Windows 10 Mobile officially launched this week with the release of the Lumia 950 smartphone from Microsoft. It includes the Continuum feature that allows the phone to be used like a PC when it is connected to a Display Dock. Now a new article sheds some light on how the Continuum feature was added to Windows 10 Mobile.
The Time.com article says that the first concept for what would be called Continuum was first proposed three years ago as a way to expand what a smartphone could do:
"Internally, the project became known as "Wizard and Tin Man," a nod to The Wizard of Oz. The smartphone is the wizard, as it brings brains to otherwise unintelligent screens. The name "Continuum" didn't come about until this year. "[The name was] interesting because all of us that grew up in the United States had an instant connection with this," says Peter Bergler, a principal group program manager at Microsoft. "Obviously Microsoft is quite a melting pot, and there are a lot of folks here to whom that meant nothing. So we had to introduce this whole Wizard of Oz concept to them."
After testing Continuum in focus groups, the team behind the project showed it to Windows and Device head Terry Myerson, who gave the go-ahead to move forward with it. The feature has already influenced one third-party smartphone maker:
"PC-maker Acer, for instance, initially intended to release an Android version of its Jade Primo phone before developing a version that ran Windows 10. Instead, it decided to go with Windows."
