Surface Duo Discussion Thread

Another thing that just blows me away about Microsoft's half-baked Android development. They've owned SwiftKey for how long? And they still haven't integrated (optionally, of course) Windows 10's Clipboard History with SwiftKey?

Some of these things are just such low-hanging fruit that it seems crazy. And they can maybe get away with that when they're just a software provider but come on, you're selling your own Android device now.

 

Am I crazy or wasn't this announced multiple times already? I vaguely recall being excited about this coming to iPhone a few years ago but I dropped SwiftKey in favor of the native keyboard and forgot about it. But I would swear it was later announced it was coming to Android during one of the Windows updates. It is strange that this doesn’t exist.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

The weird part is if you go to the Clipboard setting in Windows, there's an option to "get an app to sync clipboard items to your phone" and for some reason it sends you to Microsoft Launcher which to my recollection doesn't have that feature either, though I haven't tried it in about a month. But it'd make so much more sense to be in the keyboard.

 

, your favorite tech site windows central had a article about new upcoming OSK upgrade for windows 10 (also better auto spelling I believe etc.).

Have you installed Microsoft launcher on your phone? Could be indeed it is needed for clipboard sharing, not sure.

 

Apologies if this has been shared already, but I think it should be required reading for anyone discussing the Duo's raison d'etre or Microsoft's launch strategy. I started a post this weekend with the sentence "You guys are overthinking this." but abandoned it because I didn't have the energy. Well, it turns out someone had already captured most of my key comments:
https://www.windowscentral.com/who-surface-duo

EDIT: to summarize my original idea I'd say the purpose of Duo V1 is to test the theory of dual-screen, pocketable, occasionally penabled computing. That's it. Every design consideration, sacrifice, omission, was made in service of creating a device that best expresses that vision. A high price allows MS to test this idea without risking a huge write-down and limits the test pool to people who are fairly committed to trying the concept.

 

Thanks for linking that. It's a good albeit somewhat wishful thinking type of piece. More importantly it looks like it could signal MS taking a longer view when it comes to introducing innovation in to the market.

My problem is that in some ways it sounds like some of the other talk that MS has had with new product initiatives only to either walk away from them entirely (original windows 8 interface) or neglect them (Surface Pro X)

That being said. Panay has more of a stake in the success of initiatives like this than perhaps anyone else has before. In other words, I think success puts him on the path to being MS next CEO and failure means he will be out the door. How much of a runway he has, is what is not clear at least to me. Though for instance saying three years of OS updates for the Duo is a great start.

 

Rubino engaging in wishful thinking? No...

No but seriously @Chris_Kez, you give Rubino entirely too much credit and not enough for yourself! I got far more out of your one paragraph than Rubino's lengthy defence, which I noticed often obscures his own points.

Your analysis on point I think, the Duo marks a return of Surface as a symbol for form-factor innovation in the PC space; this is Panos' bread-and-butter and imo, where the Surface team's talents shine the most.

 

@Marty Well said and I agree!

However this continues the trend of me being the curmudgeon and Marty being optimist. We must be in an alternate timeline now

 

Just got off the phone with one of our MS contacts. Panay related, apparently he was the driving force behind the acquisition of Movial and that they are the key reason the Duo is launching now instead of December.

Of course what impacts that has in the medium term is hard to say.

 

But how could the Movial acquisition have that much impact in so short a time?