No More Windows/Xbox Franken-Handheld?

Feeling the heat from the success of the handheld Steam Deck gaming
PC, Microsoft let some leaks out a few months ago that it was working
on a combined XBox/Windows device that would compete better in some
undefined way.

I never understood what the synergy was going to be in such a
Frankenproduct. And now it seems Microsoft might be giving up on this
idea anyway, or at least postponing it.

Looks like it is going back to trying to improve the usability of
native Windows itself on the handheld form factor. In the early days
of the Steam Deck a few years ago, it was showing off something called
“Windows Handheld Mode”, but that never came to production. It looked
like the idea had been abandoned in favour of this Xbox+Windows hack.

So it is giving up on one idea that wouldn’t work, to go back to
another idea that wouldn’t work?? This doesn’t sound like a company
that has any coherent strategy to compete in this market.

<https://www.tomshardware.com/software/windows/microsoft-shelves-first-party-xbox-handheld-to-work-on-windows-11-portable-performance>