Further evidence that Microsoft wants to broaden the appeal of its boutique Surface hardware has emerged. Almost a month ago, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman predicted budget Surface hardware was being planned, priced at "about $400... 20 per cent lighter than the high-end models, but [with] around four hours fewer of battery life". …

Analysis According to industry watchers, below the surface of Microsoft's Surface business it's not a happy picture. Microsoft claimed to turn its first profit on Surface in 2014, after racking up $2bn of losses, and by 2016, it was almost out of the woods. Amid a collapsing tablet market, and just in time, Microsoft had redefined …

Microsoft confirmed a refresh for its Surface Hub line last night, with new hardware likely to ship sometime in 2019. In a video heavy on a dramatic orchestral music and hints of new Windows interfaces, but somewhat light on detail, Microsoft showed off the newest edition of the overpriced whiteboard business collaboration …

Microsoft's boss Satya Nadella march into the cloud seems to be paying off for the Windows 10 and Office 365 giant: on Thursday, the biz announced its sales for Q3 2018 jumped 16 per cent. For the quarter ending March 31, the third of Redmond's 2018 fiscal year, can be summarized thus: Revenues of $26.8bn were up 16 per cent …

Updated Microsoft Surface Pro 4 owners are up in arms over what they claim is an ongoing epidemic of screen failures blighting their expensive fondleslabs. Disgruntled punters on the Redmond support forums and the dedicated independent website FlickerGate.com say their tablets are prone to a hardware glitch that causes the display to …

Hands On You have £3,000 burning a hole in your pocket. You're also an engineer, developer or manipulate visual images. You also absolutely must have a touchscreen portable workstation, preferably with a display that detaches so you can go home and watch Netflix. If you're in that most slender Venn diagram intersection, then lucky, …

The handful of fans anticipating a Microsoft "Surface Phone" should brace themselves for disappointment. Just-published patents filed by Microsoft look back rather than forward: back to Courier, the code name for a booklet-style, hinged dual-display tablet product that Microsoft canned in 2010. The "new" claims, filed in …

Microsoft's Surface Pro with added LTE goodness is due to land in the UK on 1 December, just in time for enterprise punters to request one from the local Santas residing in their procurement and IT department. Panos Panay, corporate veep of devices, took to the stage at Microsoft’s Future Decoded event in London to confirm the …

Canalys Channels Forum The biggest tech resellers in Europe would not mourn the demise of the Surface device should Microsoft decide to kill it off by 2019, as was recently predicted at the Canalys Channels Forum. Industry figures including Steve Brazier, CEO at Canalys; Lenovo COO Gianfranco Lanci; and Dell president Marius Haas have all claimed …

Canalys Channels Forum Microsoft will quit its loss-making Surface hardware business by 2019, according to execs from PC manufacturers and a channel watcher. Talking at the tenth Canalys Channels Forum in Venice, Canalys CEO Steve Brazier said Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella would exit the product line because he is a “software guy, a cloud guy” and …

IFA The mainstay of Microsoft's boutique Surface range faces tougher competition as rivals sharpen their act. Announced at IFA in Berlin with relatively little fanfare – just a line in Lenovo's official announcement – the refreshed IdeaPad Miix 520 is a Surface Pro clone that isn't cheap. But it does look like quality. In fact …

Veteran Microsoft-watcher Paul Thurrott has made the sensational allegation that Microsoft's senior management "misled" their CEO about the cause of serious launch issues with its flagship Surface Pro 4 PC. Microsoft defended the reliability of the Surface range after Consumer Reports withdrew its Buy recommendation last week …

Review Microsoft waited almost two years to update its boutique computer, the Surface Pro. In the meantime the line expanded to include a detachable tablet (Surface Book), a desktop (Surface Studio) and a proper laptop (Surface, er, Laptop), while the cheaper, Atom-powered POS (Plain Old Surface) fell into the bin and wasn't rescued. …

Review Student debt in the United States now stands at $1.2 trillion. In the UK outstanding student loans top £100 billion. Microsoft has made an fascinating contribution to the student debt crisis, by attempting to increase it. The machine I am typing on is a locked-down laptop aimed at "students" and "classrooms" that costs £1,549 …

Difficult as it might be to comprehend, Microsoft has been shipping Surface for just under five years. Historically a software company, Microsoft's decision to branch into hardware – or at least designing and selling – was widely dismissed. In 2012, after Microsoft revealed its plans, then Acer chief exec JT Wang advised …

It appears as if Microsoft has been following the Apple playbook in creating another laptop whose components you can never replace. DIY site iFixIt tried to take apart the new Microsoft Surface laptop – an ultra-thin and light unit which starts at £979 – and seemingly couldn’t do it without completely and utterly destroying it …

Microsoft has revamped its Surface tablet, which at last includes a SIM card slot. The 2017 iteration of the boutique but highly profitable fondleslab loses the numbering – it's now just a "Surface Pro". Cosmetically there's little difference: the tablet retains the 2736 x 1824 (267 PPI) display and 786g weight (for the i5 and …

Analysis Microsoft had two strategic problems to address yesterday. Over several years, the PC has been taking its long, sad journey into becoming a niche. But more recently, Google has leapt into the US education market, going from zero to over 50 per cent in three years. Redmond's response is unexpected, but also confusing. Rather …