Whether this is my wayward personal opinion or a simple look at reality, I think Microsoft’s hardware division is going through a low point. Last week’s Surface Event 2022 was a dud… short and full of underwhelming launches in the form of the Surface Laptop 5, Surface Pro 9, and Surface Studio 2+. The Surface Duo smartphone seems dead, and now reports suggest Microsoft will ditch the Surface Headphones.
So, while Microsoft is releasing videos bigging up color changes as a core selling point, it is clear the company’s hardware aspirations are stalling. Sometimes it seems Microsoft is unwilling to take the major step – whether financially or innovatively – to make its devices stand out from the crowd.
It looks from the outside that Microsoft is caught between trying to appeal to both hardcore enterprise users and consumers. Surface products are becoming increasingly confused as a result. Following a long line of failures from Zune to Lumia and the Surface Band, it is hardly a surprise to see the company is potentially killing off the Surface Headphones.
Microsoft completely ignoring any upgrade for the Surface Headphones at last week’s event suggests the company is leaving the product behind. After all, it has been two years since the Surface Headphones 2 made their debut. That launch came two years after the release of the original model, pointing to a two-year update cycle for generations.
Nothing to Share
When the Surface Event 2022 came and went, The Verge reached out to Microsoft to ask about the Surface Headphones 3. The response from spokesperson Dan Laycock was vague at best and dismissive of the product at worst:
“We have nothing to share about our future roadmap at this time. We’re excited about the work done with Teams certification and new products like the Microsoft Audio Dock that was announced this week.”
Not an official statement that there will be no new Surface Headphones, but hardly glowing confidence about the future.
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