Is the Windows Phone on its way out?
Discussion
chris116 said:
JB! said:
AFAIK Microsoft called time on it end of last year?!
Work have just started rolling out Windows Phones too
Same here, whole company is now on Windows phones. We're changing to iPhones next I heard.Work have just started rolling out Windows Phones too
I don't understand why there isn't a corporate version of Android? Motorola phones come without half the fluff and surely, same as IOS can be locked down as required.
LordGrover said:
Surface phone isn't too far away... click.
That's a shame, because it looks chuffing huge. Maybe if it was further away it would look a useful size.One of the reasons I like(d) Windows Phone was that it was small, light and easy to use. But later iterations have, it seems become less in each of those categories. The replacement looks like an attempt to take on the competitors at their own game, having lost the previous round.
The article says, "So we’re all agreed that Microsoft can’t screw this one up, right?"
No, we're not.
Its failed because they tried and failed to make all devices work on windows 10, the aim was single unified OS that OS was supposed to be windows 10, the plan was to take the corporate market from blackberry by using the fact that you could use your phone instead of computer saving big companies millions, by just docking your phone, but something happened, it didn't work or a Microsoft had a change of direction and heart and it never materialised.
Don't expect a surface phone, I doubt that will happen.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-28440288
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/Continuum
Don't expect a surface phone, I doubt that will happen.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-28440288
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/Continuum
LordGrover said:
Surface phone isn't too far away... click.
Is windows phone dead? Yes, I suspect it is.There's really no point releasing another phone. the battle has been lost, the app situation is worse than it's ever been, and even releasing a phone demonstrably better than an iPhone and the best Android phone won't work.
Is Windows Mobile dead? Definitely not. Sounds like I'm being pedantic but let me explain.
Microsoft are rolling out Insider builds of Mobile along side big Windows builds. The development is active and ongoing.
Satya Nadella has been quite clear. Microsoft are retrenching (their words).
They now have in place a universal framework to write code for any windows platform, Xamarin to write code for any mobile device. I would imagine they are busy merging to the two to be able to write one app that will run on everything from iPhone, iPad, Android phone and tablet and any windows device. That is quite a compelling proposition for app writers. and of course the other by product of this, is that if apps for iOS and android are written in Xamarin, then you get the Windows mobile app almost for free.
They have also got full Windows running on ARM processors, so theoretically a fully functional PC in your pocket.
All that would be needed in this scenario is something new from Microsoft, a phone but not just a phone. Like the Surface Pro is a tablet, but not just a tablet.
What that would look like is anyone's guess, but if you look at the first video in the link provided by LordGrover above at 1 min 54 secs they show a phone that opens up into a mini tablet. For me at least that's the sort of device I would buy regardless of app ecosystem. I suspect I wouldn't be alone.
Whether that device is viable with current technology I don't know, but that kind of ground breaking device is, IMHO their only chance.
Their failings in my opinion are due to pursuing revenue as they had always done, OS licenses. They didn't "get" that revenue would be generated from Apps rather than OS sales.
If they had just open sourced Windows CE maybe the mobile world would be very different today. Steve Ballmer has a lot to answer for
If they had just open sourced Windows CE maybe the mobile world would be very different today. Steve Ballmer has a lot to answer for
IMO, the one thing that delayed the Surface Phone the most was Intel pulling the plug on its mobile chipset. 2017 was always the year that MS would release a whole new device due to the Nokia licencing deal holding them to the Lumia line, but with a not so quick rework Windows is now on ARM and so the plan continues. Expect MS to release a phone that breaks new ground like the Surface, the Surface book and Surface Studio broke new ground previously.
Expatloon said:
Windows smart phones were the technological equivalent of Windows ME/Vista/8, i.e. rubbish and doomed out of the box in other words.
I'm guessing you haven't used any of the more recent WP8 or W10M devices - the interface is cleaner and more consistent than it is on iOS or Android, it generally works a lot better, it has always been a slick OS even on lower spec devices (which you can't say for iOS or Android). The only issue with W10M is the lack of apps and the complete lack of devices.The only demand that I see for Windows Phone now are businesses that got sucked into a deal where O365 customers were offered hundreds, perhaps thousands of free or virtually free lumina's from Microsoft. What those businesses didn't realise is that Microsoft spun the impressionable IT guys a line saying how great the integration is into O365 and the ease of admin, but no-one in the real world actually want to use them. For employees whose business phone was also their personal phone, you would be understandably miffed if you were handed a shonky mid range lumia.
