Earlier in the month of June, Microsoft stunned everybody by unveiling Surface, their first addition to the tablet market in a special media event. In that unveil event however, Microsoft not only failed to mention detailed specs but also its release date.
Courtesy of recently revealed Microsoft’s filing with the Security and Exchange Commission that come October 26 it will launch both Windows 8 operating system for consumers and the the touch-optimized Metro UI-sporting Windows 8 Surface tablet as well.
According to Microsoft’s 10-K filing with the Security and Exchange Commission (viaAllThingsD):
The next version of our operating system, Windows 8, will be generally available on October 26, 2012. At that time, we will begin selling the Surface, a series of Microsoft-designed and manufactured hardware devices.
According to the price-tag that Microsoft has set for its tablet, the Surface is designed to compete with the iPad on the high-end. With Surface’s capability of running a full Windows 8 OS in a tablet style (unlike iPad with its mobile iOS platform), Surface can very well be considered to be included in the ultra-notebook category.
Till now Microsoft has only unveiled that the tablets will feature a 10.6-inch ClearType HD display with 16:9 aspect ratio and Corning Gorilla Glass 2 technology, an Intel Core Ivy Bridge processor / an ARM-based CPU by NVIDIA. The RT version will be available in 32GB and 64Gb versions and the pro version will be available in higher capacities. Also there will be USB 2.0 ports available in the RT version and there might be USB 3.0 ports available in the PRo version.
The timing couldn’t be better since all of it’s competitor are done releasing their tablet devices to the masses already, only Microsoft is left to release its arsenal now.
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