Microsoft tablets have a huge opportunity to take a lead here, if the company can master the shopping experience and cover its bases across music, movies, and television.

Even though we've heard the first tablets announced in early June at Computex, we haven't seen anything firm about pricing. Microsoft tablets will need to come in at a price that's, at the least, competitive with its Apple and Android competition. And ideally, at a price that undercuts the competition--just enough so that consumers take notice, and are enticed to consider something new.

Hitting this kind of pricing may be difficult, however, if reports that Microsoft's charging manufacturers around $80 to $90 for the OEM version of Windows RT prove true. ( is the version of Windows 8 that's designed for use on system-on-chip ARM processor-based tablets. These tablets are the ones that will most directly compete with Apple's iPad and the variety of Android tablets.)