When Apple unveiled its first iPhone in 2007, then Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer made a rather scornful comment, which would have haunted him for a long time: “There is no way the iPhone will take a significant chunk of the market. No chance “. We all know the story of how things went afterwards: Apple made its biggest commercial success with iPhones by becoming one of the richest companies on the planet, while Microsoft tried it all to remain relevant in the smartphone industry, until Ballmer became one of the richest companies on the planet. he resigned and his new CEO, Satya Nadella, realized that that battle was now lost and more honorable a retired compound, returning to focus the company's efforts on computers, the cloud and enterprise software. This is perhaps why Microsoft absolutely does not want its Surface Duo to be called a “smartphone”, a device with two screens that close like a book, presented yesterday during a special event in New York.
Surface Duo is perhaps the ideal object to understand what Microsoft has become in recent years thanks to Nadella: a more open company, interested in software in all its forms and willing to work in depth with the competition, with holdings that up to a few years ago they seemed impossible. Surface Duo does not use Windows – the most famous and long-lived operating system in the world with which Microsoft produces a large part of its turnover – but Android, the operating system developed by Google and which today dominates the smartphone market. The two companies worked together to adapt Android to the format of the new device, seeing opportunities for both, although still intangible.
Microsoft could have resurrected the mobile version of Windows, withdrawn a few years ago after the very disappointing results on the market and the obvious difficulty in competing with Android and iOS (iPhone). But as Panos Panay, the head of the division that deals with Microsoft products, explained, the idea didn't even cross his mind: “In the end, the place where applications are today, the opportunities towards which users and on which the developers have benefited, already exists. And it is an undeniable reality. Ignoring it would be stupid ”. Android exists, has billions of users and millions of applications, including those of Microsoft, so it's only natural that that operating system was chosen for its new product, leaving Windows in its natural environment: that of computers.
For technology enthusiasts and Microsoft aficionados, Surface Duo is not strictly a novelty and resembles another device, according to some a great opportunity missed by Microsoft. A decade ago, while Apple was recording early iPhone hits, Microsoft engineers and developers were working on a secret project to build a new device that would open like a diary, with two screens instead of pages.
The code name of the initiative was Courier and some images of the first concepts and prototypes ended up online, arousing great interest and curiosity. In 2010, after two years of work, Microsoft decided to completely abandon the development of Courier, not considering it strategic for the future of the company. A few years later Microsoft would have gotten involved in the purchase of Nokia for 5.4 billion dollars, with the then failed goal of regaining relevance in the smartphone sector.
Ten years ago the times for Courier were probably premature, both due to the technological limitations of the time and the lack of maturity of the applications. Now Microsoft believes that things have changed and that it is time to come up with something new, this time trying to get there before the others. The company wants to do this by bringing with it and making use of the knowledge gained in recent years with its hybrid tablets and laptops of the Surface series, which has proved to be a success with annual revenues of around 5.7 billion dollars.
When closed, the Surface Duo resembles a classic diary, the kind they gave you at the bank to keep track of appointments and phone numbers. The only element that stands out is the Microsoft logo, placed on one of the faces of the device, whose casing is covered with a thin layer of reinforced glass. When closed it is often just under a centimeter and has dimensions comparable to medium-large smartphones. It opens like a book and the hinge allows a 360 ° movement, to fold the two screens and use only one.
The most evident detail is precisely the hinge, which keeps the two screens divided, unlike other devices such as the Galaxy Fold by Samsung, a smartphone that turns into a small tablet and has only one screen inside (a choice that forced Samsung to postpone the launch of its product, because the opening mechanism and the screen turned out to be less reliable than expected). Given the difficulties faced by Samsung, it seems that Microsoft wanted to avoid nasty surprises with a single folding screen, but Panay explained that the choice of two screens side by side was also dictated by other evaluations. Panay was not very convinced by the idea of an app that takes up all the space on the two sides of the device: “We decided to focus our energies on two screens, together”.
Each Surface Duo screen is 5.6 inches, while the diagonal of the two side-by-side screens is 8.3 inches. The device is equipped with sensors and can be used both horizontally (with the two vertical screens) and vertically (with the two screens horizontally). If you fold one screen behind the other, it can be used as a normal smartphone, if you use the two screens together as a tablet or small laptop.
The idea is to keep two or more applications open simultaneously between screens, and here the optimization work with Google has made it possible to adapt Android for this purpose. For example, you can display the app to read emails on one side, while on the other you can use Chrome to browse, or one of the Microsoft Office productivity applications.
Surface Duo has everything you would expect from an Android device, including the Google Play Store for downloading new applications. A SIM card is inserted inside to have access to the cellular network, and you can then receive calls, SMS, video calls and surf when not connected to a WiFi network. If the description reminds you of a smartphone it is because the Surface Duo is undoubtedly a smartphone, even if Microsoft does not want it to be called that and thinks that its device has the potential to be “the first of a new class of products”.
During the presentation in New York, Microsoft also unveiled the Surface Duo's big brother, which is called the Surface Neo. It is a bigger and more powerful version of the pocket version with Android and uses Windows as the operating system. It recalls some attempts made in the past by other companies to make laptops with two screens and no physical keyboard, but Panay and his team of designers say they have worked hard to overcome that setting and especially its limitations.
Like Surface Duo, Surface Neo also has a couple of screens side by side and gives the possibility to use multiple programs on its two sides. A magnetic keyboard can be applied to the device, which is recognized as soon as it is placed on one of the two screens. It takes up more or less two thirds of a screen, and the remaining third can be used to view some programs in small format, or to quickly access special characters and emojis. The Surface Duo can also be used with a stylus for writing and drawing, as has long been the case with other Surfaces.
Microsoft has been working on the two new devices for nearly three years, but hasn't finished perfecting them yet. The models presented in New York are very advanced prototypes, but the definitive versions of Surface Duo and Surface Neo will only be available from the end of 2020. However, the company has considered it useful to show them in preview not only to suggest where it wants to go. , but also to convince developers to work on versions of their applications compatible with new devices.
Some of the features of the new devices will change and, Panay hinted, there are features that will remain unknown until next year's official presentation, to avoid getting stolen by the competition. To date, it is not even known how much the two models will cost. Surface Duo should be cheaper, given the partnership with Google which usually offers its version of Android with affordable licenses, and could therefore be a starting point for users: if they were satisfied with the smaller model, they might consider buying in a second time even the bigger one, instead of a classic laptop.
The eventual commercial success of Microsoft's new products will depend on many things and of course on user response. According to the most skeptical, Surface Duo is nothing more than a smartphone with two screens, nothing so revolutionary or that has not already been seen. When Microsoft unveiled its first Surface, similar criticisms circulated about the triviality of the product, considered a tablet like many others. After some initial shocks, the company has continued and persevered, producing innovative models that in recent years have carved out their own space in the crowded hybrid computer market, earning several billion dollars to Microsoft.
It's hard to say whether the new Surface Duo will follow the same path. Microsoft doesn't even know, and even its CEO Nadella confessed that she doesn't have very clear ideas about what can be done with a two-screen handheld deal. But was there anyone who perhaps had such clear ideas about what his invention would become when he conceived the first smartphone? Or the phone?
