Microsoft is still researching cross-platform systems and intends not to give up on the mobile phone market?

In recent years, almost all mobile phone brands have regarded "ecological interconnection" as the future development direction of their products: some brands can use wireless screen projection to "project" the mobile phone screen to a computer or tablet; You can directly use your computer to access your phone's camera, and some can even use your phone's app directly in the car. It can be said that cross-device software interoperability has been taken to the extreme.

#This kind of seamless cross-device operation is something even Microsoft cannot avoid. Recently, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) approved a cross-device operation applied by Microsoft. Equipment technology patent:

# From the application diagram, this cross-device technology is a network-based remote control system that embeds remote discovery and control in the platform layer. Module, users can directly realize interconnection control of computers, tablets, mobile phones and other devices.

Image source: Microsoft

I don’t know if the above introduction has awakened some memories deep in the memory of old players in the Microsoft ecosystem - yes, isn’t this the new concept of three-screen unification back then?

To be fair, this cross-platform patent is not exactly the same as the previous three-screen unification: this new patent focuses on discovery and control across devices, and The three-screen unified emphasis is on the transmission of information between different devices. And for Microsoft, "three-screen unification" is not a memory worth recalling.

The great vision of three-screen unification

In 2010, it was replaced by the two major operating systems of iOS 4 and Android 2.2. Microsoft, the cheese sandwich company, hastily released a new generation mobile operating system called Windows Phone (WP) 7. In order to draw a clear line from the "old era", although WP7 uses the same Windows CE kernel as Windows Mobile, Microsoft has completely reconstructed the framework and user interface of the CE kernel, and also enabled Silverlight (SL) and XNA development platforms. As a result, developers must start from scratch and re-develop the entire App.

Image source: Microsoft

But let developers "break defenses" "What's interesting is that two years later, Microsoft released a "new generation" mobile operating system-WP8. Although WP7.5 and WP8 look like twin brothers, Microsoft once again switched to a new Windows NT kernel and also added Windows Runtime (WinRT) as the software's operating environment and architecture. That's right, in just the past two years, Microsoft has given developers more strength.

Obviously, this approach of turning over the table after only two years will arouse the resentment of developers. What is the ambitious goal that makes Microsoft not hesitate to offend all developers? Should we switch to the new NT architecture?

Yes, it is for the unification of three screens.

Two days before the release of WP8, Microsoft launched Windows 8. Although the strong push for touch operations has caused resentment among users, both Windows 8 and WP8 use the NT kernel. This shared core technology is the key to a unified experience across devices. Windows 8 is for desktop and tablet devices, while WP8 is for smartphones. The core technology consistency between them lays the foundation for application compatibility and integration.

In addition, Microsoft launched a touch-optimized modern user interface (originally called Metro UI), which is reflected in Windows 8 and WP8. The purpose of this design is to provide a consistent user experience across different devices.

Image source: Microsoft

And on the developer side, Microsoft Developers are encouraged to use the tools and platforms it provides (such as Windows Runtime) to create apps that can run across Windows 8 and WP8. Microsoft's cloud services have also been integrated on these two platforms, further enhancing data and service connectivity between different devices. Of course, just three years later, Microsoft once again used the same method to "innovate" to support Windows 10 Mobile (Win10M).

But the real challenge for Microsoft is not the technical implementation behind "three-screen unification", but how to get users to accept this new concept. Although Microsoft's three-screen unified strategy is quite forward-looking in concept, the actual results in the market are uneven. The same App has a poor experience on the mobile platform, and no one cares about it on the desktop platform. So in 2016, Microsoft put "three-screen unification" into the shadows.

Was the unified operation wrong from the beginning?

From the current perspective, the concept of three-screen unification is actually still not outdated. But looking back at the promotion focus of three-screen unification, it is not difficult to find the reasons for the failure of three-screen unification.

First of all, the low competitiveness of Win10M will be the biggest reason why three-screen unification cannot be achieved. The purpose of three-screen unification is to connect the three screens of screen, computer and TV (Xbox), but Win10M's mobile performance is too awkward, causing the "three screens" to lose 1/3 of its space.

Secondly, the insufficient ecosystem and applications within the "three screens" also prevent the unification of three screens from reflecting its due ecological value. Three-screen unification is only applicable to the newly developed UWP software in the Microsoft App Store. The x86 software commonly used on computers is not suitable for three-screen unification. This is actually a pain point that Microsoft has always had:

No matter WP8, Windows 8 or later Win10M, they all face the problem of insufficient high-quality applications. The developer community is taking a wait-and-see attitude towards Microsoft's new platform, while users are reluctant to move due to a lack of favorite applications, forming a vicious cycle.

Image source: Microsoft

In addition, different forms of devices are Different interaction methods, users also have different needs for different devices. For example, the same Office suite should focus on playback, editing and remote control on the three platforms of TV, computer and mobile phone respectively, instead of remote control on TV, computer Display on mobile phone and edit on mobile phone.

In other words, at the application interaction level, the unification of three screens was wrong from the beginning.

#But in my opinion, these are not the real reasons for the failure of the three-screen unified concept. As time went by, Microsoft began to re-examine its direction - cloud computing and enterprise services became Microsoft's new focus. In the past, three-screen unification meant using the same set of software and the same set of interactions to process the same file on different platforms. In the new era, Microsoft hopes to allow the same user data to be "transmitted" on different platforms: emails seen on the mobile phone can be replied to on the computer, and movies downloaded on the computer can be played on the TV.

Instead of allowing the operations of different devices to interoperate, it is better to allow the data of different devices to interoperate.

Data interoperability is the right direction

Compared with rigid software transplantation, the design of data interoperability can be done in Realize the interconnection and interoperability of application data without affecting the original interaction mode of the device, thereby improving the overall efficiency of users on different platforms. Although compared with the application streaming solution, data interoperability will increase the user's learning cost to a certain extent, but considering that "multi-screen interoperability" itself is a reflection of users' pursuit of high efficiency, the approach of data interoperability is obvious to me. more suitable.

Secondly, data interoperability strengthens security and privacy protection. In an era when device-side AI has become mainstream, data interoperability can achieve a certain degree of cross-platform collaboration without uploading key user data.

Picture source: This site

Looking back at Microsoft’s “Three Screens” With the rise and fall of the concept of "unification", we can see a clearer future: data interoperability as the core of cross-platform collaboration. This is not only a change at the technical level, but also a reflection of a deep understanding of user needs and behavior patterns. In this multi-screen, highly interconnected era, users are no longer pursuing just the high performance of a single device, but smooth and seamless data flow and experience consistency across various devices.

Microsoft’s exploration in this area has experienced twists and turns, but every step is drawing a broader technological blueprint for us. Devices are no longer isolated individuals, but nodes where data and services flow. The interconnection between them not only improves efficiency, but also provides unlimited possibilities for innovation and personalized services.

And Microsoft’s new patent can realize the interconnection and interoperability of different devices to a certain extent before the vision of data interoperability is realized. This is a problem for Microsoft, which has lost its mobile ecosystem. Particularly important. Compared with ecosystems such as Apple and Google that have achieved cross-platform application data interoperability, Microsoft's patent is not just a correction of the past, but is actually more like a prospect for the future.

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