Microsoft’s recently launched Surface Laptop and Surface Pro tablets powered by Snapdragon processors were unexpectedly stripped of the Copilot+ PC branding. Brett Ostrum, corporate vice president of Microsoft Surface, confirmed in an interview with Windows Central that the new Surface PC will no longer be called Copilot+ PC, but will still support all Copilot+ functions.
Image source: Microsoft
Brett Ostrum said this change in brand strategy was intentional. When asked why the new Surface devices weren’t labeled as Copilot+ PCs, Ostrum responded: “They are not called Copilot+ PCs. At the same time, they fully comply with the criteria we previously established for Copilot+ PC-like devices. We continue to rely on the concept of local processing of AI tasks (edge AI) and the possibility of implementing hybrid solutions.”.
Windows Central also contacted Qualcomm Senior Vice President Kedar Kondap for comment on the use of the Copilot+ PC brand.
“The idea behind the Copilot+ PC category is to provide access to features supported by NPUs. The goal is to highlight a specific category of devices that meet specific requirements and criteria, for example, having an NPU with 45 TOPS of performance. So, essentially, we are talking about providing the same functionality, just maybe not using the Copilot+ PC terminology itself.”“Qualcomm executives replied.
In 2024, Microsoft and Qualcomm launched a new Windows-based device – the Copilot+ PC – laying the foundation for a new generation of computers focused primarily on artificial intelligence. These devices have proprietary features that are not available on computers that do not meet the new system requirements.
The launch didn’t go well. The new device was immediately and sharply criticized by information security experts: the Copilot+ PC’s main function, the Recall software function, proved to be extremely poorly protected. That forced the company to delay the release of Recall and start selling a new class of devices without this key AI feature.
This situation has seriously damaged the reputation of the Copilot+ PC brand, and over the past two years, an increasing number of manufacturers (OEM partners) have begun excluding the name from marketing materials and product names. It looks like Microsoft itself has now decided to forego direct references to the brand.
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