At its Build 2013 conference today, Microsoft announced that developers will be receiving an Acer Iconia W3 Windows 8 tablet and a Surface Pro. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer announced the former at the start of the keynote and corporate vice president for Windows Julie Larson-Green revealed the latter at the very end.
We assume that the Surface Pro won’t come with Windows 8.1, but it’s fair to say it will be a perfect computer on which Build developers can install the Windows 8.1 preview released today. Whether you attended Build today or not, the details you need to get Windows 8.1 are here.
Intel co-sponsored the giveaway, but something tells us Microsoft was rather eager to comply. There’s a question of supply here: many believe the company wants to get rid of its first-generation Surface stock to make way for the next iteration.
At last year’s conference, Microsoft gave attendees a Surface RT and 100GB of SkyDrive storage. Nokia’s Richard Kerris also came on stage and announced everyone would be getting a Lumia 920 to boot.
More to follow.
