Not a while ago the folks at Windows Central reported that Microsoft was actually envisioning some sort of pen support on mobile devices, bringing along some leaked documentation and videos of an early Lumia 950 concept with pen support.
Today, ProtoBetaTest managed to get their hands on a Lumia prototype with an early implementation of pen support. The Lumia 950 as we know is quite different, actally boring compared to what the device could have been, even thought the device brought a lot of different and powerful features.
The guys at ProtoBetaTest made a video showcasing the pen functionality on the device, and even though is a bit rough it still looks good and quite functional considering the early state of the prototype development.
As of ProtoBetaTest, the device supports multiple pens and eraser, and it’s one of the earliest Lumia 950 prototype. The pen used in the video is the one from the Surface Pro 4, and the screen of the device appears to be using the same N-trig technology used in later Surface models.
To be honest, I feel almost disappointed such a great feature was pulled off, but maybe there was a good reason behind that, or that might be coming to a future device eventually, if there’s gonna be one.
The truth is, the Lumia brand is slowly dying, and if rumors are correct, Lumia production has stopped.
The Lumia brand got to death sentence the day Steve Ballmer decided for Microsoft to buy Nokia’s Mobile division. My source at Microsoft said the Lumia project development closed about a year ago, when internal testing of the 950 and 950XL was about to finish and devices almost ready for public, although they never were really ready for the public (eg: plastic cover, early firmware problems, “fake” water cooling system etc.).
My guess is also that Microsoft never saw this coming, and decided to let die the project, which until the acquisition, was going quite strong. The investment itself was good, but I can’t say the same on the way it was handled.
So what happens now? Well, Satya Nadella’s “Mobile first, cloud first” strategy will end up somewhere. Though the Microsoft Surface it’s one of the most secret team at Microsoft ( except VPs no one knows what they do), someone got tipped about the mysterious Surface Phone months ago, and it’s quite a savage because at least we know something great is coming.
Maybe the time of the unified Surface brand is coming, and the upcoming Windows 10 update plans to focus on Mobile, we will see a unified ecosystem of devices running Windows 10. Until that time, we can expect Lumia to slowly disappear until it’ll become just a step in Microsoft’s history.
