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this post was submitted on 24 Oct 2023
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Dropping their plans for Continuum was foolish. Now we have fully featured Linux-based phones like the PinePhone that succeed where Microsoft's plans for Continuum failed. (As in you can plug the PinePhone into peripherals for a desktop experience.)
Phones are pushing CPUs and RAM that are on par with laptops and desktops at this point. It seems a little superfluous if we're not allowed to do real computing on these machines. Continuum was what I saw as the future of General Purpose Computing, by taking the locked down OS design of smart phones and giving them a desktop experience when plugged into peripherals.
Once every phone is also a desktop, you suddenly have opened all kinds of options for people who only have a phone, and not a full computer. Which, last I checked, is the majority of internet users who access it via their phones. Continuum would have been a literal game changer, and they gave up on it.
It would become a situation where everyone is like "I already have my phone, I'm not even going to bring my laptop unless I need it for specific function." Because once your phone can be an on-the-go desktop, laptops will have less allure.
I don't even care about other features. The tiling home screen of the OS was really nice to use and when used properly by the apps could result in a "live" OS unlike the iconographic interfaces of iOS and Android. The homescreen was also old-age friendly and really a pleasure to use.
The OS ram like really smooth on 512mb RAM, unlike their counterpart android phones which were struggling back then with 2-3GB RAM.
The lumias themselves had a ton of useful features like tap to wake etc, which didn't consume much battery and in general the Nokia cameras were top notch for the time.
Basically, the OS got killed because of a chicken and egg problem with the apps, and the OS being from Microsoft, got a death knell because of the reputation. Also for some fucking reason, Microsoft decided that the already low userbase WP7s were to be depreciated rather than provide an upgrade path fo WP8 and WP10.
Bro I kid you not the way that crazy OS took advantage of AMOLED for pure black backgrounds in every screen and along with a fluid interactivity, that design style was like a blessing from god.
If you're on Android you should try Launcher 10. Very customizable Windows Phone tile interface. Although it has in-app purchases for a couple bucks each to disable ads and enable live tiles (they work really well) or alternatively a paid $0.99/month subscription for both. Still gets active support, as it just got one to improve support for foldable devices
At the time when Windows Phone was released, the iPad had been released 7 months prior (both in 2010). It looked like consumers would continue to own a desktop or laptop computer, likely running Windows. It certainly wasn't clear that mobile phone and tablet computing power and functionality would rise to the point of consumers dropping laptops and desktops altogether as is happening today.
Choosing to back Continuum meant possibly losing two Windows desktop licenses, and possibly worse, an MS office license. Why would you need to buy multiple Microsoft licenses if your single Mobile Phone device held both your Phone, Mobile, and Desktop OS licenses, as well as your Office Suite license?
They weren't willing to risk current day (at that time) profits for a future selling fewer licenses.
That certainly matches their modus operandi. I would agree with this for the most part, but by 2010 they were already working on Office 365 and moving to the idea of Software as a Service. While Office 365 wouldn't be functionally available to everyone until later in 2011, it was clear they had plans to work around having a license tied to a device, and instead starting to roll out Microsoft Accounts to which the licenses would be tied.
This is really beginning to bug me. How much cool stuff and innovation have we lost out on because the companies have to put their bottom line ahead of making great, all-in-one devices. They’re all at it, and I’m sick of it.
Like, the iPad is an incredible bit of kit, absolutely hampered by iPadOS, because Apple are shit scared of people choosing to use just an iPad instead of buying that and a Mac. Imagine how great an iPad Pro running macOS could be. Full OS when attached to a keyboard, iPadOS when in tablet mode.
With Motorola’s Atrix we saw a future where a smartphone with a decent amount of power could be dropped into a laptop case and immediately become a fully fledged PC. Every major smartphone manufacturer could offer that right now, but they're too scared to cut into their revenue streams, so we end up getting offered the same shit every year.
We have Linux phones that succeed?
I guess I should have been more specific. They've succeeded specifically at what continuum aimed to do, which was allow a full desktop experience when plugged into peripherals.
Man, I'm still disappointed that canonical bungled their play for an Ubuntu phone. A seemless transition between phone and desktop with their OS would've been amazing.
Oh, right. True, that does work fine. The machines are powerful little computers after all.