Microsoft have confirmed that their new Surface tablet will be launched on the same day as Windows 8, October 8th. They said “The next version of our operating system, Windows 8, will be generally available on October 26, 2012. At that time, we will begin selling the Surface, a series of Microsoft-designed and manufactured hardware devices.”

The initial launch will be for the Windows RT tablets only. The Intel based Surface Pro will be expected to launch 3 months later, according to the Microsoft report.

They said in their annual report “In fall 2012, we are launching Windows 8…Its success depends on a number of factors including the extent to which customers embrace its new user interface and functionality, successfully coordinating with our OEM partners in releasing a variety of hardware devices that take advantage of its features, and attracting developers at scale to ensure a competitive array of quality applications. We expect to incur substantial marketing costs in launching Window 8 and associated services and devices, which may reduce our operating margins.”

Microsoft are releasing an ‘RT' version of the Surface tablet which will support ARM processors. The ‘PRO' version will work with Ivy Bridge processors. While their pricing has been mentioned already, they did say that their tablets will be priced close to an ‘ARM tablet' or ‘Intel Ultrabook-class PC'. When we factor in that an ‘Intel Ultrabook PC' can often cost £1,000 it looks like the PRO version of the tablet is going to hit consumers hard. Whether Microsoft make the tablet tempting enough for people to part with this amount of money has yet to be proven.

Kitguru says: October 8th is the big date for Microsoft. Are you buying?

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