A Few Questions from the Always Connected PC Launch

Terry Myerson appeared at a Qualcomm event this morning in Hawaii to launch Always Connected PC. I have a few questions.

As you may know, Brad and I are here in Maui to cover Qualcomm's Snapdragon Tech Summit, of which Always Connected PC is but a part. But I'd like to start there: I'll have more to say about Qualcomm's other announcements, and more about Always Connected PC, soon.

To be clear, Always Connected PC is a big deal: It brings the always-on and seamless connectivity of the smartphone, plus the thermal and battery life advantages of the ARM-based Snapdragon 835 SoC, to the PC. And while the performance of Qualcomm-based PCs is still an open question---we've had only a few minutes of hands-on time so far---I feel like we're really seeing the future here. Starting, of course, with thin and light mobile PCs.

But as I noted, I have questions.

Qualcomm claimed at the keynote this morning that Always Connected PCs based on the Snapdragon 835 would deliver "beyond a day of usable battery life," or about 20 hours or more. And the two Always Connected PCs shown off today, the ASUS NovaGo and the HP Elite x2, both delivered on those claims, with 22 hours and "over 20 hours" of battery, respectively.

So why did Microsoft's Terry Myerson get up on stage and claim that the unnamed Always Connected PC that he's been testing deliver fully one week---one week!---of battery?

I was hoping to ask him about that, but he told me today that he had to head back to Seattle right after his appearance at the keynote. I'd like to follow up on this one. But I think it's fair to say that he's probably using the PC like one might normally, and not for massive periods of time at once. When you combine 20-22 hours of real world battery life with another Qualcomm advantage---standby time of about 30 days---you get a better picture of the overall battery life story here. I am super-curious to test this myself.

The next question is one of timing: Why would Microsoft, Qualcomm, and various partners launch Snapdragon 835-based PCs on the same day in which Qualcomm launched the 835's successor, the Snapdragon 845? Obviously, we will see future PCs based on the Snapdragon 845---the 835 is just a start---but this is a curious marketing message. I assume the idea here is to sell Qualcomm-based PCs as with Windows 10 S-based PCs: The consumer won't care, they just want something that works. It's up to the PC makers to push the advantages of each of their products.

The other confusing bit, to me, is that we didn't see more PC maker support at this event. After all, Microsoft first announced Always Connected PC a year ago and has consistently promised that we'd see the first devices by the end of 2017.

That isn't happening. And to be fair, CES is right around the corner. And we know that Lenovo will launch an Always Connected PC there. But we only saw two PCs here in Hawaii, a rather sad showing. And one of them, the ASUS, didn't even have a sin...