Whatever Happened to Andromeda ?

I guess Andromeda has gone the same way as the Surface Phone Speculation.

Nine year ago Microsoft would have inpsired their Developer User base, by providing clear direction on its upcoming new devcies and platforms, and releasing SDKs for developers to get going on software development. But now we are all suspicious that Microsoft is all Hype, Rumour and No Delivery. So unfortunately have to accept either HTML5 Web or Android First as being the only Client platforms worth investing in.

Conversation 27 comments

  • madthinus

    Premium Member
    21 July, 2019 - 8:42 am

    <p>Andromeda has only one problem, it is not a solution that anyone needs. As cool as the device sounds on paper, who needs it? Who is not better served by a large phone or tablet or laptop running software that is mature and well understood. I think in the end that is the main reason why it has died down. It is cool sounding device that is pointless.</p>

    • Paul Thurrott

      Premium Member
      21 July, 2019 - 2:55 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#444057">In reply to madthinus:</a></em></blockquote><p>That's one reason. But don't discount Microsoft's desire to define yet another product category. I bet they still ship something. </p>

      • BigM72

        22 July, 2019 - 10:30 pm

        <blockquote><em><a href="#444116">In reply to paul-thurrott:</a></em></blockquote><p><br></p><p>The most recent rumour was that Andromeda was canned but Centaurus would come to market instead?</p><p><br></p><p>Either way, I have a friend who works in a relevant part of MS who won't tell me much of anything except that something is coming. (Although said friend was indicating H1 next year not this year).</p>

        • Paul Thurrott

          Premium Member
          23 July, 2019 - 3:41 am

          <blockquote><em><a href="#444341">In reply to BigM72:</a></em></blockquote><p>Centaurus is something. 🙂 I wouldn't get too hung up on the rumored name of the day.</p>

        • skane2600

          23 July, 2019 - 10:41 am

          <blockquote><em><a href="#444341">In reply to BigM72:</a></em></blockquote><p>Meet the new vaporware same as the old vaporware.</p>

          • MikeGalos

            23 July, 2019 - 12:54 pm

            <blockquote><em><a href="#444466">In reply to skane2600:</a></em></blockquote><p>Vaporware is when the company ANNOUNCES a product that doesn't yet exist.</p><p>It isn't when the press repeats (or manufactures) gossip and then their gossip wasn't accurate.</p>

            • skane2600

              23 July, 2019 - 1:05 pm

              <blockquote><em><a href="#444487">In reply to MikeGalos:</a></em></blockquote><p>Yes, you are technically correct, but it's the closest word I can think of that captures the idea. Having said that, leaks from fairly highly-placed executives are borderline announcements. They are no doubt subject to NDA's so if they are revealing proprietary material why aren't they being fired? I think these are a kind of back-channel announcements. </p>

              • MikeGalos

                23 July, 2019 - 2:10 pm

                <blockquote><em><a href="#444490">In reply to skane2600:</a></em></blockquote><p>Then we need another word because I've seen "rumors" that were manufactured by competitors and quite often "leaks" that were from a low-level friend of a tech blogger who was talking about a project they were on that was vastly far from being treated as a product but that was aggrandized to make the low-level person seem more important.</p><p><br></p><p>The case of the intentional "trial balloon" is a case you might call a form of vaporware but the other kinds are putting the blame on the victim as the company then has to deal with false expectations and the "press" publicizing their "failure" to ship a product that never actually existed. In fact, a lot of those "trial balloon" postings are actually from other companies where they want to read the market but want someone else blamed for the "product" not coming out.</p>

                • skane2600

                  23 July, 2019 - 6:29 pm

                  <blockquote><em><a href="#444493">In reply to MikeGalos:</a></em></blockquote><p>Well, let's be specific rather than talking about generalities. Do you believe the Surface Phone, Andromeda, or Centaurus&nbsp;were rumors from competitors or strictly from low-level workers at Microsoft?</p>

