Trademark hints at new Surface audio hardware

Dec 31, 2018 02:49 GMT  ·  By

Microsoft is fully committed to inventing new product categories with its Surface brand, but as we know already, this family of devices doesn’t always come down just to that.

The debut of the Surface Headphones is living proof that Microsoft doesn’t necessarily have to come up with something new to succeed, and it looks like the company may be looking into this direction in the future with more audio hardware.

An indication that the software firm is considering bringing to the market more audio products has been spotted recently in a Microsoft trademark application for the Surface Headphones, which includes a reference to what the company calls “The smarter way to listen.”

Basically, the trademark says the phrase can be used for “Goods and Services,” and these include not only the headphones that are available for purchase right now, but also for “audio electronic components, audio speakers, headphones, handheld computers, laptops, tablets, notebook computers, and mobile computing devices.”

New product categories

In other words, these may be categories that Microsoft may be exploring for its Surface lineup, and at some level, launching products based on these could make sense.

As MSPU notes, Surface-branded speakers would be a natural evolution of this family of products, especially after launching the headphones, though Microsoft could use two different approaches in this regard.

While the company could very well launch integrated speakers that might be used on laptops, dedicated speakers that would boast additional functionality like Cortana support are also possible.

Of course, at this point, it’s all just a guess, but it’s pretty clear that Microsoft’s Surface product family is very likely to expand with new members very soon. The company itself said on several occasions that it’s looking at new device categories, and if the same strategy is maintained, the audio hardware market is likely to become one of its latest targets.