We've finally received an official launch date from Microsoft for the upcoming Surface Pro tablet. The Surface Pro's release date is a bit outside the 90-day window that was originally provided by Microsoft when the Surface RT went on sale next to Windows 8 on October 26.

The Surface Pro will set you back $899 for the 64GB model, not including the keyboard cover, and $999 for the 128GB model, again, not including the keyboard cover. The Surface Pro will utilize one of the 17W Ivy Bridge Core i5 CPUs produced by Intel coupled with 4GB of RAM. Performance should easily outpace the iPad and Surface RT.

It's not clear who will opt for the slightly expensive Surface Pro. Priced in a similar range to most Ultrabooks, an educated guess would attribute most sales to the corporate world. When Microsoft holds its earnings call on Thursday, we should be able to take a look at how the Surface Pro's little brother is doing.