• Diyan
• On July 19, 2014

We have recently informed you that Nokia McLaren, a flagship device with new 3D Touch interface, was supposed to go official in late 2014 along with GDR2 software update. Now WPCentral is reporting citing unnamed sources, that McLaren won’t happen as Microsoft has completely cancelled this device. The report argues that McLaren might be too costly for commercial launch while the 3D touch technology is not more than a gimmick.

This news follows recent reorganizations and layoffs within the company, and Microsoft’s decision to kill most of its side-projects and focus on Windows Phone platform.

Redmond has promised there will be new flagship devices before the end of the year, but now it seems we won’t see the 3D touch interface. The APIs for this interface however were included in the latest 8.1 SDK so developers were able to test real apps with the technology.

Microsoft has been exploring touchless technologies since 2008, so this is not a new area for the company. Several projects were brought to the prototype phase but these products were not completely ready for consumer release.

According to Tom Warren from The Verge, Microsoft hasn’t abandoned the 3D Touch, but only the McLaren project. That means we can see such a device sometimes in the future.