In a recent released document Microsoft said it will support its Surface tablet running on Windows RT and Office 2013 RT software till April 11, 2017.



The Windows RT version of Surface tablet was announced last month, at the end. It runs on Windows RT OS and has been specifically made to support ARM architecture based processors. Even though the tablet is now made available in limited quantity, but the PC giant hopes of competing with iPad tablets of Apple in the long run.

So far Apple is leading the standard tablet market globally with its iPads and it refreshes its hardware as well as software annually. However, the iDevice has no specific support policy for the software and it is just limited to the hardware used.

Microsoft now comes with different strategy in terms of software. It will support the Surface RT tablet in the "Mainstream" support phase. It may be because it is a consumer product and it is a known fact that the company typically supports consumer-grade software for a period of five years. Well, it even has a policy of "Extended" support for all business software and also for those titles that are designed for consumers such as Office Home and Student 2010. This way it supports for a total period of ten years.

However, in the case of Surface RT it is not clear why Microsoft has reduced its support by one year. Instead of 5-year support it is just offering for four years. Is it because this table is a combo of hardware and software?