“This week, some online pundits speculated about the possible pricing for Microsoft’s ARM-based Surface, which will run Windows 8 RT. This is the model that appears to be most directly competitive with the iPad, at least based on the preliminary specs that, a little over two months from the alleged release date, still remain preliminary,” Gene Steinberg writes for Tech Night Owl. “One story had it that Microsoft was hot for market share, and thus would sell this 10.6-inch tablet for $199, to compete with the Amazon Kindle Fire and the Google Nexus 7. But that’s not a story that I can take seriously.”
“The larger question, however, is whether Microsoft really intends to produce such a beast, and whether it will show up as promised around the same time as Windows 8, on October 26, 2012. At this point in time, the Surface tablets ought to be in the early stages of a production ramp. So all the specs would be known, and Microsoft would have a glimmer of an idea as to what the prices will be,” Steinberg writes. “More to the point, you’d think the media would be allowed more than 10 seconds to try one out rather than depend on a buggy and limited access demo to prove the product isn’t vapor. There’s little reason to assume that the Surface was anything more than a design concept presented as a wake up call to Windows OEMs who have announced tablets that are one step below garbage.”
Steinberg writes, “Microsoft has given no reason for anyone to accept the Surface as more than a preliminary and highly incomplete prototype. True, announcements may be made in the next few weeks that will invalidate that theory. But until that happens, if it happens, I find it curious that the media is again giving Microsoft a pass.”
Read more in the full article here.
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