Why Continuum failed?

[PerfectReign]

l. Maybe Nadella was in Dealey Plaza too.

Aha! So he was the guy in the video!

 

[cracgor]

It also failed because you had to carry around a keyboard, mouse, and a docking station to make it work. Basically, you had to carry around the equivalent of a small laptop to have less power for the same price.

 

[nate0]

It also failed because you had to carry around a keyboard, mouse, and a docking station to make it work. Basically, you had to carry around the equivalent of a small laptop to have less power for the same price.

Ya, in a perfect world we would have dummy terminals in every spot we need. I can see your point as why would you want to carry around all that. The only real mobile scenario for continuum right now is the Elite X3 and its lapdock. Microsoft did head the right way with it. A desktop like experience to me implies that I would have the same experience at home and be able to leave with my device take it and continue that while out and about or until at the office. Then pick up where I left off. Vice versa. I do not want to take my desktop like experience with me when I leave. HP thought why not add to the ability to work on the go and did come with the Lapdock solution, which some people really use and need.

What is funny is Samsung and possibly Huawei I read too are following suit with a desktop like experience on Android. Why would this be unless they believe it has potential? It is like anything pioneered for the first time. Those pioneering technology now do not always reap the benefits of it, rather others do who learn from those pioneering from their mistakes or example.

 

[fatclue_98]

Ya, in a perfect world we would have dummy terminals in every spot we need. I can see your point as why would you want to carry around all that. The only real mobile scenario for continuum right now is the Elite X3 and its lapdock. Microsoft did head the right way with it. A desktop like experience to me implies that I would have the same experience at home and be able to leave with my device take it and continue that while out and about or until at the office. Then pick up where I left off. Vice versa. I do not want to take my desktop like experience with me when I leave. HP thought why not add to the ability to work on the go and did come with the Lapdock solution, which some people really use and need.

What is funny is Samsung and possibly Huawei I read too are following suit with a desktop like experience on Android. Why would this be unless they believe it has potential? It is like anything pioneered for the first time. Those pioneering technology now do not always reap the benefits of it, rather others do who learn from those pioneering from their mistakes or example.

Pioneering efforts sometimes take years, even decades, to come to fruition. People have the common misconception that front-wheel drive came about as a result of the gas crunch of the 70s when in fact, Auto Union (what AUDI was originally) had it back in the 30s. Speaking of Germans in the 30s, the Wankel (rotary) engine also came to be back then and was largely forgotten until Mazda made it work (I know, they were horrible after a few miles) commercially 40 years later.

 

[sniperboywc]

If Apple came out with the exact same feature now, it would be considered innovative...

 

[erzhik]

It failed because WM failed. Pretty much anything related to Mobile, failed.

 

[kaktus1389]

I actually don't think Continuum failed as Samsung made their own Continuum-like feature (Dex), which means it did leave an impact on the industry. In my opinion, the world already sees tablets more like bigger mobile phones rather than a full computer.
What I think would be fascinating is Continuum in VR/AR (or any kind of projection), projected from the phone. The future is in the AR and VR and Microsoft started making it mainstream now and if they had really polished AR/VR experience it could work with some proper marketing.

 

[Hodgiemoto]

Continuum, like Groove and others is a marketing fail by Microsoft, for lack of effort on their part - but it's not a fail as a product. I use Continuum daily with my HP Elite x3, and I love it. I love the concept and I've embraced it; I just wish Microsoft had as well.

 

[vicu9mx]

Is not a failure, it's a deprecated feature

 

[Bloobed]

You already touched on it, but yeah, no apps. You can't just practically abandon the mobile market for a year, to introduce another "whole new" platform that was basically buggy enough to be unusable for another year. Not even if you were one of the big players, and WP was never that. And with MS's track record of dropping support it is just too risky for app developers to jump in, especially with the minimal install base in the first place. MS's own lack of confidence in their own technologies is hardly reassuring either.

