Redmond made official its second generation Surface and Surface Pro tablets towards the end of last month, but no LTE enabled models were unveiled at that time.
Nevertheless, the company was quick to confirm that it is working on an LTE version of the Surface slate. Panos Panay, the force behind the Surface family of products has now revealed even more details at a recent event in Seattle.
According to this report, Panay again confirmed that the LTE SKU of Surface is being prepared for launch during the first months of 2014.
AT&T will handle distribution in the United States, while Vodafone will sell the device in Europe.
And while this was not exactly confirmed initially, it is now official that no LTE flavor of the Surface Pro will be offered. What this means is that users that want to browse the web on the go will have to choose the Windows RT 8.1 powered Surface 2.
Details on expected pricing are not available as of this writing.
But it is reasonable to expect the LTE enabled model to be a wee bit more expensive than the standard slate. The most affordable Surface 2 unit currently comes in at $449, so expect things to start in the $499 range or higher.
Anyway, here’s hoping Microsoft manages to release the LTE versions as soon as it can next year.
The last thing the company would want is this to affect sales of the regular Surface 2, with users interested in cellular connectivity deciding to wait for the LTE enabled slates.
