A $1,000 Microsoft Surface Tablet? What’s Swedish for ‘No Way’?

It is true that the Internet has become its own rumor mill, its own echo chamber over the years, and especially when it comes to technology and releases of the latest and greatest. But all because of some “placeholder text,” talk has circulated around something that would be akin to market suicide for Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT).

Introducing the $1,000 tablet computer!

The stunned silence is … well, has to be backed by healthy skepticism. Got a quizzical look?

Apparently some talk got out that Microsoft Corporation was going to list its new Surface tablet at a retail price of $1,000, which the professional model reaching upwards of $2,000. This information came from a Swedish retail site called Webhallen.com, which had placed an advertisement for the Surface tablet (Windows RT, 32 GB of storage) on its web site, listing the retail price as 6,900 Swedish kronor (about $1,003); then, it had listed a Surface Pro (Win 8 Pro, 128 GB storage) for nearly 15,000 kronor (about $2,100).

With the marketplace as competitive as it already, it would be hard to imagine Microsoft getting away with a $1,000 tablet computer in a market of tablets produced by Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG), Dell Inc. (NASDAQ:DELL) and Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE:HPQ), and all for much less than four-figures – even the “pro” versions may only barely get into the $1,000 range, much less $2,000.

As it turns out, the pricing on that site was admitted to be “placeholder text” by the web site and not the actual price. The company even went so far as to submit a response to this very effect, noting that “we have not recieved [sic] any pricing from Microsoft regarding MSRP or purchasing net cost, and any people who have booked the Surface at this high price will of course have their order adjusted before any product is shipped.”

Seems to be much ado about nothing. But hey, if it gets Microsoft in the news and keeps the talk going about the Surface tablet before its release, then so be it.

So there. However that is translated into Swedish.