Hasta La Gadget!

A relatively reliable MSFT tipster @MS_nerd recently tweeted that Redmond will release three new and distinct generations of the Surface tablet sometime in 2013.

Ballmer recently said on a shareholders’ call that the company would never again let hardware or anything else stand as a barrier to innovation, admitting that Microsoft was late to the game (especially with the tablet).

It only makes sense that they would go big with both Surface and Windows 8, making up for lost time with plenty of shapes and sizes. After all, the company bet a lot on the popularity of a brand-new Microsoft, complete with Metro, touch, and true entry into the hardware space.

The first tablet is said to be an 8.6-inch Surface RT 2, running on a Qualcomm chipset instead of the NVIDIA Tegra 3 chip. The Microsoft Pro will allegedly upgrade to an 11.6-inch display with an unreleased AMD “Temash” APU, and a new Surface Book product will sport a hefty 14.6-inch display with a next-gen 22nm “Haswell” chip from Intel under the hood.

It’s interesting that none of the new models have the same 10.6-inch screen size as current-generation Surface RT and Pro slates do. However, in our reviews, we felt the form factor was a bit awkward and larger than the tablet that currently dominates the large tablet space, the 9.7-inch iPad.

And then there’s Amazon and Google’s 7- to 8-inch offerings, and Barnes & Noble, and we can’t forget the iPad Mini now, either. Microsoft is late to a very feisty and competitive game, and a big push is necessary. And so far Surface sales have been slow going.

The breadth of the lineup also sounds plausible alongside rumors of a Surface phone, as DigiTimes recently reported that Microsoft has sent orders to Foxconn for a self-branded and Microsoft-designed Surface phone.

Of course, it’ll still be a while. Though the tipster specified 2013, I wouldn’t expect to see new models in stores until the holidays next year.

When Microsoft first unveiled the Surface tablet, we were impressed at how well built it was and subsequent reviews of the tablet have been generally positive. However according to a report by Digitimes, their sources have indicated to them that Microsoft has reduced the number of orders for the Surface RT tablet by half for the remainder of 2012. Microsoft had originally estimated that they would be shipping 4 million units, but have now reduced the order to 2 million units. Now it’s not because the Surface tablet is bad or anything as Digitimes’ sources have pointed out that other tablet manufacturers such as Samsung, ASUS and Dell are facing weak consumer demand.

That being said, it has been speculated that due to this weak consumer demand, Microsoft could be set to introduce the Surface Pro tablet running on an Intel chipset sometime in December. Microsoft is also rumored to reduce the price of the Surface Pro tablet in order to make it a more attractive purchase, although Digitimes notes that this could further strain relationships with Microsoft’s OEM partners who weren’t too happy with the release of the Surface tablet in the first place. In any case we’ll be taking this rumor with a grain of salt and suggest you do the same, but we’ll keep our eyes peeled nonetheless.

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Those teardown-and-cost-estimation whizzes over at iSuppli have torn apart Microsoft’s new hero device, and it looks like Microsoft has baked in a healthy profit margin into ever Surface sold. The least expensive Surface starts at $500 and comes with 32GB of NAND flash. If you want a Touch Cover (and you want a Touch Cover) the total comes up to a cool $600. However, the total cost of materials, according to IHS is only $284. Amazon and Google may be barely breaking even with their tablets, but Microsoft’s is firmly in Apple’s profit-up-front camp. In fact, the Microsoft Surface RT is more profitable than the iPad, not counting marketing and R&D costs.  (more…)

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Microsoft Surface RT Review, Microsoft Surface pre-orders canceled?,