[blinkingled]

Wow. Parts of that demo really seem to be inspired from Android. The hamburger menu, the black navigation bar at the bottom, the slide out menus etc.

But the potential really is in the Phone->PC continuum. If I can take a beefy x86 phone (Intel seems to be inching closer to that reality) running windows and use it like phone most time and then dock it onto a big screen with keyboard and mouse - that really is a killer feature. It could change things in Microsoft's favor if they manage to get the integration and hardware parts right.

(I should say that the concept is not new - Motorola tried that with the Atrix - but it was underpowered hardware, flakey software and little integration that killed it. From the looks of it Microsoft seems to be geared to address all three rather well.)

[walterbell]

This future would benefit from universal, non-proprietary docking stations, for the same reason we have standardized plugs/sockets for power, ethernet, USB, etc.

[blinkingled]

Yep, and Microsoft still has the clout to push OEMs to make that happen.

[vidarh]

The new USB Type C standard can provide up to 100W of power, while at the same time letting you use it to send DisplayPort (and you can connect to HDMI or DVI devices with a simple adapter) signalling. And your network connection.

But with wireless charging + wireless data/display casting chances are it won't be that long before you won't need a wire for any of this most of the time.

[walterbell]

There are still some security advantages to dedicated KVM ports, compared to shared transports like wireless and USB.

[vidarh]

That may be so, but how many people do you think will care?

[walterbell]

The few with financially valuable digital assets?

[vidarh]

In my experience, the people I know with the most assets are also the most careless people I know when it comes to security (passwords includes initials + birth date, name of children, name of the family dog and similar...)

That includes several quite wealthy tech founders...