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February 15
Continuum Computing

One of the biggest things Microsoft has talked up about Windows 10 on all types of devices has been the new Universal Windows Platform, which is the new method by which native applications on Windows Phones, touch-first experiences on tablets, and casual applications on Windows desktops are created.

So far, there has been a relatively poor showing on the platform. Office is available, a few Windows Phone 7/8 apps have moved forward, and Microsoft has its own built-in applications, such as the photo viewer and the mail app, plus there's Microsoft Edge. Outside of that, a few casual games, and the "old core" phone and tablet apps (Kindle, Netflix, Pandora, Hulu, that kind of thing) there's not too much going on in the store. Noted popular applications that "kids these days" like (such as Snapchat) aren't there, and nobody other than Microsoft appears to have any interest in building serious applications for it.

I was in a discussion recently where it was discussed that Continuum is definitely (or at least probably) the future of computing. In a way, it makes sense and it is a future I think many people have this same notion. Basically, phone hardware is so powerful (and it shows no signs of stopping) that there's no good reason it can't run basic desktop applications. This is supposed to be one of the guiding forces in the development of Continuum for Windows Phone and the way the UWP platform is set up. Microsoft also talks about it in terms of increasing access to computing.

The obvious problem is that UWP just isn't gaining any kind of real traction. The #appgap problem on Windows Phone 10 is very real, and it extends to good tablet experiences on Windows 10. Microsoft and the OEMs are building or starting to build some really good tablet hardware, which is let down by the fact that you end up just needing to connect a keyboard and mouse and use desktop applications. They're very good small battery-powered desktops, but it's still not the same lean-back tablet experience you get from an iPad or from well-designed programs on an Android tablet.

The discussion continued and ended up centering around Win32 support being the thing that will save Windows Phone, which has recently been declared dead on a few different web sites.

Unfortunately, I don't think that this is going to be the thing that saves the platform. If anything, win32 confuses and diminishes the idea of UWP as the defacto application platform going forward, and the idea of win32 on phones is worse both for the actual usability of software on phone devices and for the eventual growth of the UWP platform.

YouTube was discussed, because it's an app that isn't on UWP (because of reasons) and because it's an example (perhaps one of the only examples) of an application that would actually be better on a television screen. It's difficult because for this type of application, Windows Phone and Continuum don't bring a whole lot to the table that casting didn't already have. Perhaps the one new thing is that with continuum, your phone's internal display continues to be usable for other tasks while you're using an app on your larger display.

So I think that there are a few problems with the idea that Continuum is primed to be the next big thing in computing, at least as it stands today:

  1. Firstly, very few phone experiences translate well to a television. Those that do, such as video and music streaming programs, have control problems, and the big possible draws for business use (casting to a projector or television to show a PowerPoint presentation, for example) aren't yet set up to really take advantage of the particular hardware configuration you have.
  2. Secondly, when there are experiences that do translate well to a television or desktop monitor, continuum is pretty limited. If you connect your phone to a 1080p computer monitor or a very small television and use it at a desk, the only form of visually concurrent multi-tasking that it supports is running one task on your phone's display and one task on your computer's display. I don't even think it supports running two "big" apps side-by-side, the way that Windows 10 on tablet, laptop, and desktop hardware does. I think that the hardware we have today is and should be capable of more.
  3. Continuum is only available on exceedingly expensive halo or flagship level phone hardware, and while that hardware is very good, you can't tell me that this is a computer for the developing world when it costs as much as it does. Additionally, you need either existing WiDi/Miracast hardware and Bluetooth keyboard/mouse, or a $100 dock to connect to an HDMI display and a USB keyboard and mouse.
  4. The #appgap remains terribly, terribly real and has a very big impact on what can be done and the overall viability of things.

I don't think win32 will help with any of these, and although I'm sure Windows Phone is a very nice phone platform even without these things (I couldn't tell you because my phone doesn't have it yet), I don't think that win32 will help keep the platform alive.

I think part of the problem is how the feature is being framed. Technically, there's nothing keeping Microsoft from building or encouraging a USB Type C laptop docking station that you just put in your bag and keep with you. Throughout the day, as the need arises, you connect your Lumia 950 to the lapdock, when you do this, the L950 probably gets some charge, and you can move things you've been working on to a screen that is better suited to the task. To me, a lapdock is a better experience than a television for doing work using your phone's hardware. Unfortunately, I don't think they'll do this, because it could cannibalize the Surface product family, which is Microsoft's portable computer.

Another problem is that UWP apps just aren't fully ready for productivity. This problem could be resolved by a hypothetical x86-based "Surface Phone" that allows you to run classic win32 applications, but I'm unconvinced that just porting the desktop versions of things like Excel, Photoshop, and AutoCAD to a phone, for use on a television, is a good idea. Having this capability doesn't actually improve the viability of the platform though, it just makes a parlor trick work a little better and do some more interesting things (Office 2003 or LibreOffice on a TV, anyone?)

At the end of the day, I think that for people who want this kind of convergence, the Lumia 950 is ready and willing, but the question is whether or not the phone part of the equation stacks up well. I've heard different things about the "desktop" end of continuum, and ultimately, I think that for the cost of doing all of this, you may as well just buy a desktop-experience computer of some sort. A Microsoft Surface 3 is still going to be cheaper, is a Microsoft-branded PC, which a lot of people want, and if you're looking for price efficiency, it's cheaper to buy some kind of inexpensive laptop and a midrange phone than it is to buy a Lumia 950 and all of the things you need to make it productive. As an added bonus, you can use the full desktop version of Office on your inexpensive laptop, and desktop Office includes other goodies like Publisher, the DTP app and Access, the database app.

The idea is solid. I think that the cost of the phone hardware as well as the connecting hardware needs to come down. I don't think it's reasonable to expect an HDMI television, and I also think that there's a very real lack of applications that make a compelling case why you should drop $550-950 on hardware to use continuum on the phone. A $300 laptop and a $140 Lumia 550 will solve this problem as well, or better, given that most netbook-class hardware is now totally amazing.

This could just be a situation where the technology is only practical with such expensive hardware, and we're comparing mature and immature ecosystems. However, the problem is that Windows Phone already appears to be dying. Microsoft can continue to pump money into it, but at some point, its investors will start to complain, Steve Ballmer already is. As neat as features like Continuum are, I don't think they're what needs to come first in terms of "fixing" the platform. In a world where people are using 5-and-bigger-inch smartphones as their only or primary computer, I don't think that this group is really interested in something that runs tools they don't regularly use at home, but doesn't run most of what they use at home.

If Microsoft can get the #appgap resolved, either by just building apps themselves or resolving and building relationship problems with independent developers, then I think it'll make sense for people to start to come to Windows Phone. Microsoft needs either the new core of apps that the majority of today's smartphone users want, or it or some kind of independent software vendor needs to totally hit it out of the phone with apps that can rival things like Coda and Transmit, where Continuum would be a huge benefit. Ideally, both would happen, and both Microsoft and independent developers would be involved in making it happen.

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