Welcome to August! It's going to be an exciting year for the tech industry. Not only because the next Samsung Unpacked is only five days away, but also because we expect Microsoft to break its silence on the price and availability of the Xbox Series X.
But is Microsoft planning another announcement this month, a cryptic tweet from The Verge's Tom Warren has people speculating:
The Surface Duo and the Xbox Series S.
The Xbox Series X is expected to be released in the next few weeks.
Starting with the latter, if Microsoft really intends to officially announce the Xbox Series X this month, it certainly makes sense to announce the rumored cheaper next-generation hardware at the same time.
For those who don't know, the Xbox Series S will likely be an entry-level version of the Series X, targeting 1080p games instead of 4K. It is also likely to be all digital, with Microsoft being the sole vendor of software, shutting off the used market so that it can recoup some of the costs of selling hardware at a lower price. [The rumored 4 teraflops of performance will not be far behind the Series X's 12 teraflops (and the Xbox One X's 6 teraflops), but at least one industry veteran thinks it will be enough and could eventually replace the old Xbox One, in my I think it could eventually replace the old Xbox One.
However, there are also very good reasons why Microsoft may not announce the Xbox Series S this month. The company wants as many people as possible to buy the more expensive Xbox Series X, and offering less expensive hardware seems like a surefire way to undermine its flagship product, especially when economists believe we are months away from a full-blown recession. Therefore, Microsoft may delay the Xbox Series S until excited early adopters already have the Series X: Microsoft's first smartphone since the Lumia 650 in 2016. Originally slated for "Holiday 2020," we have already heard that Microsoft plans to move up the phone's release to compete with Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold 2, and this tweet may simply confirm that rumor.
Of course, the tweet does not say how many announcements there will be, just "more than one," so it is possible that release dates and pricing information for the Xbox Series X, Series S, and Surface Duo will be announced. If so, August could be a truly memorable month...
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