, Apple manages to cram a 42.5Wh battery into the iPad, and the iPad is ever so slightly lighter than the Surface.

The ipad 4th gen is replacing the ipad 3rd gen and it will sell at the same pricepoint as the previous ipad 3rd gen. Apple will be selling the ipad 2, ipad mini and the ipad 4th gen from now on. They announced it during their special event just before introducing the ipad mini.

I see the surprise bump to fourth gen iPad as an admission of two things:

1. Apple really wishes that it had the A6 ready for the third gen iPad, but they didn't, so they designed the A5X as a stopgap until they could design an SoC that would drive four times the pixels with the same performance as the A5 drives 1024 x 768. Now the iPad can run games at full rez without dropping frames or effects (though God I wish developers would let it scale if their game already has a choppy framerate) compared to iPad 2.

2. It's going to be at least nine more months until IGZO displays will be ready and suitable for the iPad, which is the only way the size and weight of the device is going to substantially change.

The competition? I expect Amazon and Google will keep burning cash in the hope that it will turn into profit somewhere down the line, while I think MS may succeed in satisfying the most demanding users. I suspect the users Microsoft attracts with Windows on tablets will be somewhat smaller than the users it will lose to the competition, though.