My predictions are rumoured to be true now?
Before the Lumia 950 and Lumia 950XL were unveiled and people were speculating that MS might unveil a Surface Phone instead. This of course turned out to be wrong as I had predicted. I then went on to predict that it probably wouldn't be for a year or two after that we might see a Surface Phone.
Now, exactly that is being rumoured!
I had predicted 1 year was possible, but two years was more probable. And, I suspect that were it not for the rumour that they also scrapped another Nokia project that it would have ended up closer to the 2 year mark. But, if these rumours hold true, I'll still be good on the 1 year side of the prediction.
Funnier still, a lot of the reasons also align with why I had said a Surface Phone this year wasn't possible/likely.
So, more predictions? Internally it is just being called Panos's Phone and not Surface Phone. But I think that is more a matter of the project still being in its infancy. Sounds like this has only been recently green-lit and branding is probably not nailed down yet. But, I fully suspect it will called a Surface Phone.
The most meaningful thing is that it IS NOT being called a Lumia phone internally which would be the logical thing. This is clearly meant as a new project with the plan being to make a departure from the old naming. At the moment, the only viable options are Surface or some new branding then. And, I think given the tepid response to Windows Phone that gambling on a new brand would be seen as a bad idea. So, at the moment, I would have to predict it to be a Surface branded phone.
Moving on. I expect it will run an x86 processor, but with some caveats. The fact that they are rumoured to be working on it with Intel says a lot in that area. The new Lumia's already support Windows Hello, so it wouldn't be worthwhile to leak that they are working with Intel on that. And Intel has been rumoured to be near nailing down an x86 SoC that would be suitable for mobile.
Emulating or supporting Windows 8 apps should be possible. Windows 8 apps are after all just a neutered subset of UWP. And obviously UWP apps would run.
Win32 apps? Well this is where I think things get interesting. I don't think Win32 will "just run" on the phone. While every one claims they want this... it would be idiotic. People already complain about trying to use desktop apps on a tablet. Imagine that experience on a phone. The other reason would be licensing. Some media licensing is dependent on form factor, so enabling desktop apps on a phone might circumvent and thus violate those licensing agreements.
So, I would imagine that the native UI on the phone would continue to work more or less like today's Windows Phones and support the same apps.
Continuum is where the magic would be. Connected to a monitor along with a mouse and keyboard, the phone becomes a desktop. Win32 apps could run properly. One could argue, connected as such, that the phone truly becomes a desktop or laptop and thus also doesn't run afoul of license agreements. And not the kind of half-assed version of that which Continuum gives today.
On timelines I expect that they will miss the deadlines mentioned and likely due to Intel. They haven't done a widely adopted x86 mobile SoC before and expect that to cause delays.
Now, exactly that is being rumoured!
I had predicted 1 year was possible, but two years was more probable. And, I suspect that were it not for the rumour that they also scrapped another Nokia project that it would have ended up closer to the 2 year mark. But, if these rumours hold true, I'll still be good on the 1 year side of the prediction.
Funnier still, a lot of the reasons also align with why I had said a Surface Phone this year wasn't possible/likely.
So, more predictions? Internally it is just being called Panos's Phone and not Surface Phone. But I think that is more a matter of the project still being in its infancy. Sounds like this has only been recently green-lit and branding is probably not nailed down yet. But, I fully suspect it will called a Surface Phone.
The most meaningful thing is that it IS NOT being called a Lumia phone internally which would be the logical thing. This is clearly meant as a new project with the plan being to make a departure from the old naming. At the moment, the only viable options are Surface or some new branding then. And, I think given the tepid response to Windows Phone that gambling on a new brand would be seen as a bad idea. So, at the moment, I would have to predict it to be a Surface branded phone.
Moving on. I expect it will run an x86 processor, but with some caveats. The fact that they are rumoured to be working on it with Intel says a lot in that area. The new Lumia's already support Windows Hello, so it wouldn't be worthwhile to leak that they are working with Intel on that. And Intel has been rumoured to be near nailing down an x86 SoC that would be suitable for mobile.
Emulating or supporting Windows 8 apps should be possible. Windows 8 apps are after all just a neutered subset of UWP. And obviously UWP apps would run.
Win32 apps? Well this is where I think things get interesting. I don't think Win32 will "just run" on the phone. While every one claims they want this... it would be idiotic. People already complain about trying to use desktop apps on a tablet. Imagine that experience on a phone. The other reason would be licensing. Some media licensing is dependent on form factor, so enabling desktop apps on a phone might circumvent and thus violate those licensing agreements.
So, I would imagine that the native UI on the phone would continue to work more or less like today's Windows Phones and support the same apps.
Continuum is where the magic would be. Connected to a monitor along with a mouse and keyboard, the phone becomes a desktop. Win32 apps could run properly. One could argue, connected as such, that the phone truly becomes a desktop or laptop and thus also doesn't run afoul of license agreements. And not the kind of half-assed version of that which Continuum gives today.
On timelines I expect that they will miss the deadlines mentioned and likely due to Intel. They haven't done a widely adopted x86 mobile SoC before and expect that to cause delays.
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