Editor's note: Amy Gahran writes about mobile tech for CNN.com. She is a San Francisco Bay Area writer and media consultant whose blog, Contentious.com, explores how people communicate in the online age.
(CNN) -- Microsoft has announced its Surface tablets, due out late this year, at a time when security is a growing concern for users of mobile devices.
And when most consumers think security, Microsoft probably isn't the first brand to spring to mind.
But are Surface tablets likely to be any more or less secure than the iPad or Android tablets? That could depend on which Surface model you're talking about. But in general, these devices probably won't pose any significant additional security risks to mobile users.
Microsoft said there will be two versions of Surface.
The first, due out this fall, will run the not-yet-released Windows RT operating system -- a tablet-based version of the Windows Phone OS, which will only run apps adapted for Microsoft's tile-based "Metro" user interface.
So far, Microsoft has offered few hardcore details about this system. But the tech news site Pocket Lint offered a good rundown of what to expect from Windows RT.
The higher-end second Surface tablet, probably due out a few months later, will run the full Windows 8 operating system. This OS also has not yet been released, but a consumer preview has been available for several months.
At a conference Tuesday, Collin Davis, senior director of development for Symantec's Norton line of security software, explained that so far it's hard to say exactly what types of security concerns Windows RT devices might pose. But security experts know a fair bit about Windows 8.
"It's a lot like the current desktop version of Windows we have today, so its security issues will probably be very similar," he said.
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