Continuum by itself was fine, and cool, although of limited practical use. It just wasn't supported by the OS / ecosystem.

 

[MBytes]

It didn't fail. The phone OS failed. The problem is that we never got Continuum. We got a proof of concept. You can see that it uses remote desktop for each app, and even start menu (hence why it is a mirror of the actual start menu). It isn't really Continuum. the Continuum 2.0 demo showed, is the real Continuum. That is why it wasn't released, that is why you saw the Start Menu being broken in the demo. They were actually coding the real one, and clearly in the works at the time of the demo. And actually, it might not even be Continuum in action, but rather CShell, or that Continuum demoed got cancelled because CShell will replace it. Regardless, it isn't coming to Windows 10 Mobile. I see it coming on the "Surface phone"

I didn't use Continuum because I can't do anything with it. It's not the app problem.. it is multi-window.. and this is something that bugged me with Windows 10 Mobile. Where is window part of "Windows"? I expected, at least for large devices to be able to put 2x UWP apps one top of each other in portrait mode. Samsung tried to do it, but failed as the Android apps aren't designed to be dynamically salable beside supported apps. But this has changed with the latest Android, where it natively support it, so apps support will come.


The problem that Microsoft has, is the lack of determination and perseverance, and lack of vision shared among everyone in the company. Anyway, I would hate to be working at Microsoft right now as a dev. With all the hard work put into projects just to get it unexpectedly cancelled, never to see the light of day anymore. And you never know when you'll get the axe. Moral must be very low.

 

[eddydu]

Times changed. We don't need our laptops or pcs as much anymore because everyone has access to a smartphone that in some cases can do more. Since this is happening, people dont need to plug in their phone to access a screen. Yes it was interesting to play with, but was not the greatest innovation. It was basically stripped down windows RT if anyone remembered that. Windows phone lost and died because it couldn't keep up with the app gap, which in today's time apps are the thing. Yes windows on arm might be the future, and might revolutionize mobile computing and smartphones, but it is not certain, and won't be a reality for some time. I will still be supporting windows mobile with my 640, which is an awesome backup, and would love to see windows phone turn into a new evolution of mobile computing. Microsoft has to step up their game.

 

[sweatshopking]

Guys, it failed. pretending otherwise isn't going to change it. For the majority of owners of a supported device they NEVER use it. I know a number of people with 950's/xl and not one of them, myself included, has ever EVER used it. Why would you? it was far too limited and terrible to bother with. WOA implementations look usable, but barely, and since there is still no x64 arm coming, it'll continue to be ram limited in the future. Again, with MS it's bad management, their refusal to invest in stuff people actually want, like apps (which they should have spent hundreds of millions of dollars on yearly if they wanted their platform to work, and have all the major apps rewritten in xamarin), and no marketing for the phones. I don't think marketing would have fixed this. it was a solution to a problem almost nobody has.

 

[sweatshopking]

WOA is doa. They're bleeding to chrome on the low end, and that isn't about to stop.

 

[Scott Anderson2]

It hasn't failed. It was released too early and before there was capable and productive hardware to match. The thought that someday I could walk around with my PC in my pocket and attach to any monitor and keyboard and have full Windows productivity makes me still a believer.

 

[Scott McBurney]

Most of Microsoft's failures, Continuum included, really come down to one factor - crappy marketing. If you want to get people interested in a new feature or new hardware, you have to do a LOT of GOOD marketing to get the word out there.

Continuum is one of those things that was barely ever publicized, and everyone who was interested thought you had to spend another $100 to get a dock to use it, when in reality there are plenty of third party devices that work just as well for as low as $30 (maybe less by now).

Windows phone is the same thing. A few years back, it was Nokia doing all the marketing, and their sales were actually good.

Microsoft markets the hell out of the Surface line and the Xbox, and those sell well. But when Windows Phone 10 came along, marketing just stopped. No marketing, people forget about it, since apple, google, and Samsung were marketing the hell out of their products, but practically nothing from Microsoft.

