In a special event at Microsoft's huge new store in London, the chief product officer for Microsoft's product group, Panos Panay, admitted that the company uses Android in its upcoming Surface Duo, because "the best operating system for this product is Android."
This recognition is noteworthy, because the Android operating system for mobile devices developed by Google is one of Microsoft's biggest competitors. In the past, the company tried to drop Android with its own mobile operating system is "Windows Mobile" but failed.
While Windows 10 Mobile no longer exists, it is tempting for Microsoft to seek to revive the operating systems in its new dual-screen device, so it is commendable that it went to the most popular Android operating system with being very open about the reason for this trend.
On the one hand, Microsoft seems to have acknowledged how difficult it is to compete with Android, which is currently the most widely used operating system on the planet - a nickname that Windows had for many years. The failure of Windows 10 Mobile, and its Windows phones, is likely to be a modest experience that the company does not rush to replicate.
It also makes sense, as Panay said, "We wanted to meet customers wherever they were. They were with Android." If potential customers are already using Android, "it's not worth building a rival solution from scratch to try to win them," and Microsoft obviously no longer thinks so.
For Surface Neo, Panay had the expected answer from Microsoft: "The best operating system for this product is clearly Windows."