Almost
I wrote a while back about a future where everyone just plugged their phone into a docking station and used it as their desktop as well.This would have been easy for Microsoft to do, and I would have bought it immediately. And, conceptually, Microsoft understands this, because they launched "Windows 10 Continuum" a while back, which would do this very thing.
Almost universally, though, reviewers have panned the software. Harshly.
Microsoft is very good at seeing the future. They are not very good about the actual execution of reaching the future.
Today, I saw an article over at The Verge about the Samsung DeX, which has just been released. Here's an excerpt:
On paper, it’s just like Microsoft’s Windows 10 Continuum: a basic dock that you plug the phone into that provides connections for a monitor, power, Ethernet, and USB devices. Hook up a monitor to the DeX’s HDMI port and pair a wireless mouse and keyboard to the phone, and boom, you instantly have a desktop workstation.
THE “PHONE AS PC” IDEA IS A GRAVEYARD OF FAILED ATTEMPTS
The software, however, is where Samsung is making its mark. Samsung has effectively taken Android apps, optimized a few of them for productivity, and managed to make a mobile-meets-desktop experience that actually feels… good.
There are still limitations, and it's not quite there yet, but what are we looking at now? Two more years? Three?
The biggest obstacle, to me, is how damned expensive high-end phones are now. The flagship phones cost $600-700, and worse, the prices don't even seem to drop in the first 12 months.
At that price, the phone has to be a 100% desktop replacement, which means there has to be full functionality and no rough edges.
Not there yet.
<< Home