Microsoft Surface Made By Pegatron, Could Cost Above $599

On Monday, Microsoft unveiled to the world a new product that breaks from tradition, the Microsoft Surface, its own Windows 8-powered tablet PC.

While offering a variety of details on the tablet’s features and capabilities, as well as on its new, revolutionary design, the company did not provide specific info on who is making it, nor on the price tag it could feature when released. There will be two Microsoft Surface models launched in the coming months, one powered by Windows RT and the other running under Windows 8 Pro, both of them featuring 10.6-inch screens. According to a recent article on DigiTimes, the Surface tablets would be manufactured by Pegatron Technology, yet no info on order volumes was made available. Citing sources “from notebook players,” the news site also notes that Microsoft would have the Windows RT tablet, which sports a Tegra 3 CPU, priced at $599 (€473) or above, while putting a price tag of $799 (€630) or above on the Windows 8 Pro-based slate, which is powered by an Ivy Bridge processor.

When making the two devices official, Microsoft avoided offering info on their market cost, but it said that they would be priced in line with rival tablets (for the Windows RT flavor) and ultrabooks (for the Windows 8 Pro version) available on shelves today. The industrial design that Microsoft built the Surface tablets with should appeal a lot to customers in the enterprise market, yet their high prices might prove to be deal breakers. Both Surface slates managed to impress from the start, and they are expected to prove successful among end-users as well.

However, they will also put Microsoft in the position of directly competing against its hardware manufacturing partners who also plan the release of Windows 8 and Windows RT-based tablet PCs. The Microsoft Surface for Windows RT slate is expected to become available for purchase when Windows 8 is released on the market, while Surface for Windows 8 Pro should hit shelves about three months later.

Posted in: Preview, Tablet