Dueling disks: Apple's 128GB response to Surface Pro

With the 128GB iPad, Apple is obviously trying to steal thunder from Microsoft's Saturday roll outof the Surface Pro. But that doesn't mean you can equate the iPad's disk performance with the Surface Pro's.Apple's carefully-timedrelease ofthe 128GB iPadostensibly puts the iPad's storage on par with Microsoft's 128GB Surface Pro, which willgo on sale Saturday.Well, not quite.Apple is using a flash drive optimized for power efficiency, while Microsoft's solid-state drivefavors speed -- the same kind of drive used in ultrabooks. (And Apple's MacBooks, for that matter.)"Apple is using something that's more optimized for cost/power/form factor while Microsoft is using the type of SSD you'd stick in a high-end Ultrabook or other PC," Anand Shimpi of Anandtech, told CNET.For the Surface Pro, Microsoft went with an SSD based on the mSATAinterface, according to Michael Yang, a memory and storage analyst at IHS iSuppli. And Microsoft confirmed the mSATA interface today with CNET.