Next Microsoft Accessories Announcenents?

[Narudian]

Hey fellas, recently got a Lumia 950XL and I'm looking to jump onto the Continuum train. Right now (in Aus at least) sales for accessories like the Foldable Keyboard and Arc Mouse are on fire, but I perceive it to be more of a bad thing than good. I've bought both (I'll get to why I didn't get a Display Dock in a bit) and while I'm happy with the Arc and pretty confident it's future proof as is, I can't say the same for the keyboard nor the current Display Dock.

In my experience (currently typing on the keyboard) while the gap isn't bothering me, the key spacing is. I currently use a traditional keyboard for my Desktop and a Surface Book and may I say the Book's keyboard is just perfect as is. So I guess #1 on my wishlist is a foldable keyboard with the new Surface Keyboard design. Which leads me to my question:

When is Microsoft going to announce new accessories and/or when is the next big computer related event where MS will be at?

I'm confident they'll announce new accessories at the next big event OR as we saw strangely with the Lumia 650, they'll do it over a blog. Either way, the stars are beginning to line up in my eyes, it's been approximately a year (from what I can gather) since they announced the products we have today and with the Surface Mobile coming up I'm 150% sure they'll have a more superior Display Dock ready either before or at release for the phone.

I've spent the last few days just going through all the old promotional materials for these old accessories to get an idea but the issue is MS released these products by trickling it all over the market (the new Wireless Display Adapter isn't even for sale here in Aus) so there's really no telling. I would like a new keyboard soon as the new Uni semester is coming up but if they're about to announce new accessories I'd be willing to wait. Same can be said for the Display Dock (which is pretty pricey and almost never goes on sale) which is already outmatched by third-party comps jumping on the Continuum train.

Worse case scenario no one knows anything, I'll just go with my gut feeling, return the keyboard and wait for the new one. I know it's soon, I just want to know HOW soon, because there's always the chance they found the Foldable to be a cool but commercially weak idea and just discontinued it in favour of say the Universal Mobile Keyboard (which has a key design very close to what the new Surface keyboards look like) in which case I'd exchange for (though I'm more on-board with the pocket PC concept than I am for a bagged PC).

 

[Chintan Gohel]

Hey fellas, recently got a Lumia 950XL and I'm looking to jump onto the Continuum train. Right now (in Aus at least) sales for accessories like the Foldable Keyboard and Arc Mouse are on fire, but I perceive it to be more of a bad thing than good. I've bought both (I'll get to why I didn't get a Display Dock in a bit) and while I'm happy with the Arc and pretty confident it's future proof as is, I can't say the same for the keyboard nor the current Display Dock.

In my experience (currently typing on the keyboard) while the gap isn't bothering me, the key spacing is. I currently use a traditional keyboard for my Desktop and a Surface Book and may I say the Book's keyboard is just perfect as is. So I guess #1 on my wishlist is a foldable keyboard with the new Surface Keyboard design. Which leads me to my question:

When is Microsoft going to announce new accessories and/or when is the next big computer related event where MS will be at?

I'm confident they'll announce new accessories at the next big event OR as we saw strangely with the Lumia 650, they'll do it over a blog. Either way, the stars are beginning to line up in my eyes, it's been approximately a year (from what I can gather) since they announced the products we have today and with the Surface Mobile coming up I'm 150% sure they'll have a more superior Display Dock ready either before or at release for the phone.

I've spent the last few days just going through all the old promotional materials for these old accessories to get an idea but the issue is MS released these products by trickling it all over the market (the new Wireless Display Adapter isn't even for sale here in Aus) so there's really no telling. I would like a new keyboard soon as the new Uni semester is coming up but if they're about to announce new accessories I'd be willing to wait. Same can be said for the Display Dock (which is pretty pricey and almost never goes on sale) which is already outmatched by third-party comps jumping on the Continuum train.

Worse case scenario no one knows anything, I'll just go with my gut feeling, return the keyboard and wait for the new one. I know it's soon, I just want to know HOW soon, because there's always the chance they found the Foldable to be a cool but commercially weak idea and just discontinued it in favour of say the Universal Mobile Keyboard (which has a key design very close to what the new Surface keyboards look like) in which case I'd exchange for (though I'm more on-board with the pocket PC concept than I am for a bagged PC).

