Microsoft To Launch 256GB Surface Pro Tablet In Japan, Includes Office 2013

Microsoft has just announced that the Surface Pro will go on sale in Japan on June 7, and perhaps unsurprisingly, the localized version of the tablet comes with a couple of interesting changes.

The most evident of which is that the technology titan has decided to drop the 64GB unit in Japan, and instead launch a higher capacity variant — the 256GB of storage space makes it the highest capacity Surface Pro model that is available.

A report over at LiveSide.net states that the 128GB variant of the tablet will be priced at ¥99,800 ($975), while the 256GB version is set to retail at ¥119,800 ($1,170).

Microsoft will also launch a bunch of special edition Surface Touch covers for the Japanese market — think some really cool and colorful designs.

Impressively, however, both tablets will come with the full version of Office 2013 Home & Business, though other specifications are similar to the international version of the Surface Pro that is sold in most countries around the world.

This actually provides us a glimpse at Microsoft’s Surface Pro strategy for the future. The technology titan could well get rid of the 64GB model for the second generation of its premium tablet.

And with a Haswell chip inside to power all sorts of computing goodness, including improved gaming performance, a 256GB SSD makes all sorts of sense — particularly with prices of these drives steadily coming down.