Continuum didn't fail. Microsoft's marketing failed.

 

[Vincent McLaughlin]

The times I've used continuum was for streaming movies from my phone to the tv, using the dock. Continuum might have picked up momentum, if there were more apps that actually worked with it and MS actually promoted it. Don't get me wrong, I love my 950X, but MS is not inspiring confidence that i will want to invest in when it comes to mobile devices. MS has had plenty of great ideas, but have failed to execute properly and follow up on their products. Instead, MS has allowed other companies to basically take their ideas and market them and implement better. As a result, MS loses on the consumer front and increases on business front. It's time to realize that MS no longer has an interest in the average consumer. Look what they're doing with Groove. I just home movies aren't next, but the trend isn't looking good. This is coming from one of their biggest supporters and hopeful fans of their mobile "ambitions". So many great ideas wasted. Considering Satya Nadella wasn't a huge supporter of the average consumer, it's not surprising. Granted, he's done well with enterprise and getting MS back to it's roots and what has worked for them, i just hope his direction will include something outstanding, when it comes to mobile. If not, MS may as well just stay focused on enterprise consumers. As for the rest of us, join the masses and choose a mobile ecosystem that we can be live with and move on. Nothing else to really see here, unless MS really puts forth effort. It's all about making money, i get it, but it sucks to see so many great ideas fall to the wayside.

 

[MBytes]

The times I've used continuum was for streaming movies from my phone to the tv, using the dock. Continuum might have picked up momentum, if there were more apps that actually worked with it and MS actually promoted it. Don't get me wrong, I love my 950X, but MS is not inspiring confidence that i will want to invest in when it comes to mobile devices. MS has had plenty of great ideas, but have failed to execute properly and follow up on their products. Instead, MS has allowed other companies to basically take their ideas and market them and implement better. As a result, MS loses on the consumer front and increases on business front. It's time to realize that MS no longer has an interest in the average consumer. Look what they're doing with Groove. I just home movies aren't next, but the trend isn't looking good. This is coming from one of their biggest supporters and hopeful fans of their mobile "ambitions". So many great ideas wasted. Considering Satya Nadella wasn't a huge supporter of the average consumer, it's not surprising. Granted, he's done well with enterprise and getting MS back to it's roots and what has worked for them, i just hope his direction will include something outstanding, when it comes to mobile. If not, MS may as well just stay focused on enterprise consumers. As for the rest of us, join the masses and choose a mobile ecosystem that we can be live with and move on. Nothing else to really see here, unless MS really puts forth effort. It's all about making money, i get it, but it sucks to see so many great ideas fall to the wayside.

Personally I can't wait when the "Surface phone" will come out. Who will buy this convertible device that has no Spotify (as for sure the WP8 app will get cancelled and pulled), no streaming service, no Maps (I think that one is coming.. I mean no phone.. why have Maps?), no ecosystem. Then it will fail, and Microsoft will wonder, once again, why it failed.

 

[Dusteater]

Continuum failed for one reason. It never supported use in the car.

The only place I would ever use it is in the car. Apple and Google both have solutions for this, Microsoft does not.

Microsoft was a member of the MirrorLink standards body, but failed to ever implement the technology, and eventually quit the body.

Even their apps like Groove Music never supported CarPlay. It's quite apparent that Microsoft has totally ignored people who drive cars, and refuse to make any of their products or services work in the car.

It' that simple. Cars matter.

 

[MBytes]

Yes, very true. There was no reason why not to. Android Auto is open, and you have mirrorlink as you mentioned (I think Android Auto uses it or is it). Even if Microsoft never mentioned because it is Google branding. If it worked, it all that it would matter. It would get business and consumer traction. I don't care about specialized car version.. I won't be typing a word document as I am driving... I would use Map and/or Groove. That is all. Maybe Edge if the car is parked and I need to check an address or something like opening hours of a place before i get there, or something.