A lot has been written and speculated about this vaporware device. There is no doubt that this phone will not help Microsoft in the phone wars. As Paul has written many times this war is lost and Windows mobile is on life support waiting for the next big thing. In recent write up Paul speculates that AI is the next big thing and as I do agree with Paul that AI is going to be a big category, I disagree with him that AI will be the only big thing.
Apple seems to think that Augmented reality is the next big thing based on reports coming out a couple weeks back. Maybe that is because they know that they are not well positioned on the AI front, but maybe they are right.
Why I mention this is because of the supposed Surface phone. As nothing is known about this mystery phone, speculation is abound with ideas. Most point to the HP Elite as the brain child of what Microsoft plans to do with the phone. However, since we are just speculating. Why couldn’t it be something more than a PC in your pocket. After all Surface is all about inventing new categories.
I would suggest something that would A) position Microsoft back into the mobile world and not as a phone and B) jump start the next big thing, in this case Augmented Reality. A phone/hololens mashup. As I understand it the hololens is powered by an Atom processor, something a phablet type device could power. So essentially the phone is the engine and a peripheral like a sunglasses would house the lens and the kinect sensor. Whether tethered or a wireless dispay these glasses would be a lot slimer than a hololens and with the right design features possibly fashionable. Add the capabilities of an HP Elite with its continuum features and I believe this type of device could present a better future than its phone/continuum strategy.
Thoughts? I know this is more a dream scenario, but I believe it has merits and would differentiate it from competitors like Google and Apple who are still just perfecting an familiar concept.