4 years ago, Microsoft thought dual-screen devices were the future

[naddy69]

"4 years ago, Microsoft thought dual-screen devices were the future"

And it turned out that Microsoft was wrong. And there were several people pointing this out 4 years ago, which was ignored by everyone here.

The (now) obvious problem with this strategy is that the 1 small screen does not fold out to 1 larger screen. It folded out to 2 small screens. The idea that people wanted to "multitask" on a phone was silly. What people really want is a larger screen for web browsing and watching movies. But it still fits in your pocket.

The reality is, 2 separate screens was a solution looking for a problem.

 

[hamphlet]

As per the article, two of the main reasons why Duo failed were the price and the woeful state of the software on launch. If you're going to charge people premium prices, you need to give them a premium product. That was a serious misstep. Microsoft arrogantly assumed that people would be prepared to put up with a work in progress. I don't see Apple using their paying customers as crash test dummies and that's one reason why they've been more successful than Microsoft in the consumer market.

 

[fdruid]

The fact that their products failed doesn't mean they weren't right, just that they failed to manage it.
Judgind for today's folding devices, it's not like there isn't a use for dual screen devices anyway.
People don't really know why they need a folding device either, but the use case MS makes is of productivity.

Someone else might do it better.

 

[anthonyng]

I didn't mind being a Guinea pig for their ideas. Made things fun even if awkward at times. It's great that they are profitable, it's just not very fun for the consumers. Sold all my $Msft stock the day Panos left lol