Surface Pro LTE coming December, but only for enterprise

Microsoft has announced that the long-awaited Surface Pro with LTE will be available from December 1. There’s a catch though – it will only be available for business customers, at least initially. In fact, it revealed the device on stage at Future Decoded event in London this morning, a business-focused event, highlighting its belief that the device will appeal more business users than regular consumers.

The Surface Pro LTE Advanced (as it is officially called), will be available in two configurations both with an Intel Core i5 processor. A model with 4 GB of RAM and 128 GB of storage will retail for US$1,149 while the second option is fitted with 8 of GB RAM with 256 storage and will retail for US$1,449. It is equipped with a Qualcomm Snapdragon X16 mode, that supports LTE-A networks on 20 different bands. This means it can be used anywhere in the world where LTE networks are available and can offer download speeds up to 450 MB/s.

Microsoft hasn’t revealed when it will make the device more widely available, or indeed, if it will launch an LTE-equipped Surface Pro for the consumer market at all. Although designed for portability and use on the go, it would seem that Microsoft holds the view that the Wi-Fi-only models will remain the volume selling model for the consumer market. To that extent, it is conceivable that the company may not extend its availability beyond the enterprise segment.