Microsoft's Surface Pro is certainly 'Pro' priced

If you were one of the 3 or 4 people considering buying a Surface tablet, but were hesitant because it didn't run legacy applications... then today might be a reason to celebrate. Microsoft has announced the Surface Pro will be available in January 2013 for a starting price of $899.

Wait.... nine hundred dollars? Seriously, Microsoft? Apple's most expensive iPad costs $829 and that is with 3G connectivity. Google's new 10-inch tablet is $499 for the 32GB version. What were you thinking by making an unproven tablet cost more than a touchscreen laptop with better specs? Are you mad at money? Because I don't think you'll be getting any.

I should mention, the $899 price tag is just for the tablet. If you want the keyboard, you will have to dish out an additional $119 for the Touch cover, or $129 for the Type cover. So in reality, if you were going to purchase a Microsoft Surface Pro tablet, be prepared to spend in excess of $1,000. Or you could, ya know... buy a touchscreen ultrabook for a few hundred less, and it already comes with a keyboard!

Alright, enough with the Surface bashing. What are some good things about the Surface Pro? Umm.... you can load legacy Windows apps! So for those that really want to have a copy of Lotus Notes, you can! The Pro will also support Pen input so you are able to take notes with the tablet with a pen stylus thing that I'm sure will have an additional cost of at least $20. Legacy apps, pen input... and that's about it. Are those two things worth the additional cost? I don't think so.

Microsoft has been touting that their app store now has over 12,000 apps available, which would have been impressive in 2009. The Apple App Store as well as the Google Play Store both have apps well above the 700,000 mark, so I don't know who Microsoft thinks they are impressing.

And I may be wrong! I was wrong about the iPad! I thought it was a dumb idea, and nobody would spend that kind of money if they had a phone and a computer. Boy was I wrong! Microsoft may pull a fast one and get some of the market share with its Surface tablet family... but the reviews don't even come close to suggesting it.