On the heels of announcing the Surface 3, Microsoft trotted over to Reddit for its now-traditional AMA dance with the folks. The Surface 3 is a smaller, less expensive iteration of the Surface Pro 3, which was released last year.
The Pro 3’s commercial performance has been superior to its predecessors, making its successor all the more interesting as a potential. In the AMA, Microsoft was pitched a question that was a jokish attempt at getting them to confirm the existence of the Surface Pro 4, and perhaps even provide guidance on when it will be released.
You won’t believe what happened next!
So, not much there. I confirmed with Microsoft that Surface’s Panos Panay answered that particular question.
The AMA contained familiar questions including why Microsoft charges separately for Surface machines and its keyboard attachments, but also some that went unanswered that were worth considering. The second most upvoted question at the time of writing is simple: “Any Chance we will see an external GPU for the Surface Pro line anytime soon?” Microsoft didn’t respond.
Microsoft is in a slightly uncomfortable position, building and releasing hardware that is designed for a new operating system that isn’t quite done yet. Windows 10 will be out later this year, meaning that only the first few traunches of Surface 3 buyers will have to spend much time on Windows 8.1. Once Windows 10 makes it out the door, the new Surface devices will make a bit more sense.