Microsoft has signaled that it’s going to update its Surface at an upcoming announcement on May 20 with a new Intel product. If rumors are accurate, we’ll see a new ARM device as well, possibly powered by a Qualcomm solution rather than the Nvidia SoCs that the company used for both the Surface RT and Surface 2. Surface sales were up by 50% last quarter, with total revenue of $494 million — but the Surface cost of revenue was $539 million, which keeps the entire segment in the hole.
Using Qualcomm for a new miniature Surface (possibly something in the seven to 10 inch range) makes sense for multiple reasons. While Nvidia originally planned to deploy two versions of the Tegra 4, the lower-end Tegra 4i has never shipped in volume to US customers (though the upcoming privacy-focused Blackphone will reportedly use this SoC). Microsoft was likely looking to trim power consumption and performance for its smaller device, and Qualcomm has a number of Snapdragon 600 products that could do it. That doesn’t mean Redmond is unhappy with Nvidia as a partner, but the Tegra manufacturer just may not have had a preferred solution for this segment.
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