When I have the conversation with my customers to tell them that our apps have no roadmaps for Windows Mobile, they often get annoyed or angry. But they are the thickos buying into Microsoft's thinly veiled mass attempts to dump all the excess lunies on them.
I had a Lumia 935 2 years ago to see what the fuss was. Beautiful device, but the app store was a digital equivalent of a ransacked pound shop.
There's a reason everyone buys android or IOS!
When I have the conversation with my customers to tell them that our apps have no roadmaps for Windows Mobile, they often get annoyed or angry. But they are the thickos buying into Microsoft's thinly veiled mass attempts to dump all the excess lunies on them.
I had a Lumia 935 2 years ago to see what the fuss was. Beautiful device, but the app store was a digital equivalent of a ransacked pound shop.
There's a reason everyone buys android or IOS!
Edited by devnull on Thursday 9th March 11:39
devnull said:
The only demand that I see for Windows Phone now are businesses that got sucked into a deal where O365 customers were offered hundreds, perhaps thousands of free or virtually free lumina's from Microsoft. What those businesses didn't realise is that Microsoft spun the impressionable IT guys a line saying how great the integration is into O365 and the ease of admin, but no-one in the real world actually want to use them. For employees whose business phone was also their personal phone, you would be understandably miffed if you were handed a shonky mid range lumia.
When I have the conversation with my customers to tell them that our apps have no roadmaps for Windows Mobile, they often get annoyed or angry. But they are the thickos buying into Microsoft's thinly veiled mass attempts to dump all the excess lunies on them.
I had a Lumia 935 2 years ago to see what the fuss was. Beautiful device, but the app store was a digital equivalent of a ransacked pound shop.
There's a reason everyone buys android or IOS!
Yup. They are both utterly sWhen I have the conversation with my customers to tell them that our apps have no roadmaps for Windows Mobile, they often get annoyed or angry. But they are the thickos buying into Microsoft's thinly veiled mass attempts to dump all the excess lunies on them.
I had a Lumia 935 2 years ago to see what the fuss was. Beautiful device, but the app store was a digital equivalent of a ransacked pound shop.
There's a reason everyone buys android or IOS!
Edited by devnull on Thursday 9th March 11:39
t.The sound quality for music was/is much much better on my Windows mobile/nokia device than my Iphone.
Apps interface is much cleaner and easier to use on my windows device than on my iphone.
Settings menu is clearer and easier to work with and understand on my windows mobile.
My windows mobile/nokia is much harder to damage or break than my iphone which has twice had a broken screen once from being dropped +- 30cm onto a tiled floor.
I have had a number of android tablets and phones and they have all over time got gradually slower and slower and buggier and buggier unlike my windows mobile devices. Also worth note is that my iphone can be buggy and when there is an update it is monumentally persistant in trying to force me to update the phone.
Even when i tell it to ignore the update it immediately asks me to unlock the screen and then takes me to the install screen asking me to accept the update terms and conditions.
Yes windows mobile doesn't have 50 million apps, 49 million 900 thousand of which are minor duplicates of each other . Whooopdee doo.
Before microsoft decided to pull support for windows phone it had all the apps you could need "almost".
Windows phones are dead. On December 1 Microsoft sold the phone business to a new startup called HMD Global created by a couple of ex-Nokia guys and have leased them the Nokia name for 10 years. The new phones are made by Foxconn on their behalf and the sale called an end to Windows mobile.
craigjm said:
Windows phones are dead. On December 1 Microsoft sold the phone business to a new startup called HMD Global created by a couple of ex-Nokia guys and have leased them the Nokia name for 10 years. The new phones are made by Foxconn on their behalf and the sale called an end to Windows mobile.
Not quite, HMD global acquired the "Feature Phone" arm of Microsoft Mobile which was never Windows Mobile, essentially MS ended up with that division as part of the Nokia purchase. AFAIK it was never part of their long term roadmap, so they sold it on. KaraK said:
craigjm said:
Windows phones are dead. On December 1 Microsoft sold the phone business to a new startup called HMD Global created by a couple of ex-Nokia guys and have leased them the Nokia name for 10 years. The new phones are made by Foxconn on their behalf and the sale called an end to Windows mobile.
Not quite, HMD global acquired the "Feature Phone" arm of Microsoft Mobile which was never Windows Mobile, essentially MS ended up with that division as part of the Nokia purchase. AFAIK it was never part of their long term roadmap, so they sold it on. Gassing Station | Computers, Gadgets & Stuff | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff