According to a myriad of online sources, market research firm IDC has told CNET that Microsoft is expected to build more than 3 million of its hotly anticipated Surface tablet devices for the 2012 calendar year.
The devices are expected to feature either Intel x86 or ARM microprocessors. According to Bob O’Donnell of IDC, the ARM powered Surface RT will not support past iterations of Windows software (Windows 7 and older) while the Intel powered Windows 8 Pro devices will run the so-called “legacy” software.
Although Microsoft is opening retail outlets, it is likely that they will continue to rely on other third part retailers, making for a much wider distribution strategy. The devices, which are expected to begin selling on October 26, 2012 will follow the highly anticipated Windows 8 launch earlier in the month, making for a very important quarter in Microsoft’s recent history.
To date, nothing official has been released relating the devices pricing, there are several theories being floated around. According to a blog post from former Microsoft manager Hal Berenson, Microsoft will price the Surface at $199 with a subscription plan. The price point and strategy are said to be based off of Microsoft’s experience with the Xbox gaming console and have implemented a similar strategy with Office 365 Home Premium.
While the above price point is contended by some, O’Donnell included, it would be a very attractive starting point for a seriously powerful device. Microsoft is aiming to take tablet computing to a much more work-centric place and given its power and awesome cover/keyboard (TQ was on it), it seems to have a ton to offer. Check out this aftermarket Wedge Mobile Keyboard being offered from Microsoft for even more serious tablet users (shouts to Mashable).
Microsoft has not had a tremendous amount of success in hardware sales in the past, regardless of that however they are putting a lot behind the Surface devices. While some partner hardware firms such as Acer have had less than nice things to say about that, others like TQ favourite Lenovo are prepared for the challenge and feel confident about their chances (shouts to AllThingsD).
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it requires a peutinm 4 with 512 mb of ram. I have it running very fast, faster that 3.6 on a peutinm 3 with 256mb of ram. 3.6 r were only 128 mb of ram. I figured the recommended system requirements would double between 3.6 and 4, but not quadruple. If I had read them before hand I would not have bothered installing firefox 4. I think you are turning off many people by making them so high, and that you did not actually test the minimum system specs but just guessed. You realize that the system specs may be dependent partially on the system specs of the os. So vista and windows 7 will run much higher than xp and 2000, or win9x with kernelx.I am running ubuntu with the light lxde desktop so my system reqirements are lower than someone running it with the default gnome desktop.