Why Microsoft is back making phones with the Surface Duo

A lot of people have been request me why exactly Microsoft is building an Android telephone. After all, it was Microsoft that wanted out of the telephone hardware business only a few brusk years ago. This is all well and true, but it's not the whole story. A large office of Microsoft'due south decision to impale off its phone hardware was considering of Windows Phone non beingness where Microsoft wanted it to be in the market place, and no amount of hardware or software improvements were going to alter that.

But even with the decease of Windows 10 Mobile and the Lumia product line, Microsoft was notwithstanding working on a new type of smartphone. Codenamed Andromeda, this device was a dual-screened pocketable phone, which we now know as the Surface Duo. Microsoft has wanted to make the Surface Duo for as long as Windows Phone has been expressionless. It was a projection that started development before Microsoft even considered retrenching its mobile efforts, then it's not surprising to me that Surface Duo is something Microsoft is now doing in 2022.

It'southward true that when the Surface Duo first started evolution, information technology was a Windows-based phone. However, after Windows telephone died off, and the app state of affairs didn't meliorate on the PC side of things, Microsoft ultimately decided to go with Android for the Surface Duo. Microsoft has been embracing Android as a get-go-class denizen within the Microsoft ecosystem for quite a while at present, and I call up putting Android on the Surface Duo makes more than sense because of this.

A phase for Microsoft's Android efforts

Microsoft should have, or rather, needs a stage to showcase the best of what it has to offer on Android. Surface equally a brand has always been well-nigh showcasing the best of Microsoft, and in 2022, Microsoft's all-time efforts are no longer limited to Windows. Not making a phone because it isn't Windows would be doing injustice to all the hard piece of work Microsoft has been putting into Android these last few years.

Yep, you can put Microsoft'due south Android apps on whatsoever sometime Android phone if y'all want, just that doesn't showcase the best of Microsoft. The whole point of Microsoft doing its own Android telephone is that information technology can control the ecosystem experience from top to lesser. This command allows Microsoft to integrate the Surface Duo into the Microsoft ecosystem even more than a regular smartphone can just by installing apps from the store.

So that's the primary reason that I think Surface Duo exists. It's to showcase the best of Microsoft's Android efforts and testify to the globe that it can however innovate in the mobile space with an offering that enhances the Microsoft ecosystem, even more than third party Android phones can. That's not the only reason information technology exists, yet. Microsoft really thinks it can alter the mode y'all use your phone with the Surface Duo, enabling you to be more productive on the go.

It really thinks it can introduce in the mobile space

Microsoft is all virtually making you work ameliorate, and it reckons the dual-screen setup on the Duo is a critical component in unlocking productivity on a device that fits in your pocket. It believes this so much that fifty-fifty though it had the option, Microsoft opted non to go with the single foldable screen design that the Milky way Fold has ended up with. It wasn't because of technical limitations; information technology's but that Microsoft, for now, thinks ii screens are better than one.

Fourth dimension volition tell whether or non this is correct, but I encounter the logic here. Having two screens is much more versatile every bit it too lets yous have i screen when you need it. Fold the screens all the mode around, and y'all can utilize it as a traditional single-screened smartphone. Or yous can have both screens open like a book, with 2 apps open at any given time. You've then got the added durability of having ii sturdy screens with glass (that works with pen,) instead of one foldable one with plastic.

In add-on to this, having 2 screens also enables fashion more than "postures" such as tent mode, or even laptop mode. Now, I do retrieve the Surface Duo is too modest for any real laptop mode, but yous can set the device downwards with a larger virtual keyboard on one screen, and Word or Outlook fix on the other. A device with a single folded screen doesn't have that flexibility. A single screen is good for doing one thing at a fourth dimension, so folding it away, in only one direction, when yous're non using it. Information technology'south only not as versatile.

It's low risk for Microsoft and customers

Unlike making a Windows Phone, the Surface Duo running Android ways it'southward a low-risk venture for Microsoft, and information technology's a low adventure buy for consumers besides. It already has the ecosystem cheers to Android'due south vast array of apps, and so the only affair Microsoft needs to provide here is the hardware and OS updates. If only a few thousand people buy a Surface Duo, those buyers will still have a telephone that'southward full of apps and ever up to appointment with the latest Microsoft software on Android. It would be a very unlike story running Windows.

For the Surface Duo running Windows to be successful, it would need to sell in incredibly large quantities to convince developers to build apps for information technology. Just, just similar with Windows Phone, consumers wouldn't buy it because developers don't build for it, and developers wouldn't build for information technology considering the consumer doesn't buy it. It would kill the Duo off very quickly. With Android, this isn't a possibility as all the Android apps you run today will also exist available on the Surface Duo.

So Microsoft can remainder assured that information technology doesn't need to provide an ecosystem for the customers who buy a Surface Duo. Buyers themselves can remainder assured that it already has an ecosystem so that even if Microsoft abased the device afterwards two years of Bone updates, it would even so receive software updates through the Play Store and elsewhere for many, many years to come.

The fans really desire it

Finally, I recall the Surface Duo exists for the fans as well. And when I say fans, I don't mean Windows fans; I'm talking about Microsoft fans. It's fair to say that Microsoft was embracing its fans at the unveiling event for the Surface Neo and Surface Duo, so much then that Microsoft gave them priority seating over media at the consequence itself. Microsoft is starting to realize that its Surface fans are important and wants to provide them with something they tin take with them in their pocket.

Microsoft does not expect the Surface Duo to sell in large quantities. It isn't planning to compete alongside Samsung or the iPhone with the Surface Duo, and that's totally okay. This is a device that tin be for die-hard Microsoft fans and ecosystem users. Information technology's for those who are happy to show the world that they like and employ Microsoft products when on the become, representing the Microsoft logo without having to pull out a laptop or tablet to do so.

Surface as a brand is at a betoken at present where people recognize it. Information technology'due south also at a bespeak in which people are wanting to purchase into the Surface product line, merely can't go all in because it doesn't have a phone to complement their laptops. Now, it will with the Surface Duo. Is this a shallow reason for a device to exist? I don't think so. Information technology enhances the Surface product line and the Microsoft ecosystem at the same time. It tells a coherent story to the consumer walking into a Microsoft Store and checking out Surface for what it is: a product line that showcases the best of Microsoft.

And at the cease of the mean solar day, information technology brings Surface hardware in line with Apple tree and Google. Now they've all got a telephone for fans to argue which is best.