I’ll wager at least a paycheck that MS will never officially allow Google apps and the play store on the Android subsystem regardless. They may offer apps through their own app store at some point in the medium future.
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And I would not blame them. I do not believe I will ever forgive Google for their dirty tricks to keep services off of Windows Phone.
e.g. (one among many occurrences):
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+1
…and then one of the few good nav apps on WP was Waze, which Google bought, and promptly stopped updating on WP until it finally broke. Grrrr
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Game, set, match for Apple then - no way MS will even come in third place in the tablet-sphere with that crappy Amazon store…
And we already know they can’t build a store themselves. Yeah, game over.
I’m thinking the exact opposite. If Samsung, Google and Microsoft is going to have any chance as Apple is going forward in leaps and bounds they will need total integration that goes beyond Stage Manager (we are seeing it in its infancy) and that will require seamless integration between productivity in Windows and fun and games in Android. They need to find a model for sharing revenue with developers so prices for Android apps can remain low. Maybe buy up one of the major art apps and have it removed from Apple App Store?
They aren’t going to score any points playing defense.
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Great observation Kuma, except for one nagging doubt that I have - I don’t think Microsoft is committed to anything but SAAS (including Windows 11) and cloud services. I don’t think they really care if Apple runs away with any segment of the market so long as they get a cut - same goes for Google. Looks like Samsung is holding the bag…
But I’m filtering this through the North American lens, and large swaths of the planet are not beholding to Apple, if for no other reason than the outrageous Apple tax…
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I don’t think they see themselves in a weak position. Each has their strongholds which Apple has little or no part of. Apple’s US stronghold is only half the mobile market, Android the other half, and outside of North America and a few other places it’s just a boutique brand. When/if Apple encroaches on their strongholds they’ll be blindsided. Never saw it coming, just like the M1.
They are all only looking at the next quarter results.
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Yeah, I guess the perspective is a bit different here. My thinking is that there are people within those three organizations that realize they are confronted with one cold blooded challenge and refuse to sid idly by while Nadella is fiddling his thumbs.
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Sadly that may be a very valid point.
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Will the brydge match the SP8?
Meanwhile, at Redmond: Today I learned that it is Apple who reads our wishlists and has been playing the long game with us all along. Microsoft could give a flying flip flop about these fanciful lists as long as they have us hooked on Office 365 and their other Microsoft subscription services. The only reason their Surface Go was a Surface Air lookalike was sheer dumb luck. Intel had to offload all their old stockpiles of unsold Skylake dies that nobody wanted, and Intel, having made a blood pact with Microsoft, held them to their pact and fire sold them to them just to keep investors happy. #HotTakeMondays
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Theres another version that fits the pro 8. It’s thicker, so they’re not interchangeable.
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That’s true and you will damage the case of the Surface in either case if you try to use one with the other. It’s too loose and scuffs the case if you use the Pro 8 brydge with the Pro X and you can squeeze the Pro 8 in to the brydge meant for the X if you push forecfully enough, but you will again scuff the sides.
That comes first hand from a customer that tried to do both 
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But then, how do you charge the slim pen 2? Nah! I’m more than happy with the KB cover. Thanks anyway.
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I got a separate pen charger cradle. My original keyboard cover died - stopped typing and no longer charged the pen. I decided I didn’t need a $160 way to charge my pen when I could get a charging cradle for much less and use my folding BT keyboard. I don’t use my pen often enough for it to be a problem. The thing I miss most is the built in tray to have it always with me. But I’ve gotten used to my travel bag including the folding keyboard, a slim mouse, and a selection of pens to support whatever tablet I grab on my way out.
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Not that I expect there to be any change from a consumer point of view, but if there’s any developers on here, there’s a preview of an ARM-native Visual Studio today.
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Amazon Prime Day Fire Sale!
It’s the SQ1, 16gb, 512gb model BUT $859
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LTE model as well. That is a pretty great price. Hopefully, they’re making way for the GoPro (I know … I know).