Windows 10X: two years of previews, zero releases
Microsoft cancelled Windows 10X before it ever shipped
The market's verdict: +2.3% on MSFT in the week after.
What actually happened
On May 18, 2021, Microsoft officially cancelled Windows 10X, the lightweight dual screen Windows it had teased since 2019, alongside the Surface Neo that was built to run it and never shipped either. The announcement spun the burial as leveraging learnings into Windows 11, which is where 10X's centered taskbar and simplified design did end up, minus the product anyone was promised. Developers and dual screen optimists waited two years for a thing that turned out to be a theme. The Neo remains a prototype in a case somewhere, presumably still booting.
This one is officially acknowledged.
They did it more than once
Killed the forward-looking tablet in 2010, killed the forward-looking OS in 2021.
Links
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Impact
- The Verge (publication)
↳ caused by Windows 10X cancellation (May 2021)
Timeline
- May 18, 2021 Stood by it Microsoft stood by it.