14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft was expected to skip the typical fall hardware launch event and bring new Surface models to the market in the spring of 2017, but according to new reports, this isn’t going to happen.
Updates to the Surface lineup are now expected in the fall, most likely in October or November, a report by ZDNet reveals, as Microsoft doesn’t want to wait until the spring of the next year to introduce them.
While it’s not yet clear what models Microsoft wants to refresh, the Surface Pro 5 and the Surface Book 2 are very likely to see daylight during this hardware event, which will be very similar to the hardware conference that the company held last year in October in New York.
Furthermore, the Microsoft Band 3 is very likely to launch as well, so there are bigger chances to see it go live in the fall, and not in July as some people previously speculated.
New Surface models coming with Redstone 1
It was originally believed that Microsoft would wait for the Redstone 2 wave of updates in order to introduce the revamped Surface lineup, but it appears that this is no longer the case, so the new Surface models will launch with the Anniversary Update instead. The second Redstone update is planned for the spring of 2017, and all devices running the Anniversary Update will get it free of charge.
It does make sense for Microsoft to launch Surface updates in the fall because, this way, the company can benefit from growing sales during the holiday season too, as the spring is generally considered a time when customers are less likely to buy new devices.
The company has already hinted that “fall is the right moment to launch new devices,” with an executive saying that partners and Microsoft alike will have something new for this year. It turns out that this “something new” includes refreshes to the Surface Pro and the Surface Book, so do not expect a Surface all-in-one or a Surface Phone anytime soon. 2017 continues to be a more likely date for these two.