Still Want a Surface Phone? Here’s Some Good News

Anyone still pining away for a Surface phone just got some good news in the form of the Surface Studio. If Microsoft will ship that device, a phone is almost a given.

In fact, I'll now argue that the only thing that could kill Surface phone would be an unexpectedly quick demise of HP's Elite x3. And I don't see that happening.

Like virtually all Surface phone articles you'll read this year---this one being the only exception---this is based purely on speculation. After all, Microsoft has never once formally committed to making such a device, has never even publicly discussed it. But there's speculation and then there's speculation, and I'm not engaging is wishful thinking here. Instead, let's apply a bit of common sense to this discussion. Because in doing so, we can find a way forward for Surface phone.

To be clear, I don't think Surface phone makes any sense at all, and haven't for a long time. For example, if you look at the conceptually similar HP Elite x3, I've already laid out who Microsoft would need to differentiate a Surface phone. And you don't have to look too hard at that list to see what's missing: A reason to actually make, market, and support Surface phone.

But that isn't stopping Microsoft from doing so with Surface Studio, a device that arguably makes just as little sense as a real-world product. That is, it is an extremely expensive product that caters to an extremely small audience. It is a niche product, not a mainstream PC.

This represents a new line of thinking from the Surface team, and though we knew a year ago that the mantra had become premium devices, it wasn't clear at the time how far Microsoft was willing to go in that direction. But the hints were there. After all, Microsoft also started selling a Surface-branded collaboration tool called Surface Hub this past year. And that device, which is sold out with no end in sight, costs $9000 to $22,000 depending on model.

But Surface isn't just about being premium and expensive. Surface is also about being aspirational. That means that Microsoft hopes inspire its PC maker partners to follow its design leadership and make similar devices. And it hopes to inspire its customers to stick with the PC because, suddenly, that's where the excitement and innovation is. If they buy a downmarket Surface clone from a PC maker partner, so be it. At least they've stuck with the PC.

The Surface Pro, which formalized the 2-in-1 form factor, has proven so aspirational that every major PC maker---including even Apple, with the iPad Pro, and Google, with the Pixel C---have copied it outright. The Surface Hub, too, has inspired Google to announce a similar Jamboard collaboration PC that will cost about $6000, the firm says, if it can wrangle the costs down that far. You see, Google was so inspired to copy Surface Hub that it pre-announced its own device before it was even sure what it could offer.

Microsoft knew going in that it would never sell Surface Hub in vo...