Microsoft’s Windows RT Surface tablet
is expected to have a price tag of at least $600, according to a report from DigiTimes. Citing unnamed sources, DigiTimes also reported that the Windows 8 Pro Surface would be priced at $800 or more, making it significantly more expensive than any other big-name tablet currently on the market. If those numbers are correct, it means that Microsoft’s cheapest tablet will be at minimum $100 more expensive than the cheapest Apple iPad and $300 more expensive than the Amazon Kindle Fire. DigiTimes notes that pricing its tablets so expensively is a “risky strategy” for Microsoft since it “is only expected to receive limited profits from its own-brand tablet PC products” while potentially “greatly offending” its original equipment manufacturer partners.
