Microsoft’s Surface 3 has been around the block for some time; the device was announced last Spring. And while we have not heard anything about a Surface 4 yet, the availability of the Surface 3 is starting to dry up as several SKUs of the device are no longer available on Microsoft’s website.

If you head over to the Microsoft store, you will see that only the 64GB / 2GB Wifi+LTE model is in stock, the three other options are all currently unavailable. Microsoft does let you sign up for an email for when they will become available but when I asked the sales staff online about when they would be back in stock, they said if they knew, a date would be listed.

It’s hard to imagine that there has been a hard run on the Surface 3 line these past few weeks that has backordered the device. Consider the tablets age, what is more likely is that Microsoft has stopped building this particular model.

There has been little rumored about a Surface 4, other than some crazy ideas that it was going to be announced at E3, so what a new device would contain is up in the air. Seeing as the form-factor of the device is proving to work well for Microsoft, a dramatic overhaul doesn’t seem likely and a traditional spec bump and refinements would make the most sense.

[Update] Here is Microsoft’s comment on the availability of the device:

Since launching Surface 3 over a year ago, we have seen strong demand and satisfaction amongst our customers. Inventory is now limited and by the end of December 2016, we will no longer manufacture Surface 3 devices.

Poking around the web, retails like Best Buy and Staples are still selling it online, although Staples did say that at my local store, the device was not available. At Best Buy, it is out of stock at the physical stores but there is the option to have a device shipped to store for pickup by the middle of next week; Best Buy had previously stocked this device on its shelves.

The Surface 3 is the entry level tablet from Microsoft, with a starting price of $399. While the company never shared its sales figures for the particular device, it did seem to sell well initially but how sales performed over the life of the device is not known. If you hear anything about the Surface 4, make sure to let us know.

Tagged with Surface 3