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Google is building its own DeX: First look at Android's Desktop Mode

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442 points logic_node | 1 comments | 13 May 25 14:30 UTC | HN request time: 0.222s | source
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tw04 ◴[14 May 25 11:37 UTC] No.43983258[source]▶
This is the thing that bummed me out the most about Microsoft exiting the phone market.

I know Windows isn’t super popular around here, but the idea of carrying one device that I can just dock to work on always intrigued me.

There’s just no way this is taking off with any significant market share in the business world anytime soon being android only, and Apple will never adopt it because they want you to buy 3 different devices. Such a great concept, and with the performance of mobile chips getting so good, very viable.

replies(2): >>43983489 #>>43984154 #
1. neogodless ◴[14 May 25 13:14 UTC] No.43984154[source]▶
While Windows RT / Windows 8 were largely panned, I think they had a lot of potential.

RT / 8 went very hard towards touch interfaces. Then 8.1 made a lot of course corrections to re-establish what's good about mouse + keyboard on Windows.

But... RT was abandoned alongside Windows Phone 7 / 8 and Windows 10 Mobile, and Windows 10 focused on mouse-keyboard once again without nearly as much thought about touch.

I really think this was one case where persistence would have paid off. A focus on "Windows everywhere" instead of (or alongside) "Microsoft apps that all exclusively push cloud services everywhere" could've put Microsoft in a position of mobile and convertible device dominance.

Editing to add, I was just reminded of the Surface Duo -- Android based. (And the announced but abandoned Surface Neo...) Another odd moment I'd describe as... "oh wait let's go back and try our old strategy but without any of the advantages of Windows app support on mobile!"