In what clearly was a rather atypical marketing move by Microsoft - which recently announced the pricing for its forthcoming own-branded Windows 8-based Surface tablet -, the Surface engineering team recently held a virtual Q&A session with Reddit users.

In their `Ask Me Anything' (AMA) session with the Reddit community, Microsoft's leading technical executives carried out a virtual interaction with the Reddit users; and, in the process, gained some free promotion in a forum that gave Microsoft a platform to pitch its upcoming tablet to tech-savvy users.

During the nearly two-hour-long AMA session, the Surface's engineering team - headed by its general manager Panos Panay - responded to the questions which the Reddit users had posted to the site.

With Microsoft having recently announced that the cost of the 32GB base model of Surface tablet will be $499, quite a few questions were about the tablet's pricing point, as well as about Microsoft's move towards a $100-$130 additional charge for the device's Touch Cover keyboard.

Although there were hardly any questions asked about the Windows 8 OS, the Surface engineering team did make a mention about Surface's battery-life tests; the reason behind selecting Wi-Fi, rather than 3G or 4G connectivity; and giving Near Field Communication (NFC) technology a miss.

About the Surface tablet, the device's creative director Ralf Groene said during the AMA that the key focus of the engineering was to come up with a tablet which would be "a stage for your software."