The main product event they had last year was in October and the lumias were released over a month later in November. So if assume that the next product feature event is a year later, you'll have to wait over 3 months. I'm not sure that accessories such as keyboards will be on the schedule - if MS didn't produce any covers for the 950 or new power banks or basically anything else, we can't expect much

 

[Narudian]

Ah, it seems I might've confused you a bit. I do know when the last large MS event happened which saw the new Surface and Lumia lines announced. While I definitely do not expect any small product announcements like keyboards from those events, I do fully anticipate small events (say OEM focused events) to be the perfect time to show off MS computer accessories (since it stays out of the way of OEMs while being relevant). The latest accessories (if MS's official YouTube Channel is anything to go by) were announced almost a year ago (release as I said varied by market)and thus, my question remains, when is the next large computer related event and/or when can we expect new accessories?

I understand it could full well be in October, but part of me feels after everything MS has done, it'd be a little off to announce small hardware additions with larger (Surface, Lumia etc.) hardware and thus hope that there's an event sometime in the next month or two. Cheers for the reply though.

 

[Bobvfr]

Not really sure MS wants to be a mass accessories manufacturer, you can use just about any Bluetooth mouse or keyboard, or if you had the dock you have all the wireless ones available as well, for example I was using my 950XL with a wireless Logitech keyboard with built in track pad this morning. You can of course use full size wireless or USB ones as well.

There are already thousands of mice and keyboards that work with Continuum.

You can even use Continuum without a mouse as the phone will convert to a trackpad if you want (Not brilliant but does just about work) so to use Continuum you really need the output sorted before worrying too much about input devices.

I have the wireless adapter and the dock, the dock has many advantages like charging on the go, USB ports and I believe another maker has one with a network port (Search man pages, it was only in the last few weeks).



What other accessories were you thinking about?

 

[Narudian]

I'm not entirely sure about that. Without question MS isn't looking to overtake or kick out OEM competition in the hardware space, but they're not about to drop the Surface team anytime soon. As far as I can tell, the Surface team leads the charge in all of MS's hardware space (even Xbox I believe from the recent building tour). But that's aside from the point I'm getting at here.

Let me clarify, I already have input and output devices for Continuum, I'm only looking into upgrading from a seriously tethered experience to a more wireless one. For starters, I'm looking into Bluetooth to power everything I do now, and while I recognise other OEMs also do (and even better) that area of hardware, being an MS ****** I can't help but be more inclined to purchase MS devices instead. On that note, it isn't blind fanboyism that stops me from purchasing things like the LG Rolly Keyboard, or the Minix Neo C (all of which I've looked at and seriously considered), I also feel the MS hardware (led by none other than the Surface team) is always a step ahead in fun or innovating ideas. While this foldable keyboard is slightly difficult to type with (in comparison to say the Book's keyboard) it is a fun idea and could be a really great device with a much needed but purposeful update. Hence I'm asking when the community estimates when MS will do their next (small scaled not Surface line announcements) event or participate in one to do some announcements.

To answer your suggestions though, I have used the phone as a trackpad during Continuum. If I had any doubt into getting a dedicated mouse, that absolutely crushed it. The experience, while doable, wasn't ideal for serious work or say the streaming of media to a big screen. On that note, I do have a Wireless Adapter(WA) (and it works wonders) but having only one of those, I'm looking getting a wired dock for Continuum. The reason so being that A. The WA isn't powerful enough to deliver stutter-free fast paced movies as I observed the other night and so acts really as a work device for me and B. Having only one of those means bringing it up and down stairs on days I need it.

Again though, ^this isn't the issue. I am, without question, getting a dock (don't need a Minix as A. that extending wire design choice is less than stellar for my TV setup and B. don't need Ethernet or Micro/SD cards), I just need to know when MS will release another one (not exactly just need to know when their next small-time hardware related event/ announcement is) so I can plan out how I'm going to purchase these devices. The current dock, while abs awesome as far as I can tell, feels outdated, ESPECIALLY with that USB 2.0 tech still on it. All my hard drives are 3.0 and it seems odd that they'd have gone that route so I'm about 200% the next dock will feature 3.0 in some fashion.