RIP Windows Phones? Not Quite

The Surface Phone is dead? Nope. Microsoft needs mobile to survive.

I recently wrote about a rumored Microsoft Surface Phone. Since then, Microsoft exec Joe Belfiore has said the company will no longer focus on new features and/or hardware for Windows Phone.

That might lead you to believe that the subject of my previous column—a complete PC in a phone—will never happen now. But the opposite is clearly true. Microsoft is playing word games and hoping to make a profound impact when it does roll out a Surface Phone.

The first thing to note is the discontinuation of Windows 10 Mobile. Why would the company do this when it spent over two decades on mobile platforms starting with Windows CE in 1996? This is the product that evolved into Windows 10 Mobile. This halt seems abrupt, doesn't it?

I think Microsoft will continue on the mobile path, but with plain ol' Windows 10 running on a phone. Any voice call functionality will come from a Windows 10 app.

The idea of running native Windows on extremely small platforms is not a new idea. Years back, a number of companies tried to sell diminutive sub-laptop computers with full Windows functionality. This was a weird fad that coincidentally also began in 1996 with the debut of the 30-ounce Toshiba Libretto, which was the lightest full-function Windows machine anywhere at the time. This ridiculously small machine spawned other and various miniaturized PCs running actual Windows, not a mobile version. And it continues today with devices like the Intel Compute Stick and the NUC.

Thus, it has been known for 20 years that you could eventually cram a real PC into a miniscule mobile phone-sized package.

Saying that Windows 10 Mobile will no longer be developed only means that Microsoft has determined that it is time to consolidate its mobile OS into its desktop OS.

Everything from Surface Phone onward will run Windows programs or applications. (The "app" concept, which has always sounded idiotic if not juvenile, may finally fall by the wayside.) Then, Microsoft can lord it over the competition by having an actual PC in the handsets of its users.

Let me re-iterate what everyone knows. The mobile device is the future of internet access and has been encroaching on the desktop and laptop for a decade. Microsoft will not sit by and watch as iOS and Android become the general-purpose operating systems of the future.

The best shot Microsoft has is full consolidation of all hardware platforms under one OS. I'm thinking this scheme has been in the works since or before Windows 8. By not allowing any hint of what it had up its sleeve, much like Steve Jobs would have done at Apple, Microsoft can cause a much bigger stir in a surprise announcement.

Imagine the script for this rollout. Satya Nadella roams the stage dressed in black. "Now that we have become leaders in the laptop space with our Surface Pro and leaders with our all-in-one Surface Studio, people have asked 'what about a powerful desktop PC?' A machine that is both powerful and can run all the Windows applications ever written. And which can easily utilize the cloud. Well here it is," he says, pulling out the Surface Phone from his back pocket.

Everyone (especially planted stooges in the audience) goes nuts. Nadella begins a spiel about how long it took to develop, its power, its sexy design, its screen resolution. Then a curtain opens revealing a workstation and docking station. He shoves the phone into the docking station. A huge monster version of the screen lights up over the crowd, showing Windows 10 connecting to the cloud as the phone becomes a full-blown desktop replacement. Boom. Standing ovation.

It will probably drag on after that. The perfect topper would be to give everyone in the audience a phone, then maybe do a balloon drop.

Microsoft already knows that this is exactly what it must do.

Source: RIP Windows Phones? Not Quite