Microsoft Surface RT price announced

Pricing like an iPad, fewer apps than Android tablets, and no way to run legacy Windows applications. It's hard to see what the selling point is here.

$110 for the soft keyboard cover, $120 for the hard keyboard cover. They think $10 difference is big enough for giving customers confusion of choice.<p>It's still the same company that released 6 editions of Vista.

So with a price similar to the iPad it's obvious MS doesn't want to compete on price but rather on features. Well good luck on that.

Really hoped that it will be priced lower than that. Now it's very uncertain if this will be a hit with the Windows Store Apps so few and developers still not convinced about the platform as well.<p>It's still $100 cheaper than the 32GB iPad but storage is useless if you don't have Apps to fill it.

Interesting that there's no mention of Office in the screenshot. I had assumed that at that price the inclusion of it would be the differentiator over the iPad since the Surface RT app ecosystem is minimal right now.<p>Personally, I'd have a very hard time recommending this as a purchase. I'm much more bullish on Surface Pro as its legacy support can mitigate any Win8 App Store holes.

Wow, it doesn't have 3G standard! If it came with 3G I think this pricing would be acceptable. As it is, good luck MS!

As early adopter of WP7, i'll make that mistake again. Those devices always looks great on commercials and (biased) reviews, but when you start using them on daily basis you notice that they're missing some important features (like buggy notifications on WP7).<p>Also, metro apps often crashes on my desktop Win8 rtm, and not third party-ones ....

Terrible strategy by Microsoft. Don't they realize they are behind in the race? MS Phone still has no devs...The iPad is viewed as "cooler". Average users won't see the tech differences between the iPad and Surface. At the same price they'll pick the iPad because it's "cooler" and the Joneses have it too.

I really like the look of this. I don't mind Windows and if I didn't have an iPad - which I only use for consuming content and browsing the web - I would probably consider getting one. Maybe when Apple stops supporting iPad2 eh?<p>The problem for me is the price. With Apple you know you are paying a premium for what is a luxury item.<p>Microsoft's brand to me isn't luxury. Its functional or economical. Its like the XBOX. Its a nice system but its middle of range in terms of cost, design and specs. Maybe this is the start of Microsoft re-branding? The trouble is I still have memories of cheap laptops taking a minute+ to boot up running windows. I associate these horrible machines with the Microsoft brand. This is why I find it hard to see myself paying what is essentially an Apple price for a Microsoft product.

I like the idea of windows 8, just not the execution. If MS' future is Metro, they should have went the iOS route with dedicated devices -- windows phone 8 and windows tablet metro that run the same apps -- and eventually added classic desktop as an app when x86 emulation was good enough on arm.<p>There should had been a clear distinction between the two environments. As it stands now, metro is billed as the only start menu on x86 devices, but the full os on RT devices. This is confusing and offers no compelling reason to buy the RT version.<p>I see Apple releasing OSX as an iOS app in the near (&#62;=5 years) future. The reason that will work for them is because iOS is a standalone brand that people understand.<p>Just my 2¢, I'm not a windows user.

For those who don't like TC, $499, $599, or $699. According to the mistakenly launched product page.

The only way I'd get an RT tablet is if all of the XP (yes, I'm still using it!) programs I use came out with an RT version. That's very unlikely. Is there still a controversy over Firefox having an RT version, btw?<p>I'll wait for the full 8 Surface -- but if the rumored $899-$999 pricing for that is true, I might wait and wait and wait for prices to drop.

Not the price point many people were hoping for.<p>So now I have to do a "proof of concept" that I can use it for business - I'm going to download Win8 and test apps before I ever buy the tablet.

If you read Hacker News, this product isn't aimed at you, sorry...

The new TV ad is here <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mSckyoAMHg" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mSckyoAMHg</a><p>The Surface RT does some things better than the iPad. For example, it has a MicroSD slot and a full USB port. The side-by-side multitasking view is pretty nice to put a chat or Twitter client while browsing/working etc. The built in snap out stand is also pretty cool.

Still no information on battery life.