Ever since Windows Phone 7 came to the market there has been at least some speculation that the OS would have a modified cousin that would work on tablets.
Of course, we all know this tablet-version never happened and instead Microsoft decided to focus Windows 8 on working for both PCs and tablets.
Some of us are still a little sore about this, and I'm one of them.
Don't get me wrong, Windows 8 is not a bad idea at all, but Windows Phone 7 could have already been out for almost two years by the time that Windows 8 finally makes it to tablets.
Microsoft could already have an active tablet user base by now if they would have went this route.
Apparently, I'm not the only one with such a secret wish, since apparently Windows Phone developer, Social Ebola, decided to get a small look at what such a tablet might be like. How did he accomplish this?
He took a Windows PC and hooked up a MagicTouch USB monitor as a second screen. From there he opened up the multi-touch Windows Phone 7 emulator and dragged it over to the second screen.
The combination resulted in a tethered WP7 tablet experience- well sort of.
windows phone tablet
Obviously the emulator is somewhat limited and you can only go as far the USB cord will take you, but it is still kinda a cool look into what could have been.
While kind of cool, what I'd really like to see is some hacker figure out how to get a ROM copy of Windows Phone 7 working on a Android tablet or even HP's WebOS tablet.
How awesome would that be? Is it possible? Certainly it must be, at least in theory, but so far nothing like this has ever been done before.
This begs the question, if Microsoft did release WP7 tablets back then or even in the future (though I admit this is HIGHLY unlikely) could they co-exist with Windows 8 options? I personally think it is possible.
A WP7 tablet could cater to the low-end market for tablets ($125-$250) after Windows 8 releases, and could even offer a lower-end option to help Microsoft expand in the developing world where expensive Windows 8 tablets (that likely will cost over $300) just aren't practical.
Its also worth mentioning that although Windows Mobile and Windows CE were both based on the CE-core, they were technically different products and some PDAs ran WM while others (including those mini-notebooks of the late 90s and early 00s) ran CE.
Such a dual model seemed to work okay back then, so why not now?
I suppose while enjoyable to speculate, it really doesn't accomplish anything.
Just like talking about Microsoft Courier and how it got canceled doesn't really change anything. Microsoft's future is likely going to be more about getting Windows 8 and Windows v.next embedded into TVs, game systems, tablets, phones, and more.
Of course WP7 on smartphone will also be a big part of their OS future (at least until when/if Windows 8 and WP merge into one product).
Looking back though, do you think Microsoft was wrong to not create a tablet version of Windows Phone? Share your thoughts below.
Join the forum discussion on this post
