We don’t know how many iterations of Surface 2 are planned, but we can confirm that at least one of them is coming this year. This variant, powered by a Tegra 4 SoC, is scheduled to appear roughly a year after the first Surface RT.

Microsoft has long tradition of working with Nvidia as a chip provider for ARM based products and this is not likely to change anytime soon. Magazines have mentioned Qualcomm as a chip supplier for the next generation Surface, which is possible, but rumours are suggesting that there might be more than one ARM based Surface successor. We are probably looking at two distinct form factors.

Tegra 4 with Icera 500 chip has LTE capabilities, but chips such as the Snapdragon 600 and 800 already have great CPU performance and integrated LTE inside. The recent price cut of original surface RT to $349 for entry level part is just an intro into a normal product cycle, where a company prepares for the next generation product.

It's safe to assume that the next generation Surface RT comes with Windows 8.1. Last time around the Surface RT launched on October 26 so we expect to see an update around this time. Let's just hope that the next generation Surface RT can do a bit better than the first one.