Earlier this month Microsoft knocked $100 off the price of its Surface Pro Windows 8 tablet in a promotion set to expire today, but now the company says the deal will be permanent. ZDNet has confirmation from Microsoft along with details of additional price cuts to the Touch Cover. The new prices are as follows:

• Touch Cover reduced to $79.99 from $119.99
• Limited Edition Touch Cover reduced to $89.99 from $129.99
• Surface RT with Touch Cover bundle now starts at $399.99 for 32GB, all bundles get $50 reduction
• Surface Pro now starts at $799.99 for 64GB, all models get $100 reduction

The move comes as little surprise. Both the Surface RT and Pro are overdue a refresh, with the former running an aging Tegra 3 processor and the latter's poor battery life seeming all the worse in the light of Intel's new power-efficient Haswell chips. Neither Surface tablet registered particularly impressive sales; Microsoft wrote down $900 million on the Surface RT alone, and total revenue for the line came in below that figure. Outgoing CEO Steve Ballmer admitted that the company built more Surface RT tablets than it could sell.

The Verge understands that Microsoft has tested an updated Surface RT tablet with Windows 8.1 and a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor, and Nvidia says it is also working on a new version of the product. A Microsoft product roadmap further hints at the company's plans for Surface, with updates to both Pro and RT models listed. As such, the recent price drops on existing products are more than likely to represent attempts to clear stock before new announcements.