Microsoft were pioneering the foldable phone trend, then after the Surface Duo 2, silently discontinued the lineup.
Of course it might be its awkward dual screen system, but that wouldn’t be the full story.
Anyone know (and is allowed to disclose) any further details on the demise of the Surface Duo?
It was not a good phone, and had even worse software. So they discontinued it. I don’t know why they don’t just make a normal phone.
It’s interesting how often Microsoft managed to bring truly innovative products a few years too early to market and then just silently fails.
They had tablets in the early 00s, ARM laptops, folding phones, media centers.
It’s because being “first” to market only matters if you do the work to cross the bare minimum threshold for people to want your product. If your software is shit (like pretty much everything Microsoft does; their PC share is leaning massively on inertia), you’re not going to create a market. Insufficient hardware can also be an issue, but it’s usually not Microsoft’s.
Was the tablet’s touchscreen as responsive as iPad’s? What was the operating system? If Windows, I can see how it failed. Previous versions of Windows were mouse-and-keyboard-first. I think Windows 8 was the 1st to truly consider touch and iPados was still better.
Microsoft had an Arm Surface device a few years ago. It had a 💩 chip.
It was terribly overpriced for the feature set. It also felt uniquely unpolished software wise.
Call me crazy, but I loved mine (near the end). No crease, could still multitask fine. The fact it folded shut kept me from opening and doom scrolling as much. Could throw a video on one screen and “tent” the phone easily.
But yeah, the software took awhile to get even “okay” out the gate and that really hurt the user experience. I felt I was always wrestling with mine over something for the first 6mos even.
I see the appeal of a small phone that folds into a bigger phone or small tablet. But a big ass phone that folds into a medium tablet? Seems like a small market for giant-handed people.
Too wide, incompatible with android somehow, and too expensive. At least per the article.
