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Home / News / Microsoft Surface price hinted as US$500 by Steve Ballmer

Microsoft Surface price hinted as US$500 by Steve Ballmer

That rumoured sub US$200 price tag has been thrown out the window by the Microsoft CEO himself

The Microsoft Surface is the most anticipated tablet since the iPad 3, and its price has the interwebs sparking rumour stories regularly.

The most prominent of these was the sub US$200 (£123) price that would pit it against the Nexus 7 and Amazon Kindle Fire. Now Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has said it absolutely won’t be that cheap. He says those low end tablets can’t offer the functionality more pricey ones do. Instead he compares it to laptop pricing of between US$300 (£185) and US$800 (£494) – calling the middle ground the sweet spot – suggesting a US$500 (£308) price.

Of course since there will be several storage options and two different Surface tablets, in the Windows RT version and the full Windows 8 Pro slate, prices will vary greatly. But it’s nice to see no mention of anything too pricey – he even brings up the iPad as a well priced device, suggesting that’s what he’s gunning for. But will adding a keyboard be enough to match Apple’s might? We’ll have to wait until the Surface’s October 29th release date to find out.

[Via CNET]

 

News story by Tony Horgan

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About

Dan is Editor-in-chief of Stuff, working across the magazine and the Stuff.tv website.  Our Editor-in-Chief is a regular at tech shows such as CES in Las Vegas, IFA in Berlin and Mobile World Congress in Barcelona as well as at other launches and events. He has been a CES Innovation Awards judge. Dan is completely platform agnostic and very at home using and writing about Windows, macOS, Android and iOS/iPadOS plus lots and lots of gadgets including audio and smart home gear, laptops and smartphones. He's also been interviewed and quoted in a wide variety of places including The Sun, BBC World Service, BBC News Online, BBC Radio 5Live, BBC Radio 4, Sky News Radio and BBC Local Radio.

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Computing, mobile, audio, smart home