This shouldn't be much of a surprise at all (if confirmed): - Microsoft's rumored pricing strategy leaves little room for profit for the HW manufacturers. - Bef

This shouldn't be much of a surprise at all (if confirmed): - Microsoft's rumored pricing strategy leaves little room for profit for the HW manufacturers. - Before the Surface announcement Microsoft was seeing very little traction with ARM device manufacturers. ARM devices have been noticeably quiet during all of the tradeshows. I'm guessing is that Microsoft prepared the Surface as a backup plan if they weren't satisfied their HW partners. This turned into a reality and Microsoft released the Surface knowing full well that they'd lose partners. I wouldn't be surprised if the high rumored cost of Windows 8 is because Microsoft calculated it's profit margin (and risk) if it went the Surface route, then set the price based on that. If it's a zero-sum market (tablet sale is either Surface or Brand X Windows RT machine) then this works out (and Microsoft hubris does believe this is a zero-sum game).