Microsoft’s Spring Hardware Event Might Not Include Surface Book 2

Earlier this month, we brought you a report that suggested Microsoft’s next generation Surface Book might abandon its “trick” detachable 2-in-1 hybrid design in favor of a more tradition notebook form-factor. It has been surmised that Microsoft is taking this approach to put a little more distance between its Surface Pro family of convertible tablets.

While we don’t have any official word from Microsoft that this is indeed the case, one well-connected Redmond watcher says that we won’t be seeing the Surface Book 2 this spring. Mary Jo Foley reported this week that the Surface Book 2 will not make an appearance during its Spring 2017 hardware launch. Things also look uncertain for the arrival of the Surface Pro 5 at the event.

According to Foley, the Surface Book 2 simply is “not quite ready yet”. The Surface Book was originally launched in October 2015, and Microsoft updated it with a Performance Base (with a more powerful NVIDIA GeForce GPU and larger battery) this past October.

So, if we don’t see a new Surface Book 2 or a Surface Pro 5, what exactly will be see with respect to hardware at the event? She believes that we may see new hardware centered around the features introduced with the Windows 10 Creators Update (which is due next month).

And it is quite possible that Microsoft could release hardware to take advantage of the rumored Windows 10 Cloud edition. Windows 10 Cloud is limited to running Universal Windows Platform (UWP) apps that are found within the Windows Store, and won’t be able to run Win32 programs. These hypothetical “Surface” PCs would be entry-level devices that would logically be positioned against extremely popular Chromebooks running Google’s Chrome OS.