Microsoft's Much-Loved PC Accessories Will Live On After All
Microsoft is not abandoning its line of PC peripherals, after all. Earlier in 2023, the company announced that it was putting the Microsoft-branded keyboards, mice, and webcams on ice. Well, it seems the well-received accessories have got a second life under the Incipio brand. Onward Brands, the company behind labels like Incase and Incipio, says it will make the PC peripherals moving forward as part of a licensing deal with Microsoft.
Later this year, the company will start hawking products such as the Sculpt Ergonomic Keyboard and the Microsoft Wireless Desktop 850 combo with a fresh branding approach. "Incase will manufacture and distribute a broad suite of Microsoft accessory products including Keyboards, Mice, Webcams, Headsets and Speakers," the company says in a press release.
In the coming months, the revived accessories will carry the new "Designed by Microsoft" branding, and the first product to come out of this IP licensing deal will be an ergonomic keyboard. It's somewhat similar to the approach Microsoft has taken for gaming controllers that carry the Xbox branding in the form of the "X" logo button, such as the 8BitDo SN30 Pro and the MOGA XP5-X Plus controller.
Can you trust the Incase-branded peripherals?
Incipio says it has licensed the branding rights as well as intellectual property from Microsoft as part of the partnership, and it includes "manufacturing components of well-known Microsoft accessories." That means at least some of the core components will follow a familiar design blueprint and the quality standards should also be up to the mark to justify the Microsoft co-branding.
"The products that we make will be the same products that were on the market before," Onward Brands Chief Charlie Tebele tells The Verge. Interestingly, Incase will also make products that Microsoft had in development but never released. Among them is a new Microsoft keyboard that Microsoft had in the design phase but ultimately didn't put on the shelves.
In addition to the usual input-centered PC accessories, Incase will also sell Microsoft-designed speakers and headsets as part of a range that will include 23 products in the coming months. Incase is targeting the second quarter of 2024 to put these accessories in stores. As for Microsoft, it will continue to develop and offer a separate line of accessories under the Surface brand.