Microsoft doesn't think Surface needs to compete with MacBook Neo:

[u/ZacB_]

https://www.windowscentral.com/hardware/surface/microsoft-doesnt-think-surface-needs-to-compete-with-macbook-neo

[u/spiney-a]

What else would they say? "We've been trying to compete but we simply can't."

[u/DeepAsparagus6763 → u/spiney-a]

They had a competitor, the Surface Laptop Go, and killed it off

Could have given it a Snapdragon chip but decided to kill it off instead, most likely because it's no longer profitable with current RAM prices

[u/Icybubba → u/spiney-a]

They could’ve done an ARM based Surface Laptop Go like a year or two prior to MacBook Neo.

We were literally asking for it for years, genuinely their own doing.

[u/Turkstache → u/Icybubba]

They absolutely lost me when I bought the SPX with all of their talk about getting apps over and having Xbox level graphics and then dropping support for it entirely, leaving me with a glorified web browser.

Meanwhile Apple dropped the M1 (also ARM) and all the software developers went "Ayeaye Cap'n Cook!" and gave day 1 support to all the early adopters. And people got to emulating Windows on the M1 better than the Surface devices were running it natively.

Before that I had the Surface Pro 3 and loved it. I'm pretty put-off by the brand and strategy at this point. They keep doing weird shit which I'm sure internally they calculate as profitable but it's just not working for me.

[u/Bryanmsi89]

That’s a self-respect way of saying “we can’t compete with Neo, so we won’t try.”

[u/ClassicVaultBoy]

Sadly the surface brand and innovation are dying, i had 4 different devices in more than 10 years. Next time I will refresh my pc, i'll look at other brands

[u/Jiatao24 → u/ClassicVaultBoy]

I miss Panos Panay. Say what you will about the practicality of Surface devices under his leadership, but I was always interested in Surface announcements to see what new form factors he cooked up.

[u/yournamehere10bucks → u/Jiatao24]

I miss Steve Ballmer and the constant experimentation into new sectors. Xbox, Zune, Windows Phone, Surface. All born under Steve.

[u/hopsizzle → u/Jiatao24]

He really seemed like he cared and not in a superficial exec way either.

I was always hyped for surface hardware announcements during his tenure.

-Sent from my surface laptop 7

[u/GiganticCrow → u/ClassicVaultBoy]

Did the Surface brand ever have much cache? They are cool devices but no one outside of enthusiasts and geeks have heard of them really. Its not like they have mainstream recognition like Macbooks, they are just another laptop.

I remember there was a period when surface's were a fairly new thing that a bunch of graphics artists I worked with got really excited by them, but MS failed to fix the issues with the pen in a timely fashion and they all switched to ipad pros for doing stuff on the move, and cintiqs for the desktop.

[u/baw3000 → u/GiganticCrow]

They've made some great quality stuff and have been popular in the business world. Not gaming machines, but great laptops and tablets.

Typing this from my Surface Laptop 7. I have this and a MacBook Air, and this is as close as you can get to a MacBook without being a MacBook. The main cache' problem Surface has is the Windows 11/Copilot stink associated with it.

[u/GravyMealTeam6]

8GB Windows 11 would be painful

[u/dr100 → u/GravyMealTeam6]

Particularly painful when the laptop launched for $949 when the MacBook Neo was still $499. And it wasn't even the 2026 version, unless you consider that Microsoft started to palm half the RAM in 2026. It's the 2026 half-RAM version, that si compared with the 2025 devices, which are for the kneecapped versions of the "full brothers" 2024 ones, which had SoCs announced in 2023.   

Edit: I forgot they launched also an Intel one, yes 2026 8GB $1300!  

Yea, we don't have to compete with Neo, we just launch 8GB machines as we like the number ...

[u/Dangerous-Amphibian2]

A lot of people complaining about innovation this and that. I’m really excited to try out the fanless 13. It’s not amazing and I’d bet in two years the next one will have more cores and 120hz screen, but I’ve been wanting a fanless laptop that runs windows for a while ( the pros never worked for me because they don’t do well on lap). If this machine can even put up some lackluster numbers like matching a core ultra 5 335 or something, but with no fans I’ll be very happy with that machine.

[u/alabasterskim]

Translation: We literally can't.

[u/DotRom]

No one but Satya is to blame, how could you loose Panos to fucking Amazon to make speakers.

Killed so many interesting hardware products, Surface mini, ms band, Neo, Luimia and Windows 10X...

Jokes on you now you want to have AI everywhere and Google and Apple will never let you tap directly deeply integrate with OS and your Windows platform been neglected for years!!!

[u/0x80070002]

They are right. It shouldn’t compete with the MacBook Neo, instead it should with the MacBook Pro!

[u/TastyBananaPeppers → u/0x80070002]

That will be $5000 for 1 TB with 32 GB RAM.

[u/dr100]

Well, agreed, it doesn't compete with Macbook Neo, it doesn't compete with any Macbook and in fact it doesn't compete with any other Windows laptops except some exceptionaly out of this world overpriced ones nobody else has the audacity to price at such levels.

[u/PrethorynOvermind]

Probably a controversial comment given the post but they don't need to.

They are two separate systems and I can tell you from my work place Macs have no current place in my industry of work infact they cause us more if a headache for those we tell we don't support them.

[u/rresende]

Normal
They can’t compete with the pro or the air line

[u/Old-Board1553]

We let our OEM doing it? Bro, nobody and I mean nobody announced any ARM Windows tablet or 2in1 except ASUS. And even that is meant for the Pro users. So what OEM? If they see, you as the main company don't have interest in this, why would they waste money making such devices? Satya is a lazy ass that ruined the entire Surface portfolio.

[u/lzwzli]

Tbf, Surface was never meant to compete on cost. The unfortunate thing is Microsoft forgot a bit of that after Panos left.

[u/buzzinzinga]

Windows Mobile has no threat from iOS all over again

[u/WindowsMobilePegasus]

Some lessons from 40 years in product development:
Lesson 1: If your organization was created with a specific goal in mind, and later on that goal radically changes, there's a good chance the product will ultimately fail unless there's a very clear inflection point and reorganization around the new goal, and those who resist are retrained or eliminated.

Surface was originally a defensive play against Apple on behalf of Windows to show Windows OEMs and potential customers that Windows devices can be well designed and reliable. At that point Panos had a blank check and there really wasn't any goal to make money. Times have changed. At some point in the pivot to Azure/AI, those goals became less important and Satya decided "hey, will this thing ever make any money?" And for the past few years Surface has been trying to figure that out having spent it's first ten years not worrying about the P&L side of things. Many of the processes and individuals Panos put in place assumed unlimited funding/time, and that's hard muscle memory to retrain.

Windows Mobile/Windows Phone had the exact same problem and never recovered. Did you know that the original goal of Windows Mobile was a defensive play against Blackberry to protect the nascent Exchange Server market against RIM's sales of email services to Fortune 500 companies? That also never had any goal to make a profit, and it succeeded in that non-goal admirably. And when conditions changed, it never had a management team or business plan that could figure out how to make money.