Microsoft Expands Surface Lineup -- WSJ
2017年10月18日 - 04:02PM
Dow Jones News
The 15-inch laptop is geared toward creative professionals who
want a powerful device
By Jay Greene
This article is being republished as part of our daily
reproduction of WSJ.com articles that also appeared in the U.S.
print edition of The Wall Street Journal (October 18, 2017).
Even as personal computer sales slow, Microsoft Corp. is adding
yet another model to its growing line of Surface computers.
The software giant on Tuesday announced a new 15-inch laptop
geared toward creative professionals seeking a powerful device to
work with images, video, music, software design and the
resource-guzzling programs they use.
Microsoft's 15-inch Surface Book 2 is aimed squarely at Apple
Inc.'s MacBook Pro with an Intel Core i7 processor, 256 gigabytes
of storage and 16 gigabytes of memory, at a starting price of
$2,499. Apple offers a 15-inch MacBook Pro with the same processor,
and storage and memory amounts, for $100 less. The MacBook Pro,
though, doesn't have touch capabilities or a detachable screen like
the Surface Book 2.
The new 15-inch Surface Book 2, along with an updated 13.5-inch
model that starts at $1,499, can be preordered Nov. 9 and will be
available Nov. 16.
The computers are part of an expanding Surface lineup that
includes the Surface Pro tablet-laptop hybrid refreshed in May, the
lightweight Surface Laptop introduced the same month and the
28-inch touch-screen Surface Studio PC launched a year ago.
Microsoft is expanding the Surface portfolio despite the brand
seeing uneven results. In April, fiscal third-quarter revenue for
the entire Surface line fell 26% to $831 million, something
Microsoft finance chief at the time Amy Hood attributed to stiff
price competition as well as a dearth of new Surface products.
Microsoft narrowed those revenue declines to 2% in the fiscal
fourth quarter.
The overall PC market isn't making things any easier. Earlier
this month, market-research firm Gartner Inc. reported global PC
shipments slid 3.6% in the third quarter, the 12th consecutive
declining quarter. The U.S. market saw a particularly steep 10%
drop, in part because of a "very weak back-to-school sales season,"
the firm said.
Still, Microsoft sees these Surface devices as showcases --
premium computers intended to both highlight the capabilities of
its Windows operating system and inspire high-end designs from the
company's hardware partners. In an interview, Terry Myerson,
Microsoft's executive vice president in charge of Windows, said the
new 15-inch Surface Book 2 is a mobile workstation that can handle
robust videogames as well as high-end computing work.
The software giant also began rolling out a new major update to
its Windows 10 operating system on Tuesday, something it now does
twice a year. The latest update includes a new photo application
that uses artificial intelligence to suggest animated slideshows
from a user's media collection, pulling together snaps of horses,
for example, based on image recognition technology.
Microsoft is also adding new virtual-reality and
augmented-reality features to Windows. The update includes
Microsoft's Mixed Reality Viewer, software that lets users see 3-D
objects on their computer screens.
Microsoft's first virtual-reality headsets that connect to
Windows 10 PCs -- from Acer Inc., Dell Inc., HP Inc. and Lenovo
Group Ltd. -- are available in stores and online. A VR headset from
a fifth partner, Samsung Electronics Co., is available for preorder
and will be in stores Nov. 6.
In May, Microsoft said 500 million devices were running Windows
10; it declined to update that figure.
Write to Jay Greene at Jay.Greene@wsj.com
Corrections & Amplifications An earlier version of this
article incorrectly listed preorder dates for some virtual-reality
headsets connecting to Microsoft's Windows 10.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 18, 2017 02:47 ET (06:47 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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