In our day and age, it’s hard to expect a new product release without an image or two being leaked. But the leaked images almost never come from the company’s official social media accounts. This makes the image sent yesterday from Microsoft Surface’s Instagram account super interesting – both from the technical product angle and the marketing angle.
The image looked like an all-black version of something similar to the Surface Book keyboard, but with a different looking hinge, which will possibly allow less gap between the screen and keyboard, in a form more similar to an actual notebook.
It was posted with the simple tagline “Your key to success,” and it didn’t take people long to figure out it doesn’t really look like the Surface Book they know. Windows Central was the first to notice it was actually a teaser for what would become Surface Book 2.
But was this teaser really a teaser?
Not too long after the image was posted, Windows Central confirmed that the image posted was from an internal Microsoft “sizzler” reel meant to demonstrate some ideas for the new Surface Book 2: “The video has recently been shown within Microsoft’s various departments and meetings starting in July, and multiple people can confirm seeing the video where this image originates. That lends credence to the idea that Microsoft is purposefully teasing the new Surface Book 2. Nonetheless, it could also be posted in error, but that seems less likely.”
A few hours later, The Verge posted a claim by Rudy Huyn, who has shown that the so-called teaser is an image cropped from an old Surface Book promo, not from an internal “sizzler.”
Hey @verge and @windowscentral, sorry but it’s a promo image of the original Surface book… 😉 pic.twitter.com/jTav2tJjwv
— Rudy Huyn (@RudyHuyn) August 29, 2016
Whether this image is cropped or taken from a Surface Book 2 demonstration, it’s the bottom line that matters: According to various sources, Microsoft is expected to unveil Surface Book 2 early next year, but everyone’s hoping the teaser means an earlier release.
This is a great example of how a company can release a teaser from an official website and still enjoy great attention and enthusiasm. Looks like it’s going to be a useful product, which shows Microsoft’s attentivity to its users, who wanted an even simpler experience when using the product.
The only question left here is will this small change, in spite of contributing to the online user experience, will this small change really lead to sales and increased revenue.