Microsoft’s Windows 8 operating system goes on sale on October 26th, and so does the company’s first Surface tablet. In fact, The Verge reports that Microsoft will start selling the Surface tablet at midnight on the 26th at select Microsoft Stores and pop-up store locations.

What we still don’t know is how much the tablet will cost.

Microsoft Surface

Microsoft actually has two versions of the Surface tablet in the works. The one coming on October 26th features an NVIDIA Tegra ARM-based processor and Windows RT operating system.

It has a 10.6 inch Gorilla Glass display, 32GB to 64GB of storage, a built-in kickstand, and a cover that doubles as a keyboard. It measures 0.37 inches thick and weighs 1.5 pounds. The tablet has a USB 2.0 port, micro HDMI port, microSD card slot, and features a 31.5 Whr battery.

Later on Microsoft will also offer a Surface Pro tablet with Windows 8 Pro software, an x86 processor, up to 128GB of storage, a 42 Whr battery, a full HD 1920 x 1080 pixel screen, and a mini DisplayPort and USB 3.0 port.

Microsoft hasn’t announce pricing for either version of the Surface yet, but insists the tablets will feature “competitive” price tags… whatever that means.

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12 replies on “Microsoft Surface goes on sale at midnight, October 26th… price TBA”

  1. Because we don’t know pricing yet the newly announced Acer Win8 tablet running a Core i3 is the best bang for buck at $800. Same screen, 64 gig SSD and 4 gig RAM with all sorts of ports. It makes the Atom based units look like junk especially because they are priced the same. The Windows RT tablets, assuming that the Core variants of these tablets drive the pricing down on the Atom based models, look to be a no start.

  2. 3 weeks away and Microsoft has not even announced the pricing for their Surface tablets – this is an absolute blunder of a marketing job. If they had their act straight, pricing should’ve been set weeks ago, a marketing blitz should’ve occurred to entice prospective tablet buyers why they should buy the Surface other than it has a nice kickstand, a colorful and cool snap-attach keyboard, and a new operating system. Pre-orders through online sales should’ve been ramping up hot and heavy leading up to the launch, information on their pop up box stores should have disseminated, and what else is missing other than everything? Get your act straight Microsoft!

  3. i live in Canada, there is no Microsoft store near me… Is Bestbuy/Futureshop going to carry the RT? I want this thing the first day, take my money….

  4. Microsoft have kicked themselves in the teeth with this launch. I was always going to get one however they have delayed pricing info and other information for way too long. Just been out and bought a Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1. Unlucky microsoft!

  5. Microsoft should have already anounced pricing of this device. I personally think this will hurt sales of something that appears to be exciting.
    I am glad I have 2 of the best tablets available Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, and the Asus Transformer Infinity 700 both Android of course. However I do plane on adding the Surface Pro version unless pricing is off the charts. If the US price is $1000.00 USD this means it is â‚©1,113,295 KRW. I guess only time will tell.

  6. Midnight? What about pre-orders? I am nowhere near a Microsoft Store nor will we have a pop up store.

  7. Well… After this I don’t think they’ll be able to just flounder any longer. It’s sink or swim time in Redmond. Too bad I don’t have a lot of faith in them swimming when their business plan seems to be:

    Step One: Anger customers by forcing something on them they don’t want and seems to be poorly optimized for every environment it’s supposed to sell to instead of just one or two.
    Step Two: Anger OEMs by directly competing with them.
    Step Three: Anger Busienss Customers with a OS that requires massive retraining and a server product with Metro that is harder to control via the command line than previous editions.
    Step Four: Anger Regulatory Oversight organizations by violating agreements then making a leverage play that directly leverages their ‘monopoly’.
    Step Five: Profit?

    We’ll see. The server guys at my work are promoting the joys of Linux. All of the SEs are busily converting all our business applications to using a web interface so end up platform agnositc and able to use thin clients for everything or just leave the existing computers on desks until they die. We’ll see what happens, but I think their days of extorting massive support contracts out of business are numbered, and I’m expecting a really tepid consumer market response to Win8 except among the die hard Microsoft fans…

    Hope I’m wrong. Beyond that path lies chaos. Then again chaos might be an improvement if something good came from it.

    1. Uh, there’s a few misconceptions… the most notable one being the Server edition. It’s actually easier to control and allows a lot of options.

      For starters you can install it without the GUI, or with just a basic GUI, or the full GUI but you can also always uninstall the GUI without re-installing or install the GUI without re-installing.

      You should check out CBT Nuggets (they make IT videos) on youtube. They got a pretty good intro and summary on the features of Microsoft Server 2012.

      Powershell is improved, remote management is improved, it’s more of a all in one package, there’s some free options as well (Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2012), etc.

    2. #1 Plenty of people love what microsoft is doing with win 8. Just because you don’t like it doesn’t mean everyone else doesn’t!
      #2 OEM need shaking up. Too much of the same stuff in my opinion. Keeps them on their toes.
      #3 They can easily stick with win 7… why would businesses even really need win 8? In any case most businesses take forever to upgrade so it isn’t a current issue.
      #4 whatever
      #5 Go complain about apple if you want to complain about profits.

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