Steve Ballmer says that the new gadget won’t be a cheap one

Sep 17, 2012 11:59 GMT  ·  By

Many were excited about the prospect that Microsoft’s next-generation tablet would actually come priced around the $200 mark. The rumors were so numerous that even the tablet makers started showing their disappointment about having to compete with Microsoft.

The most vocal was Acer’s Chairman, Mr. JT Wang, who has actually criticized the software maker for creating a tablet that would basically steal customers from Acer.

Acer is and will continue to be a Microsoft customer, as many of the company’s products ship with Microsoft operating systems and future tablets will adopt the new Windows 8 software. Windows 8 or Windows RT tablets are considerably costly to make compared to Android tablets, as the Redmond giant is charging quite a big fee for its software, while Google’s OS is free.

Therefore, it’s understandable why tablet makers were upset with Microsoft’s Surface pricing plans, as the OS maker is not actually paying anything for the software it makes itself.

Lenovo also commented on the issue, claiming that it would make a better tablet than Microsoft anytime.

To make things a little clearer and probably to ease the minds of its partners, Microsoft’s CEO, Mr. Steve Ballmer, has reportedly recently commented on the issue as follows:

"If you look at the bulk of the PC market, it would run between, say, probably $300 to about $700 or $800.

That's the sweet spot."

This leads us to believe that there will be models priced around the $500 mark, but considering that this is Microsoft’s initiative to go against Apple’s iPad, we believe that the pricing will also be comparable, as the maker doesn’t want to look like a cheap alternative.

Therefore, we might as well see models reaching a high $800 price, as Mr. Ballmer even criticized cheaper devices arguing that those are also less capable.