Obsessed with Andromeda (Premium)

Andromeda makes absolutely no sense as a product. And that has nothing to do with why Microsoft just delayed it. Why are we so obsessed with this project?

I know that many will not agree with that first assertion—the hopes and dreams of Windows enthusiasts run deep—but the second one is a fact. So let’s at least agree on one thing: The reason that Microsoft really delayed Andromeda is fascinating to us all.

That reason? The Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chipset that Andromeda would had to have used to ship this year is too underpowered and has too many software compatibility issues. So Microsoft’s Senior Leadership Team (SLT) nixed the release.

There were other issues, of course. As Mary Jo Foley first pointed out, the Andromeda customizations to Windows 10 were so immature that Microsoft actually removed them from Redstone 5.

Software can be updated a lot more quickly than hardware can be fixed. The real issue here, of course, is the chipset. And with Qualcomm known to be working on at least two generations of PC-specific chipsets now—the Snapdragon 850 and 1000—those advances, plus the passage of time, should help address the shortcomings of Windows 10 on ARM today.

But then that’s why I’m so fascinated by this whole thing. Obsessed even.

As I’ve pointed out many, many times, Andromeda simply doesn’t make sense. This isn’t about performance, or about which chipset it uses. It’s about the need for a pocketable, dual-display device with no viable app or content ecosystems. It’s about common sense and logic. And it’s about the emotional need that many seem to feel that this thing happen regardless.

And I’m not the only one obsessed by Andromeda. No, I’m not talking about those Windows fans who gravitate to any good news they can find about Redmond.

I’m talking about Microsoft itself.

I can sense a hungry need within the software giant to create a new hardware form factor. And, against all odds and common sense, to achieve a sort of return to mobile in doing so. This obsession is so strong, so cultural, that I feel it will overwhelm common sense. By which I mean, Microsoft will actually release this thing.

That opinion will many certain Windows enthusiasts. But it shouldn’t.

Under Satya Nadella, a new Microsoft has emerged. This new Microsoft is admirable and pragmatic. It seeks to do the right thing, both for itself and its shareholders, and for the world. But this new Microsoft is also fighting the vestiges of what I’ll call the old Microsoft. The dwindling parts of the company that believe it can still be like it was in the past.

This is a battle for Microsoft’s soul. It mirrors some of the political uprisings we’ve seen around the world, where a constituency obsessed with the monocultures of the past is trying to reclaim a glory that never really existed in the first place. I feel that these things, politically and within Microsoft, are just temporary aberrations. But they’re still real. And they must still be dealt with, because power isn’t just relinquished. It goes down fighting.

Microsoft has contributions to make in hardware, for sure. It can be aspirational both to other hardware makers and to potential customers. Much of the hardware it makes, Surface Xbox, and elsewhere, is well-design and well-made.

But Andromeda isn’t about making hardware, not really. It’s about a misbegotten and out of date notion that there is some new mobile platform that Microsoft can somehow summon out of its imagination, call into being, and make successful simply because it wishes to. And folks, I’m sorry. But those days are over.

The new Microsoft should look logically at Andromeda, no matter the hardware chipset, and say no because this platform makes no sense. Because the PC foundation on which it is based is slowly dying, and it has zero user engagement and no modern, viable ecosystem support.

But that didn’t happen. The new Microsoft said no to Andromeda in its current guise because of … the chipset.

Compare this, if you will to Surface Go. Like the new Microsoft, it is unsexy and unexciting. But it’s also open and inclusive. And it’s obvious: No one has to explain what it is, what it does, or why you might want it.

Surface Go, in other words, is the anti-Andromeda. And it’s the product Microsoft should be making. Our collective obsessions be damned.