[German]Rumors have the charm that if they are true, the "see, I told you so" effect can be used. So folks, I confess, I was true and I told you so. Because Microsoft has confirmed my statements in a blog post from a week ago: Windows 10X is no longer coming, they're pivoting – it's being cloaked, but the thing is dead. Instead, Windows 10 is supposed to benefit.
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Don't say Windows 10X is dead …
In the announcement of Windows 10 21H1 in the blog post How to get the Windows 10 May 2021 Update, Microsoft tries to hide another message and sell it as a positive news. The message buried into a long text dealing with the new Windows 10 21H1 release, reads as:
Following a year-long exploration and engaging in conversations with customers, we realized that the technology of Windows 10X could be useful in more ways and serve more customers than we originally imagined. We concluded that the 10X technology shouldn't just be confined to a subset of customers.
Instead of bringing a product called Windows 10X to market in 2021 like we originally intended, we are leveraging learnings from our journey thus far and accelerating the integration of key foundational 10X technology into other parts of Windows and products at the company. In fact, some of this is already reflected in the core of Windows in Windows Insider preview builds, for example the new app container technology we're integrating into products like Microsoft Defender Application Guard, an enhanced Voice Typing experience, and a modernized touch keyboard with optimized key sizing, sounds, colors and animations. Our teams continue to invest in areas where the 10X technology will help meet our customer needs as well as evaluate technology experiences both in software and hardware that will be useful to our customers in the future.
This shift in thinking is an incredible example of the company's value of a growth mindset at work and exemplifies our customer-first focus.
The message in a nutshell: We have developed and implemented our ideas to please the customers. But it didn't work out. Conversations with customers showed that nobody wants this stuff. Windows 10X was planned as a Chromebook/ChromeOS killer. But Microsoft says between the lines of its Windows 10 21H1 announcement, that after a year of research and conversations with customers, it became clear that the technology included in Windows 10X (not arriving, there's no need) could potentially be useful in other ways. But in a very different way than originally envisioned. So the decision was made to pull the plug on the Windows 10X project and re-use its code for Windows 10 and other Microsoft products:
Instead of launching a product called Windows 10X in 2021, as we originally planned, we're using lessons learned [from the past] to accelerate the integration of key foundational 10X technology into other parts of Windows and products in the enterprise.
In other words, features from Windows 10X will be moved into Windows 10. Then all Windows 10 users should get something out of it.
What was Windows 10X?
Windows 10X was Microsoft's approach to develop a light weight Windows 10 for low end devices. Originally, it was announced to manage devices with two screens under Windows. In summer 2020, Microsoft had to announce that the dual-screen Surface Neo, for which Windows 10X was planned, will not be released in 2020. However, they want to release Windows 10X for desktops with only one screen at the end of this year. The screenshot below shows the desktop with the user interface.
Windows 10X demo – Click to play the video
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More details may be found within my blog post Windows 10X will not come in 2021 …