                • MikeGalos

                  24 July, 2019 - 5:44 am

                  <blockquote><em><a href="#444597">In reply to skane2600:</a></em></blockquote><p>I know they weren't actual announcements. And THAT is the rule as far as saying it's vaporware. Who spread gossip isn't the question either. The issue is that if gossip is treated as fact that's not journalism. </p><p><br></p><p>I have no problem with industry gossip columns. The old Spencer F. Katt column, Rumor Central, was a must-read every week. I was friends with a couple of its editors, had a standing invitation to the Katt Party at Comdex for years and have a Spencer Doll around here somewhere. </p><p><br></p><p>The difference was that PC Week didn't mix gossip and journalism in the same sections nor did they pretend that if something showed up in the gossip columns it was actual news or a commitment by the manufacturer.</p>

    • VancouverNinja

      Premium Member
      24 July, 2019 - 2:29 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#444057">In reply to madthinus:</a></em></blockquote><p>My company would love a Microsoft Windows based solution – iPhones don't cut it and while Microsoft is making the investment to integrate Android with Windows it is still not the right fit. </p><p><br></p><p>The moment there is a real good innovation that allows us to get off of these two mobile options with a better fit for PC productivity it will thrive.</p>

  • codymesh

    21 July, 2019 - 9:36 am

    <p>lol Microsoft has never mentioned andromeda publicly ever. There was no hype except from irresponsible "news" websites. The fact that so many people bought into rumors like it anything finished in the first place is embarrassing </p>

    • Paul Thurrott

      Premium Member
      21 July, 2019 - 2:54 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#444058">In reply to codymesh:</a></em></blockquote><p>That's a little unfair. Andromeda is/was real and is still expected to come to market in some fashion. That it hasn't is for whatever reasons. But let's not shoot the messengers who know what they've worked on. It isn't just a rumor.</p>

      • MikeGalos

        23 July, 2019 - 12:55 pm

        <blockquote><em><a href="#444115">In reply to paul-thurrott:</a></em></blockquote><p>Was it announced? No</p><p>Did "journalists" report things they knew violated their NDA? Not likely.</p><p>How is that unfair, then?</p>

      • VancouverNinja

        Premium Member
        24 July, 2019 - 2:26 pm

        <blockquote><em><a href="#444115">In reply to paul-thurrott:</a></em></blockquote><p>I think we are going to see an announcement of a larger version of it this fall. There were a few articles on a dual screen "courier" portable type of mobile PC in development. This would make sense to not try to jump in with a phone device but rather to try and gather developer and business support for the nextgen of mobile PC's. If this took off under the Surface Brand then they would be able to move to a smaller foot print, Andromeda, with a greater chance of success with a mobile PC/Phone that moves users past the Smart Phone era. </p><p><br></p><p>If we don't see or hear anything by year end I will be wondering if any of this actually exists however.</p>

  • jimchamplin

    Premium Member
    21 July, 2019 - 11:26 am

    <p>I think it died with UWP. </p>

  • skane2600

    21 July, 2019 - 11:36 am

    <p>Microsoft has lost all credibility with mobile developers and their mobile customers. Both of them were hung out to dry and they're not going to be suckered again.</p>

  • Lauren Glenn

    23 July, 2019 - 6:10 am

    <p>For me, I'd still rather have a phone that I can plug into a USB-C dock and have it be a laptop. DeX is great for that and with the S10, I get VPN to where I can use it for work and the Microsoft apps run great with it too. Yes, I know we had continuum…. but instead of ChromeOS equivalent, I'd still rather have an actual PC. If they can put a PC in a gaming stick, I would bet they could technically have a Windows desktop in a phone even if it had two modes to where I'd have a PC and a shared file system…. or something. Until then, I still got DeX. Convenient in a pinch to remote into work when I'm not around without having to lug around a huge laptop. If only Samsung would just make an actual dock for the phone. Until then, someone showed off the HP Elite X3 laptop dock with a Samsung Note 9 (which like the S10 is compatible with DeX without a special dock)</p>

