I've seen requests for a touch screen MacBook since at least 2007.
Not much of a market does not imply no market. Not everything has to be mass market.
The market had spoken pretty clearly that there was no market for tablets prior to the iPad also.
Just because something does not exist at a certain point in time, that does not equate there being no market for it.
Else, none of us would have refrigerators, TVs, music playing devices, air conditioners, etc. sitting in our homes.
I, personally want a fully functional operating system in a touch screen tablet - not Android, not iOS. Windows, Linux or OS X. One I can take onto a construction site and carry with one hand while writing, making annotations and notes with the other - this certainly is not convenient with a notebook - and seamlessly moving between applications and having more than 1 app on screen at a time.
Sales of the Surface, I think reflect it's current price point and the low end hardware sitting in it, than anything else.
If it had a real video card in it, I would already have one sitting here.