What’s Next for Surface? (Premium)

Today, Microsoft announced new Surface Laptop and Pro models that are additive instead of upgrades for existing devices. Many had assumed that these smaller new models, with lower-end Snapdragon X processors, would be marketed as Surface Go PCs, but that's not the case. I think I know why--Microsoft isn't saying--but whatever the reason, there's been yet another subtle strategy shift for Surface. What does this mean for the future of this product family?
? Go, going, gone
While Microsoft has sold Surface Go products through its Surface for Business store--like the Surface Laptop Go 3 and Surface Go 4--these were always low-end PCs with uninspiring performance that I think undermined the Surface brand. Granted, the Surface strategy has shifted over the years, repeatedly, but sticking to a premium-only model has always made the most sense to me. In this way, the products can compete more directly with Apple--or, at the least, provide a reasonable Windows-based alternative to MacBook--while not undercutting Microsoft's PC maker partners and the important revenue they still deliver.

The trick, of course, is delivering Surface PCs that are lower-end but not cheap, products that deliver on the value proposition of Surface but at a lower price point. And it is here, I think, that the new Surface Laptop and Pro models succeed and the Go product did not. How they got there is interesting. There's no Surface Connect port, not a first, but also long overdue. There's no Thunderbolt 4, just USB-C 3.x. Smaller screens, of course, and 45-watt power adapters (like the Go products). The new Pro comes with a keyboard, which I think is a first, and it's lie-flat only, without the magnet-based second typing position all other Surface keyboard covers have offered (including with Go).

These feel like reasonable trade-offs to me, and it's hard to argue with the starting prices: $799 for Surface Pro, 12-inch and $899 for Surface Laptop, 13-inch. And the smaller sizes, combined with the incredible battery life and efficiency improvements you get with Snapdragon, should appeal to those who value portability above all else. I've not used a PC with these processors, but I assume the performance will be terrific, especially compared to the crap Intel processors Surface has used with the Go line.
? Oh, Snap
The new Surface products point to the future of Surface, just as they point to the future of portable PCs: They're based on Qualcomm Snapdragon X processors, not Intel- or AMD-based x86 processors. This isn't coincidental, and while I'm sure we'll see a smattering of x86 Surface PCs in the future, that will be mostly show for Microsoft's long-time processor partners. The future of Windows, on laptops, most definitely, is Arm, not x86.

We can look at Microsoft's positioning here in a few different ways.

First, the company has long sought to position Surface as a leader of sorts. That's never materialized from a unit sales perspective--Surface's negative...