Microsoft surprised fans last year with a great MacBook Pro alternative, a high-end 2-in-1 Surface Book laptop that nobody saw coming. The Surface Book line joined the regular Surface models to better compete against Apple’ MacBooks and iPads. A report that flew under the radar last week claims that Microsoft is working on the next generation of Surface-branded devices. Among them, there’s an iMac-killer as well, which would become the company’s first Surface desktop.
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According to sources from the supply chain who spoke to Digitimes, Microsoft pushed the release of the second-generation Surface Book to 2017 following shipping delays of Intel’s Kaby Lake CPUs.
But Microsoft is apparently going forward with making an all-in-one computer under the Surface brand that will be released in the third quarter of 2016 at the earliest. The device is going to compete against similar Windows-based products made by Microsoft’s partners, but it will also take on Apple’s iMac.
Currently, Lenovo and Apple are the top two all-in-one PC vendors, Digitimes notes, with global all-in-one sales expected to drop from 14 million in 2015 to 12.6 million this year.
Actual details about the Surface all-in-one are not yet available, but considering the bar that Microsoft set for itself with the Surface Book, we’re definitely curious to see Microsoft’s vision for a high-end iMac rival.
