14 DAY TRIAL // Convergence computing is an area that attracted the investments of several technology giants, including Microsoft, which tried to tackle this growing business with Windows 10 and its siblings aimed at tablets and smartphones.
And while Microsoft itself put a lot of efforts into getting this concept right, it’s Canonical the one that did it right, a recent award received by the company seems to suggest.
Canonical, which is widely known as the owner of Ubuntu, received the Orange Outstanding achievement for converged computing & digital openness at the Orange Device Partner Awards ceremony, with event organizers explaining that only “organizations that have contributed to the smartphone revolution” are recognized by this award.
In other words, Canonical did a much better job with Ubuntu convergence than Microsoft with its Continuum feature, which is supposed to turn a Windows 10 Mobile device into a mobile PC with the help of an external screen.
“This annual event looks back over the last ten years and recognises the rapid evolution of the mobile industry, and we are excited to highlight those contributions by awarding in areas of innovation, design and marketing. We wish all of our awardees the best for 2017,” Yves Maître, Executive Vice President, Connected Objects and Partnerships, Orange, said in a press statement that you can read in full below.
Microsoft also planning Continuum improvements
While Canonical is getting all the praises for its convergence implementation, Microsoft is also planning several improvements for its Continuum feature that would contribute to a more PC-like experience with a mobile phone.
As we’ve explained when we reviewed the Continuum experience with the HP Elite X3 Windows 10 Mobile device, using a Windows phone as a PC is still very limited, mostly because despite the bigger screen, essential features are missing for the time being.
With Continuum, there are no resizable windows and no taskbar support, while the entire experience itself proves to be rather slow despite the powerful hardware in the phone. New features, such as window mode, will be released with the Windows 10 Creators Update in April, along with a bunch of other improvements that would contribute to a more genuine PC experience.
In the meantime, however, the award received by Canonical shows that Microsoft needs to up the ante and do better in this convergence push, especially given that its mobile platform is trailing behind its rivals.