Ummmm...No. Microsoft has nothing to do with these articles. Surface 2 was launched without such articles appearing. The only reason the tech press is saying Apple is copying Microsoft is because Apple IS copying Microsoft.
It just so happens that you can't handle the truth. It's much easier for the typical Appplebot fanatic to believe crazy conspiracy theories with ZERO evidence to back it up than to accept that Apple regularly steals ideas from others and has been doing so for decades.
Listen, if you want to believe in little green men from Mars there is very little me or anyone can do about it. So go right ahead with your crazy conspiracy theories.
Please give any evidence you have that Apple is copying Microsoft. . . any at all. Show that Apple has released a full OS tablet/laptop convertible. You cannot. Show that Apple is in any way duplicated the functionality of the Microsoft Surface. You cannot. Show even that the Apple Pencil works at all like the stylus that comes with the Microsoft Surface. You again cannot. . . because the Apple Pencil functionality is far more than the MS stylus' functionality. . . and there were iPad styluses, detachable keyboards, and other functions available in the Apple iPad ecosystem before Microsoft even thought of making a tablet/laptop hybrid.
The ONLY ONE HERE WHO CANNOT HANDLE THE TRUTH is you. I can prove every one of my contentions with links to the products and the dates PREDATING the introduction of any surface hardware from Microsoft. You cannot. In fact, I already have for the keyboards.
Microsoft has a history of astroturf marketing and in fact were the originators of the FUD campaign style of marketing. This is history. There is no myth about it. YOU are the one who claims that "Apple regularly steals ideas from others and has been doing so for decades" but offers no evidence except your unsupported innuendo and YOU claim I believe in conspiracy theories. You are probably one who still believes Apple stole the GUI from Xerox. . .