Panos Panay, the Surface chief comes bearing it. Surface Andromeda may yet see the light of day, if we go by the words of the man running this side of the business at Microsoft.
Essentially, rumors of the demise of this pocketable Surface device may have been a bit exaggerated.
Redmond revealed a ton of new hardware, including a surprising entry in the form of Surface branded headphones, at its event in New York earlier this week. And on the sidelines of the gathering, Panay gave an interview with The Verge, where he shed some light on the future.
Long story short, he considers this portable Surface his baby, and says that the company is waiting for the right time to bring it to market.
His words:
“It’s absolutely my baby. We will invent and we will create when products are right. We can’t bring new categories into the world and not be a place where customers need it.”
Fair enough.
Sources close to the matter have hinted that Microsoft is working on a dual-screen model, internally referred to as Andromeda, that it hopes will help invent a new product category.
No surprises here, as Redmond has picked up a habit of going in new directions lately, ever since it unveiled the original Surface. If anything, the company is already working on another revolutionary device, in the form of a new Surface Hub, which comes with a fresh new form factor.
Panay:
“Right now, we see people use these products in ways that are blowing my mind, it’s inspiring. I think Surface Hub 2 is ready. I think any other form factor you haven’t seen yet we’ve gotta get right, we’ve got to make sure we keep inventing to make it perfect.”
If it gets the go-ahead, Andromeda will hit the market sometimes in 2019 — provided it advances as Microsoft intends. It may even come with telephony capabilities built in, even as the technology giant has made it clear that it is not planning to launch a smartphone.
In any case, it looks like that, contrary to some earlier reports, Andromeda is being reworked in a major way and work on the project has not actually stopped.
It is simply a matter of waiting now.
Waiting, with hope in tow.
