Ouch. Or yay? Microsoft Surface 32GB model rumour price at $1000/£648?

This is not the official price but the first indications so far on the price of the ARM based 32GB Microsoft Surface tablet.

Hopeful Nokia fans (and other fans of other manufacturers possibly dealing with W8) were wishing this was simply a reference design of sorts, something to push other manufacturers into upping their game for W8 tablets. Hence they wished it would be priced a little higher than usual. Normally for a successful tablet, it would have to be cheap. Cheaper than the iPad. If priced the same as the iPad, folks tend to just buy an iPad. (e.g. Amazon’s kindle fire tablets or ASUS’s Google Nexus 7s that are apparently sold at loss – though big gains for google eventually in gaining a new customer to sell ads to.)

For comparison, a 32GB iPad costs $599 for 2G and $729 for 3G/4G. The 64GB c3G/4G model is $829. A higher price might have been warranted in the Intel version of MS Surface, not ARM.

At $1000, that gives Nokia some room to compete. Well, should it even decide to compete in the tablet space. As of now, they’re quire focused on their phones (and thus have no excuse come fall if it sucks. It better not, dammit! The iThings are getting more tempting, especially with the med school dishing out iPads for free). I’d like a W8 tablet to try but for me, I can’t justify that price considering what else is available on the market. Hopefully Nokia delivers something great on specs, great on price. We’ve seen Nokia produce an absolutely stunning work of art with their first Windows Device, from 2009 – the Nokia Booklet 3G. But it was underpowered and overpriced and so never got anywhere. It was very nice to use and quite amazing that I wouldn’t have to see the face of a charger for a while or need to be in the vicinity of WiFi networks to get any work/blogging done.

Source: WPCentral via TB via @DhruvBhutani

Category: Nokia