Prices for four versions of Microsoft’s yet-to-be-released Surface tablets have appeared online via Swedish retailer Webhallen.com, ranging from €825 up to €1,170.
Microsoft has remained tight-lipped about the price of its upcoming Surface tablets, omitting this crucial detail at the product launch. The only indication of price given by Microsoft so far is that the tablet computers will be priced competitively with similar devices, but if the price tags on Webhallen.com are to be believed, this is far from the truth.
The online retailer lists four Surface devices: 32GB and 64GB versions of the Windows RT model, and 64GB and 128GB versions of the Windows 8 Pro model. The pre-release prices listed for these devices are €825, €1,179, €1,534 and €1,770 respectively, placing them far beyond the cost of rival devices.
It was expected that the Pro model’s price would reflect those of ultrabook laptops, which are usually priced in and around the €1,000 mark, and the latest iPad starts at just €479 – nearly half the cost of the lowest-priced Surface.
Prices have yet to be confirmed by Microsoft and Webhallen.com may just be speculating as high as can be expected so that customers who place pre-orders aren’t shocked by a price increase when the official RRP is revealed. The product pages themselves bear the disclaimer (in Swedish) that the price, image, product description and release date are preliminary and subject to change.
UPDATE: Techie Buzz reached out to Webhallen.com for a statement on the prices and, as we expected, they have been confirmed as speculative.“Our customers are very interested in pre-ordering these products, so we have set a high preliminary pricing for the line-up so that they may be able to pre-order them,” said the statement. “Just to clarify, we have not received any pricing from Microsoft regarding MRSP or purchasing net cost, and any people who have booked the Surface at this high price will of course have their order adjusted before any product is shipped. So we’re not going to overcharge anyone for being an early adopter.”
Article originally published on 26 July 2012 at 12.40pm
