Microsoft to introduce Surface 2 with LTE next year

Microsoft took the wraps off of its Surface 2 and Surface Pro 2 tablets today, but it didn’t reveal everything that’s coming in the near future. In a followup Ask Me Anything on Reddit, Surface head Panos Panay said that the company plans to release a version of the Surface 2 with built-in LTE support “early next year.”

The Surface RT, Surface Pro, Surface 2, and Surface Pro 2 devices that have been announced or released have only offered Wi-Fi connectivity and have lacked cellular connections. A version with built-in LTE would help Microsoft compete with Apple’s iPad and a number of Android tablets with LTE. ZDNet’s Mary Jo Foley reports that the company is possibly looking at a bundle of Windows Phone and Surface for certain markets to provide mobile connectivity before a proper LTE version is released. It’s not yet clear how much an LTE version of the Surface 2 would cost, but we’d expect it to be at least a couple of hundred dollars more than the $449 Wi-Fi model.