Is the Windows Phone on its way out?

[13m]

I went into Car Phone wehouse this afternoon hoping to pick up a dual sim Lumia. All they had was two single sim, whereas they once seemed to stock a much broader range.

Is the WP about to disappear and should I jump ship before it's too late?

[nyt]

Sadly it's hard to see a future for Windows phone.
No one is writing apps for it and only Microsoft seems to be making the hardware.

It was my favourite phone OS too.


Take a look at the 2nd tier Chinese android phones. I now have a oneplus - a very impressive phone for the price.

[fido]

Nokia is back with the Nokia 6, albeit another Chinese-made Android phone ..

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_6

[Russ35]

nyt said:

Sadly it's hard to see a future for Windows phone.
No one is writing apps for it and only Microsoft seems to be making the hardware.

HP have the Elite x3
Alcatel have the Idol 4S in the US and in Europe come June as the Idol 4 Pro

Both high spec (and hiigh price)

No idea if either are duel sim

[13m]

I suppose I could keep a single sim lumia and test drive a second phone for the other sim.

Is android a better way to go than apple? The biggy for me is being able to sync outlook on my desktop with the calendar on my phone, without needing to plug it in - i.e. via the cloud.

[Yipper]

Microsoft has pretty much exited smartphones.

[AJB88]

fido said:

Nokia is back with the Nokia 6, albeit another Chinese-made Android phone ..

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_6

????


OP asking about Windows Phone.

[sjg]

99.6% of new smartphones are iOS or Android.

I know quite a few people who were very enthusiastic about Windows Phone. None use one as their primary device any more.

[Foliage]

Yipper said:

Microsoft has pretty much exited smartphones.

Yep done, also no longer do a band,

[basherX]

sjg said:

99.6% of new smartphones are iOS or Android.

I know quite a few people who were very enthusiastic about Windows Phone. None use one as their primary device any more.

Replaced my Lumia with a (return to an) iPhone yesterday. It was only a 650 so a bit underpowered really but although it is my favourite OS the thing that did for me in the end was a chronic lack of apps and even those it did have obviously being under invested

[egor110]

basherX said:

sjg said:

99.6% of new smartphones are iOS or Android.

I know quite a few people who were very enthusiastic about Windows Phone. None use one as their primary device any more.

Replaced my Lumia with a (return to an) iPhone yesterday. It was only a 650 so a bit underpowered really but although it is my favourite OS the thing that did for me in the end was a chronic lack of apps and even those it did have obviously being under invested

What apps couldn't you get?

For me other than strava windows had everything i needed , and the downloadable maps , no data sat nav was brilliant.

[techguyone]

It's out, get an iphone if you like to spend money like water or an android if not, windows phone is the way of the dodo

[JB!]

AFAIK Microsoft called time on it end of last year?!

Work have just started rolling out Windows Phones too

[basherX]

egor110 said:

What apps couldn't you get?

For me other than strava windows had everything i needed , and the downloadable maps , no data sat nav was brilliant.

Downloadable maps was good, I agree. And it really wasn't all bad. The camera was good, I liked the integration with One Drive as well as the MS Office functionality and the work aspects were spot on in terms of delivery of work email, scheduling etc (although when we deployed Skype for Business, which we use extensively at work for messaging and calling, on mobile for a trial the message from MS was that although they thought it would work well on iOS and Android they were expecting it to be a bit bumpy on their own phone!).

But offsetting that the frustrations that I can remember were: iPlayer has been/is being removed, as has eBay. I couldn't get the Barclays online app to work properly despite hours on the phone and in the branch, the Netflix app won't allow downloads (will on Android and iOS), Edge started really flaky but had improved a bit by the end (no Chrome app nor any other browser I could get to work as well) but never did display PH very well for me in classic view, Twitter app worked in terms of the timeline but I never did figure out how to get a full search to work without trawling through loads of old tweets, WhatsApp would show notifications very occasionally meaning I had to actively check it like some lovesick teenage, never found a WeMO app, Fidelity didn't do an app, I couldn't ever find a pedometer that worked properly, LinkedIn app often wouldn't open.

And finally the predictive text drove me to despair at times but that may just be the rapidly approaching onset of middle age.

[noell35]

I had to use my old Windows phone the other week because I smashed my Android phone.

I'd forgotten how good the bluetooth was on Windows compared to Android in respect of navigation and text alerts interrupting the radio. My Android phone doesn't work as well (although I'm no technical genius so there may be a way to do it)

There is a very good Outlook app for Android. Maybe you could try it out on a friends phone to see if it does what you want with regards to the Calendar?

When I saw that the iplayer app was being discontinued it did make me think that Windows phone might have had it's day.

[13m]

I have just been into Nottingham's Carphone and they have done a stock check. Only 3 Lumias of any type anywhere in the area. That says something.

I am typing this on a secondhand 520 that I bought for 30 quid from CEX. I am as keen on buying second hand phones as I would be second hand socks. But I had to get up and running.

A rethink needed methinks.

[fido]

AJB88 said:

????

OP asking about Windows Phone.

Yes, it was a bit of a diversion / Left-field suggestion(!) but I thought one of the selling points of the Windows Phone was that it started off as a Nokia product.

[grumbledoak]

I got a cheap Lumia 950 to postpone the inevitable switch to Andrapple, but they don't seem to be available now.

Sadly, Windows Phone is looking like Monty Python's Parrot. A shame, as Windows Phone was great, and so was Win 8 on a tablet. But they made such a hash of everything under Sinofski that the only way forward was down and out and maybe come back later.

Assuming anyone still trusts them enough to buy another MS platform.

[55palfers]

EE, my service provider recently contacted me to advise me the EE app will stop working on my Windows phone very soon.

Customer service?

[QuartzDad]

egor110 said:

What apps couldn't you get?

For me other than strava windows had everything i needed , and the downloadable maps , no data sat nav was brilliant.

My mobile has been Windows since the days of 6.5. I really, really like it but I'm pretty close to giving up now. Just logged into 'Your apps' and the list of defunct ones is pretty depressing:

Here Maps
Hilton
Amazon
Hotel Tonight
iPlayer
eBay
First Direct

Whatsapp and Waze are the only ones that I use that are still working.