Microsoft's Surface Duo phone hangs up, drops out of support Microsoft has drawn a discreet veil over another of its attempts to become relevant in the mobile hardware space. The original Surface Duo has dropped out of support, meaning it is bereft of support as well as users. Three years after it was launched, Microsoft has snapped shut the first iteration of its folding Android phone …
The old Windows Phone UI was awesome on the small screen. It's just a real pity it came along after Android and iOS had firmly entrenched themselves.
And in seemingly typical Microsoft fashion of late, the book design of the Surface Duo wasn't a bad one, but it was marred by the choice of a lower mid-range SoC. It's sort of like someone in the ranks of MS management didn't really want the device to succeed, so made sure they didn't have the budget to give it the support it needed. Maybe someone who came to Microsoft after working for the Fox TV network, known for randomly changing schedules for TV shows some executive doesn't like, or pre-empting them for a baseball game, or all kinds of other moves to ensure a show gets very poor ratings and they can thus justify killing it.
We daily bemoan the death of our Palm PDAs: not 'phone models, just simple PDAs.
The usability of the applications and ability to cram loads of data onto the tiny screens far exceeds the Android & iPhone apps we've seen[1] with more accurate pointing thanks to resistive touchscreens and stylus (about the only bit that can be bettered now, using a Wacom-style pen, but at much greater cost). Bliss they were.
And the use of Graffiti character input! Really easy to learn (less so in v2, thanks to HP lawyers), faster & way than touch keyboards (bleeping capacitive touch, just stops reacting, then switching layers to type simple HTML, why does the 'phone put DEL in a different place, keep on typing 'p' instead of DEL); you could take notes in a dark lecture room without watching the screen & without disturbing everyone else with the glow.
Sometimes think it is better never to get anything that really is functional snd could become a really useful day-to-day device because by the time using it is second nature, poof, it is gone and you'll never see a decent replacement.
Don't think too hard about modern gadgets or you'll lie awake in a cold sweat, fearing that they'll even take away decent keyboards and you'll never touch type again. Wait, what is this, a flimsy thin laptop keyboard? NOOOOoooooooo
[1] and you didn't need to scour the store for something usable, most everything was: there maybe Palm-quality apps lurking for Android, but getting to them through all the hype...
It's just a real pity it came along after Android and iOS had firmly entrenched themselves.
That's because Microsoft had been selling Windows Mobile devices for years before Jobs stood on stage in Jan 2007 and introduced the iPhone, and Ballmer was an idiot (like the Blackberry CEO) who saw it but thought the iPhone posed no threat to their existing smartphone business. So unlike the Android lead who immediately saw what the iPhone represented and made a hard left turn from designing a Blackberry like device to designing an iPhone like device, Ballmer lost precious years which allowed Android to claim the non-Apple / mass market mantle.
Then once Ballmer finally realized his mistake and had his minions develop Windows Phone he doubled down on his stupidity by charging OEMs to license Windows Phone, despite Android being free. Then he alienated the few OEMs willing to hedge their bets by making Windows Phone devices alongside Android devices by first having a very cosy relationship with and then purchasing Nokia's phone division to sell Microsoft branded phones.
So it wasn't a pity, it was inevitable with a clown like Ballmer in charge.
Is it really 17 years since Microsoft announced the origami project that was supposed to be the future of mobile computing. How time flies
https://www.engadget.com/2006-02-24-microsofts-origami-project.html
> Microsoft has drawn a discreet veil over another of its attempts to become relevant in the mobile hardware space.
What's new again is old again ..
2014: Microsoft Mobile
or even before that was TRON, at least until Microsoft joined the T-engine Forum, and got it banned in North America ..
1984: TRON Operating System
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2025
