Microsoft's $200 Surface Earbuds Have Seemingly Been Abandoned (windowscentral.com) 32
Windows Central reports: The Surface Earbuds are a weird product in Microsoft's line of Surface devices. Now over two years old, and still available to buy at a close to launch price of $160, the Surface Earbuds might be the worst "Surface" branded device you can buy brand new right now. They launched at a time when the wireless earbuds space was heating up and offered less than the competition while charging more. Are they the best in audio quality? Definitely not. Are they the best designed? Most would argue that they aren't. Are they the most comfortable? That depends, but I know a lot of people claim they don't properly fit in their ears. Do they support wireless charging? Nope. Is the case premium? Mine scratches easily and the lid feels flimsy. Nothing about the product screams $160 premium earbuds.
[...] My sources have said that Microsoft was working on a successor to the Surface Earbuds, codenamed Ella, that was supposed to launch before the end of this year. We're now at the end of the year and that never happened. I hope they've simply been delayed and not canceled, though I wouldn't be surprised if they have. Microsoft's abandonment of the first Surface Earbuds should be a huge red flag for any potential buyers of a second-generation pair. Why should anyone buy them if Microsoft is going to abandon them the second they hit the market? This product segment is competitive, and there are many other brands that will commit to supporting their own wireless earbuds for longer.
[...] My sources have said that Microsoft was working on a successor to the Surface Earbuds, codenamed Ella, that was supposed to launch before the end of this year. We're now at the end of the year and that never happened. I hope they've simply been delayed and not canceled, though I wouldn't be surprised if they have. Microsoft's abandonment of the first Surface Earbuds should be a huge red flag for any potential buyers of a second-generation pair. Why should anyone buy them if Microsoft is going to abandon them the second they hit the market? This product segment is competitive, and there are many other brands that will commit to supporting their own wireless earbuds for longer.
Surface Earbuds? (Score:2)
You'd think with all their billions, they could afford to hire some decent naming / branding consultants.
Surface Circus (Score:3)
I'm not one to arbitrarily bash MS but I have a surface tablet that came with windows 8 and is basically useless because they abandoned it. It still does what it can do except get updates or installing anything not made for ARM.
This news just seems par for the course with Surface products. Strangely, My ancient Xbox controller still works fine with my PC but it isn't branded Surface so all is good.
Re: (Score:2)
I hate to say it, but your problem was that you bet on the wrong horse. Assuming you're talking about Surface RT, buying an ARM-based Windows system back then was like buying magic beans because they were cheap. There was no way they were going to succeed with that [theregister.com] (and full disclosure, I was the one who told ya so).
In the end, Microsoft wrote down a loss of almost $1 billion on unsold Surface RT tablets. And "wrote down" is IRS technical talk meaning it decided they were all junk and there was no way they
Re: (Score:2)
Good news, they're having another go!
This time it can emulate x86 and you get an hour or two more battery life in exchange for beta testing their shit for them.
Re: (Score:2)
your problem was that you bet on the wrong horse
Yeah, it's called "Microsoft"
buying an ARM-based Windows system back then was like buying magic beans because they were cheap. There was no way they were going to succeed with that
Who gives a fuck if they succeed, it's not our job to care about that. Maybe it's yours, though. The issue is that they stopped providing updates.
Re: (Score:2)
I hate to say it, but your problem was that you bet on the wrong horse.
Yes and no. The horse is okay, the issue is the Surface RT was very much a test case rather than the product line. Surface ARM devices are very much a thing, so much so that they are 3 generations deep now. They just rolled them into the primary product lineup (see: Surface Pro 9 with choice of Intel i5, Intel i7, and Microsoft SQ3 processor).
Still wouldn't touch one. IMO it's still very much an "early adopter" type product which is a big risky given its high cost.
Re: (Score:2)
I'm not one to arbitrarily bash MS but I have a surface tablet that came with windows 8 and is basically useless because they abandoned it. It still does what it can do except get updates or installing anything not made for ARM.
There's a big difference between supporting a company's product line, being an early adopter, and being an absolute test case for an as yet completely unproven concept. Buying a Windows ARM product is very much like buying the very first Surface device. You cannot have any expectation that it will turn into a fully featured product with ongoing support.
This news just seems par for the course with Surface products.
No it really isn't. The Surface Pro line (the core product) is now 9 devices deep with my 7 year old Surface Pro 3 device running the latest version of Windo
Re: Surface Circus (Score:2)
Very sad (Score:5, Funny)
Re: Very sad (Score:3)
For that money (Score:2)
They could've claimed that they had sealed the workings in with a inert special gas to prevent the sound quality from degrading from the impure oxygen of the atmosphere and that they use special internal wiring that allow the maximum flow of the quantum electrons for the purest and most accurate of sound quality. As it stands, the product is a 100% letdown.
Who cares (Score:3)
Why is crap earbuds no longer under development a story? Their are plenty of other crap earbuds to choose from.
Surface users are very sad (Score:3)
Both of them.
And you wonder why earjacks are being removed (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Wireless earbuds are definitely a cash cow. Sold >$100 with huge margins to replace the included wired earbuds which are a tenth of the price when bought separately. Every manufacturer does that now.
But I am not sure about the e-waste aspect. These quasi-disposable wired earbuds are not great either.
Re: (Score:2)
You can get unbranded Bluetooth earbuds for $20. They're only $100+ if you have a horde of zombie consumers ("Paaaaay") willing to take the bait.
The Microsoft brand doesn't have a horde like that, Apple does. Maybe some audiofool brands could pull it off, but I don't follow them closely enough to name them.
Re: (Score:1)
I think th
They laid another brown turd.... (Score:2)
Bob and Ella's sitting in a tree (Score:2)
Obligatory (Score:2)
Good gravy (Score:2)
I've always preferred to get older model new PCs for $500 or less.
But now people write articles with a straight face about how their $200 earbuds should really be cooler.
All I would need is one sentence and italics. "$200 freakin' earbuds??????"
Re: (Score:3)
My earbuds cost $5,000.00. They have absolutely flat response from 8 Hz to 50 KhZ.
Seems unlikely, and that would be an undesirable tuning anyway.
https://crinacle.com/rankings/... [crinacle.com]
Osborned by MS (Score:2)
No one wants Microsoft hardware (Score:3)
In 30 years of IT work I've had exactly one person ask for a piece of Microsoft hardware (other than a mouse or keyboard), one user wanted a Surface tablet. I also knew one other person that purchase a Microsoft phone. Two people in 30 years, and neither was happy in the end - the tablet would run hot and the phone went out of support before the shrink wrap cooled.
WOW (Score:2)
$160 for earbuds? I bought some bluetooth ones for $20 off newegg. They work great. No ear buds could possibly be that amazing I would pay nearly 8x the cost.
There are alternates, right? (Score:2)
"Why should anyone buy them if Microsoft is going to abandon them the second they hit the market?"
As to whether they're going to come out with a new design, I'm curious whether that's even important? They're just bluetooth, right, not some weird protocol that that are the only device the Surface computers will connect to? So it seems like you could find some other brand, that fits comfortably, sounds good, and has wireless charging. Ok I know ther
Pine64 (Score:1)
Pine64 PineBuds are $69.99 and have Linux support.