Microsoft promised an Android 11 update for the Surface Duo before the end of 2021, but the company has failed to deliver.
The Surface Duo is Microsoft’s ambitious attempt to take on foldable devices. Unlike its previous attempts at a smartphone, the Duo runs Android, combining the world’s most popular mobile OS with Microsoft’s ecosystem of software and services.
Original Surface Duo owners were waiting on an update to Android 11, which Microsoft promised to deliver before the end of 2021. Unfortunately for consumers, the new year has come and gone without an update, an update that promises to bring the V1 Duo closer to the V2 model, in terms of features and stability.
Windows Central’s Zac Bowden placed the blame squarely on Microsoft’s mishandling of the situation.
I’ve said this before, but Microsoft is the problem with Surface Duo. If the Surface Duo was a Samsung, Google, or Apple product, you can bet that those companies would have done everything in their power to fix up the product within the first few months of it being on the market. They would have been responsive about issues, and would’ve kept its customers assured that improvements and fixes were on the way.
Bowden also makes the case that if Microsoft wants the Surface Duo to be taken seriously, it first needs to take the device seriously itself.
Microsoft is going to be the sole reason this product ultimately fails if it doesn’t start taking Surface Duo more seriously. Surface Duo 2 launched in a much better state, which hopefully means that a Surface Duo 3 will be even better out of the gate whenever that launches. But now Microsoft needs to prove to its existing customers that it’s going to properly support Duo V1 and V2 with new features, bug fixes, and improvements on a regular basis throughout 2022.
Hopefully Microsoft learns from this misstep and corrects course. The Duo is too unique of a device to let fall by the wayside.