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Microsoft unveils 'Surface' tablet in iPad challenge
  • | AFP | June 19, 2012 08:15 AM
Microsoft on Monday unveiled a Surface tablet computer as the technology titan steps in with its own hardware to take on Apple's market-ruling iPads.
 
  Microsoft's new tablet Surface is introduced during a press conference in Milky Studios in Hollywood, California.
Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer described the iPad challenger as a tablet that "works and plays" when he showed it off at a press event in Los Angeles.

Surface is also the name of table and poster-sized touch screen computers that Microsoft has pitched to the business market for use in restaurants, shops, bars and other venues.


A tablet demo video online at microsoft.com/surface/ promised the tablet was "coming soon.'


A version of Surface running on Windows RT software tailored for ARM mobile device chips measured 9.3 millimeters thick and weighed 676 grams.


It boasted a 10.6-inch (26.9 centimeter) high-definition screen and will be available with 32 or 64 gigabytes of memory, according to Microsoft.


A tablet model powered by Windows 8 Pro software measured 13.5 millimeters thick, weighs 903 grams and will be available with 64 or 128 gigabytes of memory.


"It's a whole new community of computing devices from Microsoft," Ballmer said. "It embodies the notion of hardware and software really pushing each other."


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