@Tony...I second that. Those backgrounds do suck, big time! Similarly, I am not a fan of those new moving dragon backgrounds either (at least based on what I have seen thus far in some of the videos).
And, with reference to those charts depicting buying trends, I think what is at stake is the perception people have of devices. Here is an example from my place of work. So, we who are in a pure research role were given a budget to buy some devices for ourselves to aid us in our work. We were told that though our employer would pay for it, the devices were ours to keep, which was mighty generous of them. You guys can probably guess what I bought for myself! But the case that I am referring to is about a colleague of mine, who is a scientist. She used her budget to buy the iPad mini. Now, recently we were at a seminar together and she saw me there with my RT. I was banging away on the keyboard catching up with some emails. She was immediately intrigued by it. She asked me the usual questions about the RT, which I dutifully answered. She was particularly fascinated by (1) the Office suite and (2) the tear-away keyboard!!!! She also remarked that if she had known about the Surface she would have probably opted for it. But the fact is - all reasons aside - that she did not. When I asked her why she bought the iPad mini and not the Nexus 7 (same or similar profile), her reply was that it is - within quotes - "oh so popular..."!