Hints at Next Week’s Microsoft Device Announcements

To be honest, there probably aren’t too many surprises left for next week’s devices launch. Both Rich and I will be on-hand during the NYC Microsoft Devices launch event and will be reporting live, so stay tuned to SuperSite for content and photos – and follow us on Twitter for real-time commentary (@rodtrent and @winobs). Rich is the serious one and I’m the goofy sidekick. So, you can expect fact and frolic by monitoring both feeds.

There’s been rumor and speculation over the past couple months about what exactly Microsoft might announce. But, while it seems to have been flogged quite to death, there’s new evidence and hints for the device areas Microsoft is planning to reveal.

A week ago, the company posted and removed a link on the Microsoft Band site that directed clickers to an unavailable page about Microsoft Band 2 Features and Functions. Today the company accidentally revealed the Lumia 950 and 950XL on the Microsoft Store web site. The renders and information have since been removed, but its evidence that Microsoft is hard at work preparing for next week. Some have suggested that next week will mark the announcements and the actual devices won’t be available until November. And, that’s probably the case for some of the device announcements, but it does seem that the Lumia 950 brands will be on tap for purchase next week.

There’s been a litany of price reductions on both the Microsoft Band and the Surface Pro series tablets in the last couple months – further evidence that Microsoft is preparing announcements for those two devices.

More evidence of what’s coming is available today by way of Twitter. When you visit the @surface, @Lumia, @microsoftband, and @HoloLens accounts today, you’ll be met with the Windows 10 Devices background on each.

So, it doesn’t take much Sherlocking to figure out the device categories that Microsoft is preparing (Surface, Lumia, Band, HoloLens), but still I wouldn’t count out a few surprises somewhere in the mix. For example, we still know very little about what might be planned for a HoloLens announcement.

I’m pretty excited for the launch and I know many of you are, too. According to projected weather reports, the launch could have some unintended excitement all its own, and not the kind baked into the proposed gadgets. Hurricane JOAQUIN may make landfall in the area sometime on Monday when both Rich and I are traveling to NYC.

Here’s hoping we can use that HoloLens to build a boat.

Additionally, Microsoft today has combined several separate device blogs into one. The new Devices blog centralizes content for Surface, Lumia, Band and HoloLens. Read about that here: Welcome to Microsoft Devices Blog