14 DAY TRIAL // Despite criticism, Microsoft has no plans to give up on its mobile business, so the company will continue to invest in Windows 10 Mobile development and features that would bring smartphones and PCs in sync.
But what’s more important is that Microsoft is aiming for a different strategy that’s going to overhaul its mobile efforts and change the way Windows Phone and Windows 10 Mobile are currently regarded.
We already know that 2016 is not going to be the year of mobile, with Microsoft focusing on some different projects in the next few months, promising more “cool things” for Windows 10 Mobile next year.
One of these cool things appears to be the Surface Phone, a completely new device that will be developed by the same team that built the Surface tablet and headed by Panos Panay. Little is known about the device until now and all we got are rumors, with a new report by WindowsCentral revealing that it could ship as soon as April 2017.
The most secure phone in the world
First and foremost, the Surface Phone will be a device focused on productivity. This isn’t something surprising given the fact that the same approach is being used for the Surface tablet too, but it’s another confirmation that Microsoft’s mobile efforts won’t be necessarily aimed at consumers. Windows 10 Mobile, which is still being improved as part of the Insider program, is taking shape quite nicely and should receive several new features aimed at businesses in the coming months.
But what’s more interesting is that Microsoft wants to make the Surface Phone the “most secure phone in the world.” How exactly the company plans to do that is not yet known, but it goes without saying that Redmond will continue to invest heavily in biometrics authentication and new technologies to achieve this goal.
The Surface Phone will probably market Windows Hello as one of its key features, along with new security and encryption technologies specifically aimed at protecting user data.
An effort to avoid the Apple saga
Building the most secure phone in the world is part of Microsoft’s plans to avoid the Apple saga involving the US government and the FBI, who are both trying to get access to iPhones allegedly used in criminal activities in the country.
Microsoft is one of the companies that supported Apple in its fight against the government, so the company is trying to make sure that its name isn’t dragged into similar cases in the future by developing a phone which cannot be hacked.
Whether the Surface Phone will be indeed hacker-proof or not still remains to be seen, but it goes without saying that this is the plan given the current security climate and the debates going on in the States.
Competing against BlackBerry for enterprises
Microsoft is also aiming to become a more direct competitor for BlackBerry, the company that has often been referred to as the producer of the most secure phones in the world.
BlackBerry, which has lost ground in the consumer market, is still going after enterprises with its security solutions, so Microsoft seems to embrace the same strategy with the Surface Phone.
“Security is what we do. Privacy is what you get. We have the most trusted networks outside of the carriers themselves – it is what we offer and how we think about our business,” BlackBerry CEO John Chen said in February when speaking at the Canadian Embassy in Washington.
Without a doubt, it’ll be interesting to see how the Surface Phone will take on BlackBerry for the enterprise market, so looking forward to 2017 to see what Microsoft has prepared for its mobile customers.