Surface Pro Aims High Price Tag at Enterprise
Surface Pro Aims High Price Tag at Enterprise by UCStrategies Staff
The Microsoft Surface Pro Windows 8 tablet is due for release in January 2013. Microsoft Surface executive Panos Panay recently blogged that the price tag on the tablet will be $899 for a Surface Pro with Windows 8 and 64GB of flash storage, and $999 for the 128GB version; prices comparable to the Ultrabook.
The catch is, although the Surface Pro package comes with a Surface Pen stylus, it will not include a Type Cover or a Touch Cover. That means if you want either, you will have to spend an extra $129 for the Type Cover or $119 for the Touch Cover.
To put this into perspective, the Microsoft Surface RT with 32GB of storage without a cover had a price tag of $499, with an extra $100 for the Touch Cover. The 64GB version of the Windows RT Surface, with a black Touch Cover, was $699.
Does the Surface Pro compare favorably to an Ultrabook? Judging by the specs, it would seem so. Although it has no keyboard, the Surface Pro has:
“It’s clear with the Surface Pro pricing Microsoft is targeting notebooks, not tablets,” said Patrick Moorhead, principal analyst with Moor Insights. “Very few people will pay $899 for a tablet but they will for a notebook. The Surface Pro with the Type Cover makes a very nice compact and light solution.”
“I’ve given up on having Surface RT compete with an iPad,” Moorhead added. “To do that, it would need to be priced at $699. But it isn’t. Therefore, I am looking at it through the new lens of a notebook. Microsoft won’t sell nearly as many at $899 as they would at $699, and overall, they won’t sell many.”
Could the Surface Pro become the ultimate business tablet? In the field of enterprise, the Surface Pro has no strong competition. Although numerous enterprise environments use the iPad, any potential business client competition from the RIM PlayBook and Cisco Cius no longer exists.
Perhaps the price tag is not such a big deal after all. Within enterprise circles such products are measured by their capabilities rather than their prices, particularly when the value of employee use increases. Features such as the Palm Block technology, which allows users to rest their hands on the tablet without negative effects, and the digitizer pen, will be attractive to IT creatives such as content creators, for example. Let’s not forget the most important aspect of the Surface Pro, which is its ability to run Windows 8. (CU) Link