Microsoft’s Surface Earbuds get delayed to Spring 2020

If you were looking to purchase Microsoft’s new Surface Earbuds during the holidays, you’re out of luck. Panos Panay, the company’s Chief Hardware Officer, has just announced on Twitter that the Earbuds have now been pushed back to Spring 2020, as Microsoft apparently needs more time to iron out the kinks.

The face of Microsoft’s Surface business didn’t go into details about what’s causing the delay, so we don’t know if Microsoft has been encountering software or manufacturing issues. Anyway, the Surface Earbuds will now launch worldwide in the Spring, and we hope this delay will result in a better product.

Product-making is about the relentless pursuit to get all the details right, which takes time…sometimes more than we planned on. To ensure we deliver the best possible experience for you, our fans & customers, Surface Earbuds will now launch worldwide in Spring 2020 #Surface

— Panos Panay (@panos_panay) November 21, 2019

Priced at $249, the Surface Earbuds will feature touch and voice controls, and Microsoft promised up to 24h of battery life. One of the killer features is support for all digital assistants, and that means Cortana, Alexa, Google Assistant, and even Siri.

The Surface Earbuds’ circular design looks quite odd next to Apple’s AirPods, which are the most popular wireless headphones on the market. The Earbuds are also more expensive than the AirPods, and they also lack the noise-cancellation technology found on the new AirPods Pro or Microsoft’s own Surface headphones. The Surface Earbuds still made a good first impression on our own Arif when he tried them at Microsoft’s Surface event last month, and we hope the product will end up even better thanks to this unexpected delay.