Report: Microsoft Surface Tablet Costs at Least $300 to Make
Say goodbye to the $199 price point for Surface.
If Digitimes' information is correct, it is rather unlikely that Microsoft will be selling its highly anticipated Surface tablet for less than $200. The Surface RT hardware is estimated to cost somewhere between $300 and $400. The sources suggest that the "end-price" will be "less than $399".
Previous rumors that Surface will sell for $199 are now more wishful thinking than a likely reality. Selling the hardware more than $100 below the hardware cost, and shouldering all secondary cost would not be unusually aggressive for Microsoft. But it may be segment suicide that will not just affect Microsoft, but also its partners that would have to follow suit and offer $199 tablets as well. In a most aggressive case, Surface RT could be launching for $399, while we believe that a $499 price is much more likely given Microsoft's confidence in its product.
Also, let's remember that Microsoft has no history of severely discounting its product even under heavy pressure. This includes the now-dead Zune music player, which was launched against Apple's iPod, in a similar way as Surface is launched against the iPad, in late 2006.
The x86 version of Surface will be more expensive. The report states that the hardware cost of x86 Surface tablets will be between $400 and $500 and final products may cost somewhere between $500 and $700.

MS should have just focused on the x86 tablets and tried to bring prices under control. MS should not put any money into the RT version and should not waste money on developing software for it.
Seeing how Microsoft's goal is to kill off desktop Windows as soon as possible, I think the reverse may be more likely.
On the other hand, I am waiting for "the real" tablet with baited breath... I have no issue paying a small premium for the ability to run all my x86 software on what looks to be a decently spec'ed tablet
U most be an apple fan... there will be a surface x86/x64... Dont know the terms? go back to mac.
Now, I have been hearing rumors that the new B&N tablet will be $200 and include win8RT. That would be a great feature vs price point for entry level tablets that I think would sell very nicely. But then again it is just a rumor, so take it with a grain of salt. Personally I don't really care for the tablet form factor. I like big phones because I don't expect much so anything it can do is a nice plus, and I like desktops because you can add whatever you want to them; But the whole laptop/netbook/tablet form factor just has too many compromises for me, they are more of a necessary evil.
Windows RT is still Windows, even if the only point of software entry is the Windows Store. Expect to see the Windows Store have the same, if not more, applications available than iOS within 2 years due to the fact that there have already been millions of application written for windows, all the developers of that of that software have to do is port it to run on ARM, and adapt it to whatever constraints MS will put on apps sold in the store... which will take very, very little effort (Search for the story where Unreal Engine 3 was ported to Windows RT because it was much, much easier then making a special mobile version which would have had to be done to use it on iOS or Android). Very little effort to make extra money = an instantly huge dev community from day 1.
Also expect the lion's share of those applications to actually be useful. iOS may have hundreds of thousands of apps, but I'd be shocked if even a tenth of them are useful or unique.
http://www.extremetech.com/computing/136368-leaked-windows-8-tablet-pricing-suggests-microsoft-may-have-already-lost-the-war-and-its-marbles
If these prices are real the situation is way worse than you guys picture it!!!!
I´m no fan of tablets or windows but I don´t see microsoft succeeding, exept perhaps in enterprise applications
Believe it or not, the RT version might be the one sold the most.
First off - even on the ARM-based RT tablets, you get a full Office suite, something that NO ARM-based tablet currently has (you could argue Apple's iLife suite, but unless you're bought into Apple's ecosystem you use Office). The best others can do are imitations that don't have nearly the same feature set, especially if you do things like grad school papers that require mathematical equations.
Secondly - Microsoft is taking an interesting approach with W8. All versions of the OS are running common code, which means apps written for one W8-based device only need tweaks to run on other devices. This is something that Apple hasn't even done - iOS and Mac OS don't share common code (or at least, as much as MSFT is using). RT is an interesting idea because it bridges the full-functionality of W8 Pro and the ease of writing apps for WP8, so I would expect to see some inter-compatibility between apps on your WP8 and RT devices (think iOS on the iPad + iPhone).
Thirdly, and probably most importantly - RT is meant to keep device costs down. Lower device costs = greater sales, regardless of the profit margins. I doubt RT devices will be hot sellers at $500, but I imagine that the Surface will be somewhat higher quality than OEM devices (which will probably cost less, since companies like Asus have gotten great at lowering costs - e.g. Nexus 7).
oems like asus might find ways to make things cheaper like they did with nexus7, but you also have to take into account that microsoft doesnt pay for W8 on the surface while OEMs have to shell out $80 for each tablet. Thats a pretty big deal that will prevent alot of OEMs from selling cheaper high quality tablets. i believe theres going to be too many compromises in the sub-$500 W8 RT tablet market.