Thinking About an Affordable Surface Book 2 Laptop (Premium)

Surface Book is obviously an impressive device, but as I've pointed out, no customers were asking for an expensive, detachable laptop. What they were asking for is a Surface-branded Ultrabook that could go head-to-head with Apple's MacBook lineup.

Well, guess what? This may be happening.

To be clear, the key word in that sentence is may: This bit of wishful thinking on my part is based entirely on a report from the occasionally-reliable DigiTimes. This is one of those things that seems to good to be true. But also seems too good not to be true.

So we obviously need to discuss this.

The DigiTimes report includes the following tidbits:

Surface Book reportedly entered mass production recently.
Microsoft is likely to announce Surface Book 2 at the end of March or April.
Surface Book 2 is expected to adopt a clamshell design instead of its [current] 2-in-1 design.
Surface Book will feature a lower starting price than that of its predecessors, with a starting price of just $1,000.
These changes are being made because of a "significantly limited demand" for Surface Book and a "conflict" with Surface Book competing too closely with Surface Pro "in terms of product position[ing]."

At first blush, this seems a lot like what I asking for when Surface Book first launched in late 2015. As I noted in Surface Book: Past, Present, and Future:
No one was asking for a laptop. One of Microsoft’s big fibs is that it made Surface Book because its customers were asking for a laptop. No, they weren’t. They were asking for an Ultrabook, which would be much thinner and lighter than the current design. Imagine a Surface Book with no battery in a non-removable screen, and without that silly hinge, and how thin and gorgeous that device could be. That’s the machine customers were asking for, Microsoft. And they still are.
The DigiTimes report does not use the word Ultrabook, however. Actually, it doesn't use the word laptop either. Instead, it uses two terms---clamshell and notebook---that point to the form factor. So this could be another laptop---meaning a bit big and heavy---or it could be the Ultrabook that I think most people really want.

Worse, two pieces of information don't make sense. At all. And both are tied to the very point of Surface.

First, and most important, the Surface lineup exists to provide devices that are both aspirational and market-defining. That means that what Microsoft is trying to do is create or at least formalize new product categories, as it did with 2-in-1s (Surface Pro) and touch- and pen-capable All-In-One (AIO) PCs (Surface Studio). But as a notebook, Surface Book 2 is just a me-too device. PC makers already make tons of these types of devices. It's not clear why Microsoft would even pursue a traditional form factor here.

Second, that pricing makes almost no sense. Microsoft positions the Surface lineup as premium devices that sit, price-wise, above most of the PCs made by other PC m...

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