Why does Apple usually tell you the price of things before the frenzy around a new product gets out of hand? Because if rumors start up that the device is going to be much cheaper than Apple can, and intends to sell the device for, then Apple will look bad when they announce the actual price. It’s pretty simple and works this way because many casual observers of technology don’t/can’t/won’t distinguish between fact and rumor.

So when Microsoft announced the Surface without a price, well they set themselves up for failure. Matthew Panzarino reports that the two prices for the two Surfaces will be $599 and $999. This has been so widely reported in news today that if my RSS reader had trending keywords, $599 and $999 would be the hottest trend in my RSS reader.

So what happens if Microsoft cannot meet these all too reasonable sounding price points, price points that they never specified: disappointment happens.

Microsoft may have copied Apple’s style for product announcement, but they forgot the most important aspect: controlling the entire message. Oops.