CES 2024 is just around the corner, running from the 9th to the 12th of January 2024. In typical CES tradition, product announcements have been coming in the build-up to the actual exhibits.
One of the announcements that caught my eye was this one from LG, announcing the DukeBox. I’ll just let the LG marketing department try and sell the DukeBox to you:
[A]n innovative audio product that seamlessly combines the charm of vacuum tube audio with cutting-edge transparent OLED panel technology[, it] aims to deliver a new music experience by combining old-fashioned sensibilities with state-of-the-art technology … [w]ith front-facing speakers at the bottom and a 360-degree speaker at the top. The transparency of the OLED display can be adjusted, creating a captivating visual effect reminiscent of a vacuum tube audio system enclosed in a transparent glass box.
Yes, that’s a lot of marketing jargon for something that sounds like an amped-up HomePod or Sonos speaker.
But look at the promotional image. Just look at it.
I don’t need it, and it’s likely a little too rich for my blood, but the DukeBox actually looks really neat.
Image credit: LG Electronics
And then another item in the CES news stream caught my eye.
Ahead of CES, Dell announced a new lineup for the XPS line of laptops. As far as product refreshes go, this felt rather extensive. But in among the specification improvements and new screen size, came a slight change to the keyboard that took me by surprise: The Copilot key. (Seen to the right of the right Alt key in the image below.)
Image credit: Dell
And then I recalled seeing an article on The Verge about the Copilot key. I hadn’t paid much attention when I first saw it but in light of what I’d just seen, I figured it was worth a read.
(Side bar: In case you don’t know what Copilot is, it is described by Microsoft as “an AI-powered intelligent assistant that helps you get answers and inspirations from across the web, supports creativity and collaboration, and helps you focus on the task at hand.”)
So I got reading to see what it was all about. Until I got to a paragraph that opened with:
If Windows Copilot isn’t available in your country just yet, the Copilot key will launch Windows Search instead.
I did a double-take.
“If Copilot isn’t available in your country just yet? What? Surely, there has to be a mistake.” I thought to myself.
So I went to the announcement from Microsoft to confirm. And, there, right at the bottom of the page:
Timing of Copilot feature delivery and availability varies by market and device.
Almost beside myself in disbelief, I tried to find out what the availability of Copilot is. An FAQ on the Copilot explainer page caught my eye.
Question: When will Microsoft Copilot be available?
Answer: Copilot in Windows (in preview) is rolling out gradually within the latest update to Windows 11 in select global markets.
Screenshot of Copilot FAQs
In preview? In preview??
All this fuss about “the first significant change to the Windows PC keyboard in nearly three decades” and the headline feature is in preview?
Did nobody at any level of a multi-trillion dollar company not think that it might be bad form to push their “ecosystem partners” to include a button that might not work reliably?
I’m probably reading too much into this but let me paint a scenario for you.
You’ve just bought yourself a new keyboard, laptop or desktop PC (bundled with a keyboard). You see this button that looks unfamiliar, so you decide to check it out.
You press the key and you’re greeted with the Windows Search interface. The same interface that you can access using any one of the following:
- Windows key + S key combination.
- Opening the Start menu and starting to search for whatever it is you’re searching for.
- On the taskbar, clicking into the Search input field (or, depending on your settings, clicking on the Search icon), whose only purpose is to launch Windows Search.
So you dismiss the button as redundant, especially if you’re used to any of the above methods. (I use option 2.)
Now, it might be that the Copilot key is only included on keyboards and computers sold in regions where Copilot is available, but that seems like a logistics headache that many OEMs would wish to avoid.
More than anything, I worry that this could end up being a situation similar to Cortana, the virtual assistant that shipped with Windows before dying a slow, painful death and being replaced by Copilot.
Cortana also started out with a slow rollout to select regions. I distinctly remember changing my region to the United States so that I could experiment with Cortana on my Windows Phone and laptop simply because Cortana was unavailable in Kenya. (There’s actually a Dell support page entitled, “Why isn’t the Microsoft Windows 10 Cortana application in my region or language?”)
While Cortana was eventually made available in Kenya, it took a ridiculous amount of time and had nowhere near the same level of utility as the version I had experienced many moons prior.
Cortana had nowhere near the same sort of backing that Copilot, and AI in general, has at Microsoft right now. But I worry that Microsoft might be so focused on the future, so focused on what Copilot can be, they might forget about the here and now. I worry that Microsoft might be so focused on the potential of AI, so caught up in the AI hype, they fail to learn from mistakes made in the past.
So, Microsoft, what’s the plan?