Back in 2016, Microsoft announced that it would no longer be selling its affordable Surface 3 during the start of 2017, suggesting that the 2-in-1’s popularity might not have been as high as compared to the Surface Pro 4 or Surface Pro 3 for that matter. Here’s an update for you regarding the $499 hybrid; it is no longer available to purchase on the company’s online stores.

With Surface 3 Getting Removed From Online Stores and Shelves, What Sort of Improvements Can We Expect From the Successor?

If you head to the Microsoft Store right now, you will be able to see that the Surface 3 is still mentioned on the website, but as soon as you click on ‘Buy Now’, you will be redirected to another page where you will be looking at the Surface Pro 4, the company’s powerful 2-in-1 armed with Intel’s Skylake processor family. This provides evidence that the company is looking to get rid of the affordable product, which can only mean that the company could be looking to introduce something better in the future.

Microsoft’s Surface lineup isn’t the most affordable of mobile computing solutions, with the Surface 3 only providing a sliver of hope to consumers on a budget wanting to get their hands on such a product. For its price tag, Surface 3 still represents a product for consumers who are looking to gravitate from a notebook to a portable 2-in-1. If a Surface 3 successor is introduced, it could feature Intel’s Apollo Lake series of processors, which has succeeded the chip maker’s Braswell series of SoCs to provide more performance per watt consumed.

With Thunderbolt 3 being an extremely versatile port, we could see such an addition to provide a whole new level of convenience when you the purchase a future 2-in-1, though you will still have to purchase accessories and adapters down the road because we’re still in a transitionary phase. What sort of changes do you think Microsoft would like to introduce in its Surface 3 successor, assuming it has intentions to release one? Let us know your ideas in the comments below.