5 reasons why Microsoft canceling 'Project Andromeda' was the right choice

Andromeda Cat Source: Daniel Rubino / Windows Cardinal

Despite some ingenious concepts and ideas, Microsoft'south mobile ambitions take ever been controversial, uphill battles. In our latest report, nosotros detailed one such endeavour nether the proper noun 'Project Andromeda.' The idea was killed over sometime in belatedly 2022, but parts of it alive on in the current Android-driven Surface Duo line of devices, and even in Windows 11.

Putting my personal feelings aside (I'd always adopt to employ a native Microsoft Bone instead of Android or iOS), canceling the projection was the right decision.

Hither are five reasons why.

1. Backside schedule, and failed to evangelize

File this under poor project management, just from what nosotros take reported in the past, Andromeda was canned because information technology was style behind schedule and non hit project milestones.

If you ever worked for a major company and oversaw a project that was non delivering the results you were tasked with producing, well, that's a dilemma. Companies take to think about and plan budgets, timeframes, coordination with hardware manufacturing, and even marketing. If anybody is waiting for the Bone to be washed and you can't deliver information technology, at some bespeak, senior leadership needs to step in and make some tough decisions.

Yeah, it'south a lame reason, but ultimately, Andromeda failed to deliver the results. This consequence seems to be an ongoing problem with Microsoft, whether it's Core OS, Andromeda, Windows 10 Mobile, Windows File Organization (WinFS), Windows 10X, or even "micro" OSes like on Microsoft Band.

Microsoft has an endemic problem creating and maintaining operating systems that are not proper x86 Windows. And that's technically some other hidden reason: Would Microsoft have maintained and stuck with Andromeda OS?

Let's also non forget that the unabridged UI would be supplanted by 'Sun Valley' and Windows xi only a few short years later. That means Microsoft would have had to redesign it all at some point.

Tl;dr: The OS didn't work.

2. Not the right fourth dimension: Windows x Mobile was dead

Lumia 520 Source: Daniel Rubino / Windows Central

In late 2022, we were already reporting on the pitiful state of oversupply-funded Windows phones for 2022. The timing for Andromeda was only off. Had the project started in 2022, maybe things could have been different, but in 2022 this was, without question, the nadir of Microsoft's mobile OS ambitions.

The heyday of Windows Phone was years in the past at this point.

Indeed, the acknowledged Windows Phone was in 2022 with the $99 Lumia 520. Windows Telephone never did well in the premium markets despite some headline-worthy (and fan-favorite) devices similar the Lumia 1020, Lumia 1520, and Lumia 920.

When you combine those two points with the thought of a $1,400 Windows Phone, well, at that place'southward non a lot of evidence to suggest it would accept sold well, even with the Surface branding.

3. The app gap was more real than always

Empty Store Source: Daniel Rubino / Windows Key

In 2022, developers mostly abandoned making apps for Windows 10 Mobile. Windows telephone always had an app-gap problem, which is a whole other topic, but releasing a device in 2022 with only UWP apps from the Microsoft Store would have been even more than problematic, especially if the device costs well over $1,000.

Sure, if somehow Project Andromeda was going to be a pocketable x86 Windows device, that'd be slightly better. Just it was strictly ARM32/64. Interestingly, a pocketable existent Windows PC was the original vision behind what is Surface Duo today, but the silicon only wasn't set up (and probably yet isn't).

We tin can all complaining Microsoft's current struggles with Surface Duo, merely there's one thing you admittedly tin can't criticize it for, which is apps, and that's just a fact.

iv. A digital mobile journal device is super niche

Andromeda Start Render Andromeda OS was very focused on inking. Source: Windows Central

People criticize Surface Duo for being too specific to be successful. They say that at that place's not enough market place for it to sell well. I have defended niches in applied science earlier, noting how they are the goad for new loftier-tech paradigms.

Just there are limitations.

Project Andromeda and the resulting dual-screen device would have very few apps, price $1,400, and been primarily focused on notetaking and journaling. This emphasis on the pen is a hallmark of Surface, but besides hearkens dorsum to the "Microsoft Courier" concept.

Information technology'south a fascinating idea, for certain, but have you noticed how there are very few Android phones that support inking? If I asked you to name one, 99% of you would yell out Samsung's Galaxy Annotation serial. And that'southward it. And even there, that'south just a regular Galaxy telephone with an Due south Pen and a few clever apps.

The pen features on Surface Duo and Surface Duo 2 are slowly coming together, but I'k not convinced a pen-first modality for a pocketable device would accept been successful. Even Apple tree hasn't gone down this route yet.

To be clear, I'one thousand non entirely confronting the thought, but when you stack upward all the other reasons confronting Andromeda, it's a tough sell.

5. Andromeda's end game was non clear

The 2022 HP Elite x3 was crawly (and failed miserably). Source: Daniel Rubino / Windows Central

File this under "we just don't know," only what was the long-term point of Andromeda Os? Hear me out.

When Microsoft built Windows Mobile/Telephone/ten Mobile, the idea was to have an OS that could be licensed to OEMs to make Windows phones. The smartphone market was established, and information technology had landed on the generic "black slab" design with a few attempts at minor hardware divergence.

Of course, it all failed, but the OS model was straightforward.

Only with Andromeda, did Microsoft plan to build it simply for its dual-screen device? If not, did it really look companies like HP, Samsung, or LG to jump on board and develop their own hardware with it? If it's the latter, why would they? Microsoft's previous aspirations in mobile were in absolute tatters, and all those companies lost coin in those endeavors.

If, on the other mitt, Microsoft only wanted Andromeda for itself, the justification for building it, the hardware, and trying to go developers on lath seems absurdly challenging. Conversely, had Windows 10 Mobile been successful, everything would have been different, as Andromeda could exist an extension of that ecosystem. But that was not the case.

On its own, Andromeda was a large dream surrounded by many past failures, bad mojo, and a lack of faith from consumers.

Wrap up: Fans want it; the market place does non

While I wish the entire history of Microsoft'due south strategy in mobile were different, the facts are what they are. 2022 was just too tardily for something like Andromeda. Few apps, a disappearing developer base of operations, a radical new UX with a focus on inking, very costly hardware, and coming off years of losses in smartphones and mobile, the entire environment for Andromeda was just not correct.

Allow'southward also not forget that the whole project was behind schedule, missing milestones, and quite buggy. If Microsoft never figured out Windows 10 Mobile, what makes you lot think Andromeda would have been any better?

And while Surface Duo 2 is withal struggling for acceptance, information technology has a much ameliorate chance with Android in the long run. And, at the very least, Microsoft tried something to salve the ambitious hardware design of Surface Duo. I'g actually happy about that equally someone who loves the device.

Volition Microsoft always return to such a concept as Andromeda? I uncertainty it. But I do think the Surface team yearns for a foldable Surface Pro-like device, someday, that runs full Windows, but that'south all the same a few years out.

Updated February 2022

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