14 DAY TRIAL // Even though sales of the Surface RT are far from impressive according to some estimates, the Surface with Windows 8 Pro is expected to revamp the growing Surface family of products.
The device is scheduled to be released in just a few weeks, as production has already started, according to Panos Panay, the man in charge with the Surface business at Microsoft.
Since it’ll run the full version of Windows 8 and it’ll offer support for legacy Windows apps, the Surface Pro is very likely to compete with laptops and ultrabooks already on the market. And as far as German software maker SAP is concerned, the Surface Pro is the better choice.
The company confirmed for The Times of India its plans to buy Surface Pro tablets for all employees instead of laptops and several other firms are expected to do the same thing soon after general availability.
The second tablet included in the Surface product range will be offered in two different models, with pricing to start at $899 (€675) for the 64 GB version. The top-of-the-range tablet will come with 128 GB of storage space and a price tag of $999 (€750).
Microsoft won’t offer a Touch Cover with the Surface Pro, but the keyboard will be available separately, the company revealed last month.
Even though Panos Panay has confirmed that the Surface Pro had recently stepped into production, data provided by AdDuplex, a cross-platform ad network, indicates that Microsoft started testing the device in November 2012, soon after the public debut of the RT version.
“We’ve seen 41 Surface Pro installation so far with the first sighting on November 17, 2012,” Alan Mendelevich, founder of AdDuplex said in a tweet.
Microsoft is yet to officially announce the launch day of the Surface Pro, but according to our sources, the device is very likely to go live on January 29.