Ask Paul: January 23 ⭐

Happy Friday! It's a bit chilly here in Mexico City, but nothing like the deep freeze and snowstorms back home. But either way, grab something warm to drink and settle in. It's time to kick off the weekend a bit early.
⌨️ In case you were wondering
gg1 asks:

My current Microsoft Sculpt Ergonomic Keyboard is starting to trouble me, so I went to check Incase's website on their current slate of "Designed by Microsoft" hardware. All I found was: a few full-price items, a bunch of out-of-stock items, and unreleased items that were promised for early next year (case in point the Compact Ergonomic Keyboard that was expected one full year ago).

All these years later, I still very much prefer (and use) the Microsoft Sculpt Ergonomic Keyboard and Mouse set (minus the numeric keypad which I literally throw away). While Microsoft made its own hardware peripherals, including the more recent Surface-branded devices, I was always curious about whatever new ergonomic (and pseudo-ergonomic) keyboards, especially, that it came up with. But none have ever replaced the Sculpt. It's just unique.

Microsoft killing off its hardware peripheral business never made sense to me. Microsoft sticking with just its Surface-branded hardware peripherals, devices that are, overall, inferior to the best of the Microsoft-branded hardware, made even less sense to me. But Microsoft licensing those designs to Incase was like a little burst of hope. Maybe this would be OK.

I guess it is OK. It is better than these things just disappearing. But Incase has moved slowly to just (re)release the existing Microsoft designs it inherited. Last April, I wrote that it appeared that it had finally started shipping a nearly-complete collection of Designed by Microsoft peripherals. Looking at its website now, it doesn't seem horrible to me. There are dozens of Microsoft keyboards, mice, and other peripherals. And that does include the Sculpt Ergonomic Desktop set. Though I note that it is still marked as "coming soon," as are many of those devices. Granted, it is available on Amazon, though there just the keyboard costs $119, not $79 for the full set as advertised on the Incase website. The mouse is $73 (!). (The original Microsoft unit costs $488 on Amazon because of course it does.)

I don't know what's happening. To me, the first order of business is just shipping the existing lineup as-is. And then you move on to improving them. The Sculpt set, for example, should come with a USB-C dongle (or no dongle). I wouldn't like this personally, but it should have a Copilot key. Perhaps there are new models/devices to be made that fit within this series. Etc. But nothing has happened.

What was the point of ceding the Microsoft hardware line to Incase? They seem to be doing an even worse job of managing it than Microsoft. Am I missing something here?

Microsoft actually did a nice job of managing this hardware lineup when it was there, but Incase has definitely dropped the ball...