Rumor Points To Cheapest Microsoft Surface Tablet Starting At $1000 [Update: Phew, Nope!]

If you're a fan of Microsoft and are looking forward to the company's Surface line of tablets launching so you can get your hands on one, a new rumor has surfaced that may make you wince. According to this new rumor, the Surface tablets are going to be insanely expensive. A website from Sweden posted all four Surface tablet models along with pricing.

Where exactly the Swedish website came by its retail prices is unknown, and these could simply be guesses. However, when you convert the prices to US dollars the cheapest tablet works out to about $1000. The most expensive version of the tablet would be more than twice that much.

Microsoft is certainly proud of its products, and these prices may be accurate. However, these prices are way out of line with the rest of the tablet market. If Microsoft wants any chance of competing against the iPad with its new Surface tablets, it needs lower pricing. Take these prices with a huge grain of salt; they seem too high to believe. What do you think? Would Microsoft charge $1000 for each cheapest Surface tablet? Perhaps an insanely high price is the way Microsoft will capitulate to hardware partners who were angry it was getting into the hardware business.

Update: Thankfully this is a case of placeholder pricing, not Microsoft's official numbers. Webhallen tells Techie Buzz that in fact the pricing was plucked from thin air so that it could populate its pre-order pages:

"Our customers are very interested in pre-ordering these products, so we have set a high preliminary pricing for the lineup so that they may be able to pre-order them.

Just to clarify, we have not recieved any pricing from Microsoft regarding MRSP or purchasing net cost, and any people who have booked the Surface at this high price will of course have their order adjusted before any product is shipped. So we're not going to overcharge anyone for being an early adopter."

[via TheNextWeb]