MICROSOFT AND GOOGLE ANNOUNCE OCTOBER LAPTOP EVENTS

Microsoft has announced a Windows and Surface event for 7 October in San Francisco, its first major Windows event in more than two years. The company said the event will host "a conversation on how local AI will shape the next chapter of the PC." Google has announced a separate event, called Opening Night, for 5 October in New York, describing it as a "celebration" of its new Googlebooks laptop range. Google said the event will include the debut of "the first laptop designed for Gemini Intelligence." Both events fall within days of each other and focus on AI-enabled laptops.

Microsoft said chief executive Satya Nadella, Windows and Surface chief Pavan Davuluri, and Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang will all attend its event. The company last held a major Windows event in May 2024, for Arm-based Copilot Plus PCs, and before that in June 2021, for Windows 11. Google said Googlebooks run on a version of ChromeOS based on Android, giving deep integration with Android phones, and are being built by hardware partners including Acer, Asus, Dell, HP and Lenovo. The laptops feature a lid light strip called a "glowbar" and a tool called Magic Pointer, which suggests actions when a user hovers over items on screen. Google said pre-orders for Googlebooks open on 21 September.

Google said Googlebooks are expected to start shipping around the time of the New York event. Microsoft has not detailed its full agenda for 7 October beyond its stated focus on local AI and the PC. Google said Googlebooks will also adopt a feature from Android 17 that lets users generate a custom widget. Both companies have confirmed their dates without releasing full details in advance.