Microsoft Moves All Hardware Peripherals Under Surface

Microsoft corrected a Nikkei Asia report that stated it would scale back production of its Surface PC peripherals. Instead, it will consolidate its Windows hardware peripheral product lines under the Surface brand and stop selling Microsoft-branded hardware.

“Going forward, we are focusing on our Windows PC accessories portfolio under the Surface brand,” a Microsoft statement explains. “We will continue to offer a range of Surface-branded PC Accessories including mice, keyboards, pens, docks, adaptive accessories, and more. Existing Microsoft-branded PC accessories like mice, keyboards, and webcams will continue to be sold in existing markets at existing sell-in prices while supplies last.”

Given this, the Nikkei Asia report was only partially correct: Microsoft is indeed “scaling back production of peripherals” and “consolidating resources,” but the bit stating that “Microsoft will no longer make standalone keyboards under the Surface brand” is incorrect.

Microsoft currently sells a wide range of PC peripherals, but I can see now that the old URL, microsoft.com/hardware now redirects to a Microsoft Store page that features Surface accessories, PC accessories, Microsoft Teams accessories, audio accessories, and Xbox accessories. Given the statement above, many of the items highlighted on the PC accessories page will disappear or be rebranded. This includes such products as the Microsoft Ergonomic Desktop, Microsoft Arc Mouse, Microsoft Sculpt Ergonomic Desktop, Microsoft Wireless Mobile Mouse, and many others.

Looking specifically at the current lineup of Surface-branded peripherals, and excluding things like Surface Pro Signature keyboards that are device-specific, there’s not much to recommend. Products like the Surface Arc Mouse and Surface Keyboard are laughably non-ergonomic, and I can’t imagine that the Surface Thunderbolt 4 Dock or Surface Headphones 2 are big sellers.

But this change does at least dispel fears that Microsoft might jettison its interesting but poorly-selling Surface PC products. After the results of the past few quarters, I was starting to get nervous.