Surface Pro expected to hit European stores next quarter

March 04, 2013

Microsoft's Surface Windows 8 Pro tablet will go on sale in Europe in the second quarter priced somewhere around €899, while a local telco is now reselling the latest editions of its Office 365 hosted productivity suite, the company announced ahead of the Cebit trade show on Monday. Microsoft Germany's CEO Christian Illek didn't give the Surface Pro's exact price in euros, but the number will be around the same as the U.S. price in dollars, he said in a news conference at the company's booth on the show floor in Hanover. While an €899 (US$1170) price tag appears significantly higher that the Surface Pro's U.S. price of $899, a 30-percent mark-up is not unusual for electronics devices in Europe, where prices are typically displayed inclusive of value-added tax at around 20 percent. U.S. prices typically exclude local sales taxes. When setting international prices, vendors also tend to allow an additional margin in case exchange rates shift unfavorably. In addition to Germany, Surface Pro will also go on sale in Australia, China, France, Hong Kong, New Zealand, and the U.K. in the coming months, Microsoft said. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Link: http://www.pcworld.com/article/2029997/surface-pro-expected-to-hit-european-stores-next-quarter.html