We have got some dangerous information about Microsoft’s Floor Duo 2: it is going away to the farm.
Three years after launching the gadget with a premium price ticket of $1,499, Microsoft has launched what seems to be the final ever safety replace for the gadget: as with the unique Duo final yr, Microsoft is ending all assist and software program updates three years from the gadget’s launch. For the Duo 2, all assist will finish on 21 October 2024.
Microsoft initially launched the gadget with a promised three years of software program upgrades, however throughout that interval it solely provided one Android OS replace.
The Duo 2 was a part of the extra experimental Floor product vary, however in 2023 Microsoft launched into a program of cutbacks that noticed lots of these merchandise cancelled – so for instance, the second era of Floor headphones by no means arrived. Microsoft determined to focus solely on the most well-liked, excessive profile {hardware} such because the Floor Go and Floor Professional.
Why the Duo’s demise may make Microsoft consumers suppose twice
Companies cancel product traces on a regular basis, after all. However with a tool such because the Duo 2, prospects had been betting on Microsoft sticking with its Android working system – and clearly that guess did not grow to be a very fruitful one.
As we mentioned final yr, Microsoft’s strategy to the Duos was “surprisingly anti-consumer”: the unique Duo solely acquired two main updates, and the Duo 2 has solely had one. And naturally Android is not the one OS Microsoft has embraced after which dumped, as former Home windows Cellphone customers know all too effectively.
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Meaning for would-be Microsoft consumers there’s an extra query to ask when contemplating new {hardware}, particularly the type that is much less mainstream or that makes use of totally different OSes: how lengthy earlier than Microsoft loses curiosity?
That is obtained to be excellent news for Apple: the place Microsoft’s Duos have reached their finish of life after three years every, Apple continues to be updating its first-generation iPad Professional six years after launch. The Apple possibility was less expensive, too: the first-gen 11-inch iPad Professional was $799 in comparison with $1,499 for the Duo 2.