    • skane2600

      23 July, 2019 - 10:40 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#444426">In reply to alissa914:</a></em></blockquote><p>Isn't it more like "and have it be a <em>desktop</em>"? Wouldn't it mean plugging it in to desktop peripherals? I can see it as a Plan B for a small segment of the market, but not for most people, particularly since it would probably end up being a more expensive solution. </p>

      • Lauren Glenn

        03 August, 2019 - 4:46 am

        <blockquote><em><a href="#444465">In reply to skane2600:</a></em></blockquote><p>Not really. I mean, if you're traveling, you could have a USB-C laptop and plug it in on the go. A desktop is far more expandable and not meant to travel. If you wanted to use it at a desk and plug in a monitor, keyboard, and mouse, then it's still like a laptop as you can have a dock and do that with a laptop.</p><p><br></p><p>But with the HP X3 Elite dock and a thunderbolt cable, now you have a laptop you can use while having LTE built in and a big library of apps (alot of them Microsoft apps which work well with it). TeamViewer supposedly works with it too.</p>

        • skane2600

          03 August, 2019 - 11:54 am

          <blockquote><em><a href="#447185">In reply to alissa914:</a></em></blockquote><p>The point is that a laptop already has everything you need built-in. Yes, you can connect it to an external monitor but that's just an optional enhancement. In the case of a phone, you <em>have </em>to use desktop peripherals to get a desktop experience and those necessary peripherals tether you to a fixed location as you work just as a desktop would.</p>

  • Lauren Glenn

    03 August, 2019 - 4:48 am

    <p>On a tangent which will get downvoted, if there was no text in the question, I would've answered, "well, Sci-fi channel bought it for season 5, made it so they were stuck on a planet, and Kevin Sorbo couldn't keep the show afloat despite the direction of some episodes by Peter DeLouise from Stargate SG-1 fame…..so they left the planet on the finale episode and basically crammed an entire season into one episode). Then it was cancelled at the end of season 5."</p><p><br></p><p><br></p>

    • mikes_infl

      05 August, 2019 - 1:25 pm

      <blockquote><a href="#447187"><em>In reply to alissa914:</em></a><em>I'm SURE there were many of us thinking that same thing. ;-)</em></blockquote><p><br></p>

  • Bats

    05 August, 2019 - 3:22 pm

    <p>Is this a trick question?</p><p><br></p><p>C'mon….you know that it's not Microsoft's style to invent things and bring it to market first. We heard a lot about Andromeda at the time we were hearing about the Samsung's Galaxy foldable phone, LG's, and……….Google, as they were they were trying to integrate Android into Chrome OS. The real innovators in the tech industry is Google and Samsung and a little bit of Apple. Because Samsung is experiencing problems with their foldable device, it stands to reason that Microsoft is backing off a bit with their Andromeda plans. After all, that's how Microsoft does things. Sit back, wait, and let others go first. Then, come in with their own product and tell everyone that theirs is better because it can run Office.</p><p><br></p><p>So all in all, Andromeda IS going to happen…..eventually. It will happen eventually, just in time for Paul Thurrott to declare the Andromeda the market leader for non-cellular devices that come in black (lol). </p><p><br></p><p>Yes, Microsoft is all hype. It has to be, for their stock price. After all the company's failures in the past 9 years: Zune, Zune Store, Windows Phone, Cortana, Continuum, Windows Watch, Xbox, Windows Services, Mixed Rality, UWP…. Am I missing anything?</p><p><br></p>

  • Winner

    07 August, 2019 - 1:57 pm

    <p>It's in a galaxy far, far away…</p>

  • StevenLayton

    07 August, 2019 - 4:28 pm

    <p>Yeah, it certainly deserved a sixth season. Axed in its prime.</p>

  • smartin

    Premium Member
    11 August, 2019 - 5:00 am

    <p>Ya, well. What is Andromeda? I haven't heard of it, but I've mostly been in working on Cloud based stuff, AWS, for the past several years.</p><p><br></p><p>I did watch the SciFi show though. Disappointing ending.</p>

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