Last October Patently Apple posted a report titled "With Microsoft launching their First Notebook Today could a Desktop be next? Then this past February we posted a follow-up report titled "Microsoft Invents a Modular Desktop PC to take on Apple's iMac." Weeks later Microsoft's former CEO Steve Ballmer strongly stated that "only Microsoft could challenge Apple in software and hardware." More specifically Ballmer stated that "I mean who's really going after the Mac?" Today we learn that Microsoft is planning to introduce a new all-in-one PC to take on Apple's iMac.

With its success from Surface 2-in-1 devices, Microsoft reportedly is cooperating with upstream supply chain players to develop an all-in-one (AIO) PC under the Surface brand and will launch the model in the third quarter of 2016 at the earliest, according to industry sources, reports DigiTimes. Microsoft did not confirm the report.

The Surface AIO PC is apparently an alternative for Microsoft's second-generation Surface Book, which will be delayed to the first half of 2017 instead of the original schedule set in the second half of 2016 due to delayed shipments of Intel's Kaby Lake CPUs, said the sources.

The launch of the Surface AIO PC is believed to have a strong impact on the global AIO PC market, which has been diminishing amid declining demand for PC products, commented the sources, noting that Lenovo and Apple are currently the top-two AIO PC vendors globally.

To see more Microsoft patent figures relating to their possible AIO PC click here.

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