- What's the actual measure of success for Andromeda?
Well, probably releasing it is one of those,
but we'll talk about a few more.
And, should Windows 10 actually just be called Windows?
All that and more in this episode, stay tuned!
(rhythmic drum music)
(gentle chiming)
How important is it that Andromeda succeeds?
Alright, so this is a really good question,
but before we get started, let's talk a little bit
about Andromeda and its status.
A couple weeks ago, I mentioned how
we heard it has been delayed, but not canceled.
And more information has come out since then,
reaffirming this idea.
I've said it in the past,
when I spoke to the Surface team about
releasing devices, when they'd do it,
and the answer is, they release stuff when it's ready.
So, although they do have windows
and goals they try to reach,
they don't necessarily have to reach those goals
and release their product early.
They don't do that anymore.
They learnt a lot of lessons early on.
Andromeda being pushed to 2019
so they can build up some of the app ecosystem,
possibly swap out their processor,
and really make it a better device,
is probably a good thing.
I think a lot of you will agree,
they have to get this right.
And while a delay is never really wanted by the consumer,
it's probably a good idea to make sure
that the device is perfect.
Now, having said that, what makes a device successful?
That's gonna be variable.
So when they create this device,
they obviously have goals in mind
and expectations for sales.
It's probably not gonna be a million devices,
which would be absurd,
but probably in the hundred-thousand range,
or who knows exactly.
I think of Surface Studio as an example for this,
that's a super expensive PC.
Don't forget the one we actually wanted was around $4,000.
How many of those actually sold?
What were the expectations with that device?
We still can't go and purchase one of those
in say, Target or Best Buys,
so these sales numbers that are actually varied,
I don't think Andromeda's gonna be a huge seller,
but that's really not the point for success.
Another measure is just gonna be word-of-mouth and reviews.
So if the device comes out in 2019,
and all the reviews say really good things about it,
even if it's too expensive as a negative,
that's still a good thing to have, versus,
this is a device that no one wants,
or it doesn't perform well.
But the real measure of success here is,
do other companies make their own versions?
We have heard that Dell was supposed to announce
their own version of this at CES in 2019,
whether or not that happens or not remains to be seen.
But that's really the goal of this project,
it's not for Microsoft just to create a one-off device,
but it's for their OEM partners to also follow suit
and make a similar device category.
So, for instance, in 2019, we should see
DELL, HP, and other companies jump on board.
If you recall, it wasn't around 'til Surface Pro 3
that people started taking seriously this
2-in-1 form factor.
Up 'til then, everybody kind of laughed it off
and telling Microsoft to get out of that market
and stop bothering with this.
Even the reviews for Surface Pro 3 were pretty good
but it wasn't like, this is a bang-out device.
So, it did take awhile for that to catch on,
and that's really the goal here,
to get to version 3 of any new device category.
If they can do that, that's your measure of success.
Should Windows 10 be renamed to Windows?
So this is a really fun question,
in fact, I think I answered it before.
Ever since Windows 10 came out, people were saying,
Why not just call it Windows?
After all, we're not really expecting
a Windows 11 anytime soon, so why not?
It's a fun question because the answer seems obvious,
that Windows is just a better branding name.
The problem is, it's too generic.
So if you go to Google or Bing and type in Windows
and start following it up with other queries,
well, you're going to start to get windows.
And so, that's not exactly what they want,
Windows 10 at least is a solid branding for them.
So it makes a lot of sense to think of this as just Windows,
it's gonna be Windows 10 from now on just
for branding purposes, marketing and all that.
I know it makes sense the other way,
but the world is kind of a weird place
that we'll just have to accept Windows 10.
Do you ever think there will be a 15-inch Surface Laptop?
So, Microsoft updated the Surface Book with Surface Book 2,
the big news around that would be size,
those awesome GPU's,
was of course that there's a 15-inch version announced, too.
In fact, it's one of the most powerful
Surface devices ever created, even more powerful
than Surface Studio, which is kind of funny.
But yeah, it was a really neat decision, I think.
13.5" I actually think is kind of a perfect length,
but with that 15" design, they're able to put in the
GTX-1060, make it even more powerful.
So the question is,
should they follow that with Surface Laptop,
and have we heard anything regarding that?
We have heard that they are exploring
and looking at doing that.
I don't know the status of that project right now,
but it would make sense that they're
going to announce Surface Laptop,
do the standard 13.5" and also a 15" model,
which would allow them to do a little bit different things.
Perhaps put in a little bit better GPU in there,
probably an MX-150 or something like that,
no GTX-1060's, sorry folks,
I don't think you can do that in that kind of thin chassis.
Whether or not they actually do this,
we'll have to wait and see,
we're not expecting Surface Laptop
to be refreshed this year, unfortunately.
We'll have to probably wait 'til 2019.
This team often operates in secret,
so who knows the actual status of it.
We'll try to dig a little bit further though
and keep you posted.
Do you think two years between each
Surface Book is too much?
So this is a really good question regarding
Surface Book 2 and update cycles.
And when I spoke to Panos Panay last year regarding
Surface Pro, he told me they don't really like
to do device refreshes unless it's significant,
and that's why Surface Pro's completely redesigned.
I think we can agree here
that Surface Book 2 was a significant upgrade.
On the other hand, something like Surface Laptop
and Surface Pro, I wouldn't mind seeing them throw in
eighth generation processors,
those really do offer quite a bit of improvement,
especially by going to quad-core,
which is really good for multi-core processing.
As to whether or not two years is too much or too little,
there are problems both ways.
If you do it every year, if you wait three months
into that cycle, people are gonna start to ask,
should I just wait for the next version?
Is it gonna be much better?
And you get into this cat-and-mouse game that,
there's always something better coming along,
and you know now that in nine months
something better's gonna come out,
so you might as well just wait for that
and you end up never buying anything.
That's kind of a problem.
Also if you just bought a laptop,
say a Macbook Pro back in March,
and this new one just came out,
you may be a little upset and be trying to return it.
Personally speaking, I like to see every year and a half,
I think that's kind of fair,
but if we watched my last video,
how they time these things with Intel's processor lineup
and release cycle's is very important.
They also have to time this with Windows 10 releases,
which are often tailored for a better Surface experience,
so let's just say it's a complicated problem.
Alright, so that does it for this week's episode.
Remember, if you have a question
use hashtag #AskDanWindows on Twitter,
or drop me an email at AskDan@Windowscentral.com.
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Thanks for watching, take care, everybody.