Microsoft’s Surface is preparing for a special release event on Oct. 25th, with a midnight launch at select Microsoft Stores on the 26th. With that in mind, it has hit the FCC. We now know everything there is to know about the Surface– except for the price tag.

The ARM-based Surface tablet will have a 10.6-inch screen, a Tegra 3 processor and 32/64GB storage options. It also ahs USB 2, Micro-HDMI, 2×2 MIMO antennae, microSD and Windows RT with Office 2013. The Windows 8 Pro Surface tablet features a 10.6-inch display with an Intel Core i5 processor. This model has 64GB/128GB storage otpions, microSDXC, USB 3, 2×2 MIMO and a Mini Display port.

Microsoft’s new tablet is sleek, sexy and distinctively different from what we’ve come to expect from the Redmond-based company. Will it be a success though? It’s hard to say for sure. One consideration worth thinking about is that MS hasn’t exactly done will with hardware yet. The Zune failed and even though the Xbox line is popular, it had several quality issues (like the red ring of death).

The quality defects in the Xbox hardware and the lack of success with Zune are two scenarios that some consumers might be afraid of when thinking about the Surface. It will likely boil down to marketing and pricing. We’ve yet to see much about how they will handle either of these things. What do you think? Excited or not? You have to wonder why they are waiting until the last minute to give us pricing, though. There are likely two reasons: the price is REALLY high, or it is REALLY low and they want to surprise/shock everyone into rushing out the stores at midnight. Let’s hope for the latter.

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The Microsoft Surface is on its way soon, with an expected date of October the 26^th. We’ve heard a lot of interesting rumors about the Surface recently, including a $200 price point and a battery life that easily extends up to near 13 hours. While the $200 price point is only likely to happen if MS has some kind of contract service deal in works, it seems that MS believes that its new tablet is going to sell like hotcakes.

What makes me say that, it seems that market researcher IDC revealed that MS is expected to build more than 3 million Surface tablets this year alone, this figure combines RT and x86 versions of the tablet. While not all these initial tablets will sell by the year’s end, it is clear that Microsoft expects a HUGE demand and doesn’t want to risk shortage problems, similar to the issues that Google ran into with the Nexus 7.

How many units will MS sell? That largely depends on pricing, I’d wager. If $199 is true and a contract service exists that is reasonably priced ($10-$20 monthly), I wouldn’t be surprised if the launch was more successful than the iPad 1′s launch in 2010, which saw 1 million units in its first month. At the same time, a $400+ price point could see more modest sells such as around a half-million in the first month.

IDC also flat out mentioned the idea of getting a Surface through two methods, two-year contract or flat-out. This much seems clear, it is very likely that it will be possible to get Microsoft’s new tablet for-cheap, as long as the idea of a contract doesn’t turn you off.

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