Microsoft already working on Surface 2, Surface Pro 2, and Surface Book for next year, details leak

Vlad Bobleanta  By on 30 Nov 12

Microsoft’s Surface (with Windows RT) tablet has only been on sale for a few weeks, and its Surface Pro tablet isn’t even out yet (we heard yesterday that it would be launched in January). But none of those things is stopping the Redmond company from working on its follow-up hardware for next year.

Apparently, Microsoft has three tablets planned for 2013: successors to both the Surface and the Surface Pro, and a new Surface Book giant. We think it’s best to assume that these will arrive towards the end of the year, just like the company’s first tablets did this year, so don’t get your hopes up for new Surface hardware (except the first Pro, of course) coming any sooner in 2013.

Now that we got that out of the way, let’s see what these will be like.

The Surface 2 (or whatever it will be called) will be running Windows RT still. However, it will swap its predecessor’s Nvidia Tegra 3 processor for a yet-unnamed Qualcomm system-on-a-chip. Furthermore, the new ARM-based Surface will have a smaller, 8.6-inch touchscreen (the original comes with a 10.6″ unit).

The new Surface Pro on the other hand will come with a bigger touchscreen than the (by then) old model. The Pro 2 will get 11.6″ of screen real estate. Surprisingly (given the whole ‘Wintel’ thing), it will also ditch the Core i5 processor in favor of an upcoming AMD ‘Temash’ CPU. This apparently is a tablet-specific APU (combination CPU+GPU), and it’s still a long way out at this point. It’s the successor to AMD’s current Hondo APU, but that has just started to emerge recently. So the Surface Pro 2 looks like it’s probably going to barely make the end of 2013 for release. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. After all, if these things happen any sooner, people are likely to get upset (see what happened after the iPad 4 was announced just seven months later than its predecessor).

Finally, Microsoft also has a device tentatively called Surface Book in the works. This will come with a humongous 14.6-inch touchscreen, as well as a 22 nm Intel ‘Haswell’ processor. Such chips will only be ready for mass production around mid-2013.

All of these details come courtesy of @MS_nerd on Twitter, who apparently is a well known leaker of Microsoft-related stuff. So that may mean that this information could in fact be accurate. Of course there’s no way of telling just yet, so let’s wait for the next rumor on the matter to pop up, and go from there.

Via Neowin

Share on Tumblr

If you liked the post, you might find these interesting too:

  • Below$700AShareIsAnnoying!}:-D

    But they aren’t selling many of the first models yet, so why are they in such a hurry to get to start building the next models?

    I don’t recall Ford ever selling an Edsel 2. Maybe Ford could have if they’d just stuffed a more powerful engine in it and added a lot more chrome and larger tailfins. This is basically what Microsoft is going to do with the next model ZunePads.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Curtis-Quick/553976158 Curtis Quick

    It’s gonna be death by a thousand cuts for the iPad. Each model of Windows 8 tablet will cut away a little market share until there will be only a small percentage of market share left for Apple. It’s the 1980s and 1990s all over again with Apple and Microsoft.

    Surface was only Microsoft’s way to showcase what a Windows 8 tablet should be. It seems clear that they never intended to capture much market share with it lest they anger their PC maker partners. The goal was to lead the way for the rest of the Windows 8 tablets from an army of PC makers. If Microsoft had wanted to launch a full-scale invasion with Surface RT, they would have sold it at more than a few dozen stores nationwide. It would have been in Wallmart and BestBuy if that was the case.

    I have a Surface and it is awesome! It blows away the iPad. Where on the iPad can you do multiple user accounts for the tablet? (perfect for families) Where on the iPad can you do split screen apps? (great for productivity) Where on the iPad can you extend the screen across multiple monitors? Where on the iPad can you connect any one of thousands of USB devices (including printers) without needing drivers? Where on the iPad can you run MS Office for free? (the only app I really ever wanted) Where on the iPad can you get a full-featured browser capable of running flash? (so I don’t need apps) Where on the iPad can you add extra storage space? Where on the iPad can you click in a usable keyboard? Where on the iPad can you make it stand up by itself with a built-in kickstand? You can’t and almost none of the reviewers mention this (the reality distortion field from Cupertino is still going strong!).

    You know last week when I got my Surface I compared the screen with an iPad 3 and it looked great in comparison. Surface may have fewer pixels per inch but you wouldn’t know it by looking. The New York Times came up faster and looked better on Surface.

    And about apps… Last week the Surface had 8,000 apps, today it has over 15,000 apps. The number is only going to grow larger as a user base of 700 million Windows 7 licenses upgrade to Windows 8 and well over 200 million PCs get replaced this year alone. The Windows 8 app market is already exploding with the knowledge of a huge market and all-but-assured profit for developers.

    As word of these Surface benefits gets out ( Apple-fanboy reviewers not withstanding) it will be very hard for the iPad to maintain market share against the almost daily onslaught of the hundreds of different Windows 8 tablets that are due out in the weeks and months to come.

« »

Subscribe to our Twitter updatesVisit us on FacebookVisit us on GooglePlusSubscribe via RSS