Microsoft has announced that will be dropping support for its Microsoft-branded accessories, that is, mice, keyboards, and webcams. This marks the end of an era, with the company first debuting its first branded mouse in 1983 coupled up with Word and Notepad.
This shouldn’t be misconstrued to mean that Microsoft won’t be manufacturing accessories entirely. While speaking to The Verge, Senior communications manager at Microsoft, Dan Laycock indicated that the company is shifting its focus to Surface-branded PC accessories.
Dan Laycock further added:
Going forward, we are focusing on our Windows PC accessories portfolio under the Surface brand. 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.
A report by Nikkei had earlier indicated that Microsoft was planning to do away with the Surface accessories. However, this isn’t the case. Microsoft will be laying more emphasis on the Surface brand and doing away with Microsoft-branded accessories instead.
While it is clear that Microsoft still intends to continue making sales of its mice and keyboard accessories under the Surface brand, the company intentionally left out webcams.
Surface is a premium Microsoft brand, and most of the products that are part of the Surface Lineup are significantly pricey. It’s not yet clear if this shift by Microsoft will have any implications on the price point of these accessories. As it stands, the Microsoft Modern Webcam is the only available option when it comes to the webcam category, and it currently goes for around $800.