As Apple Prepares to Announce New iPads, Microsoft's Surface 2 Goes On Sale

Oct. 22, 2013 — -- You could call it tablet Tuesday. As Apple is expected to announce new iPads at an event later today in San Francisco, Microsoft's latest tablets – the Surface 2 and Surface 2 Pro – are hitting store shelves. The second generation of the tablets will be available today at Best Buy, Staples and through Microsoft's own store.

However, despite major marketing efforts the first time around, the Surface failed to gain traction with buyers. In the last year, the iPad maintained its lead as the most popular tablet, with Android tablets quickly gaining a large chunk of the marketshare. In the last few months all the major tablet makers have released updates to their products too. Google released an improved $229 Nexus 7 and Amazon a set of new Kindle Fire HD and HDX products. And today Apple is expected to announce a thinner, lighter and faster version of its popular tablet, which started everything.