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Microsoft's Windows Phone Platform Is Dead (windows10update.com)
Ammalgam writes: Tom Warren at the Verge today gave voice to what a lot of other technology analysts and today definitively declared that Microsoft's Windows Phone platform is dead. This largely based on the abysmal adoption numbers released in Microsoft's most recent earnings report. Mr. Warren articulates the obvious by stating: "With Lumia sales on the decline and Microsoft's plan to not produce a large amount of handsets, it's clear we're witnessing the end of Windows Phone. Rumors suggest Microsoft is developing a Surface Phone, but it has to make it to the market first. Windows Phone has long been in decline and its app situation is only getting worse. With a lack of hardware, lack of sales, and less than 2 percent market share, it's time to call it: Windows Phone is dead. "
Now this news should not be surprising to anyone who has watched the slow decline of Windows Phone. Last December, in an article on Windows10update.com, Onuora Amobi also wrote off the platform. In this case, his analysis was based on the nonconformity of the Microsoft user interface to Apple and Android's widely adopted aesthetic appeal. He wrote "I believe Windows Phone is dead. Kaput. Finished. Over. Done. ... Windows 10 is successful in part because it's a return to Windows 7 in many ways and that's what made the consumers happy. One of the definitions of insanity is "doing the same thing over and over again but expecting a different result". This is exactly what Microsoft is doing and it's insane. Over 90% of Microsoft's desired audience like the look and feel of iPhones and Android devices. They do – it's not good or bad – it just is what it is. They spend their money on those two user interfaces."
Now this news should not be surprising to anyone who has watched the slow decline of Windows Phone. Last December, in an article on Windows10update.com, Onuora Amobi also wrote off the platform. In this case, his analysis was based on the nonconformity of the Microsoft user interface to Apple and Android's widely adopted aesthetic appeal. He wrote "I believe Windows Phone is dead. Kaput. Finished. Over. Done. ... Windows 10 is successful in part because it's a return to Windows 7 in many ways and that's what made the consumers happy. One of the definitions of insanity is "doing the same thing over and over again but expecting a different result". This is exactly what Microsoft is doing and it's insane. Over 90% of Microsoft's desired audience like the look and feel of iPhones and Android devices. They do – it's not good or bad – it just is what it is. They spend their money on those two user interfaces."
You know The Verge?...That's a fucking iVerge!
Shame - I actually liked the fact it was doing something different and wasn't an iOS clone. Had a chance to play with one very briefly when a friend bought it, and I thought it worked quite well.
I'm an Apple ecosystem person at the moment, but I'm definitely in for seeing alternatives and I'm also not on the Win10 hate train - I quite like it, and it would be nice to see some of its features well integrated into a mobile platform as well.
Some random blogger said so!
Recent news suggests that Microsoft is about to cram their current Windows 10 phones full of bloatware in order to make up for their horrible market share decline. TripAdvisor is going to be the first ad implemented: http://www.pcworld.com/article...
Sucks for those WP fans that tried to be loyal and support their chosen platform, but Microsoft ain't never gonna change from their old ways.
I can't find the "news" in the headline!
Blackberry is dead too.
As stated when they bought Nokia... Nokia + Windows = NoWin
Long live to ... Android!
Sent as ripples into the electromagnetic field. No single photon has been harmed in the process.
And this is what you get for sinking Nokia!
To happen on your phone. We dont Windows phone for one reason we have a choice. We dont really on the PC.
Linux if you are techie OSX if you want a whole new machine.
Most use laptop Hackintosh good luck with the battery techie much.
And so no real choice but you can bet the second there is the same thing will happen to the rest of Microsoft and well deserved it will be.
Need to make an X86-64 phone or ARM with full x86-64 VM.
OR OR at the very least no app store lock in on Windows RT
This sounds like "Less market-share than an Android. No apps. Lame."
Windows Phone is dead when Microsoft announces that it's dead.
People have been loudly declaring that Windows Mobile 6.5 is dead for the last 7 years. Meanwhile, I just added new features and functionality to a WM6.5 application, for a company that continues to buy WM6.5 devices. One of these days, I'm sure we'll update the whole thing to a W10M app (probably even UWA), once some replacement devices hit the market. Why? Because Microsoft, that's why. And because Android isn't up to the task of handling anything that WM6.5 still gets used for, and when it finally does get there, W10M will have a massive performance advantage. (Rule of thumb: At any given time, the current version of Android is on-par with Windows CE/Mobile/Embedded Handheld/Phone/whatever of about 5 years ago in terms of performance and stability.)
So pundits can declare whatever they want. I'll believe it when it actually happens.
TL;DR: Pundits gonna pundit.
MS has already stated that they will continue to develop and support Windows Phone OS. This article is just fear mongering. The platform is not going anywhere.
They really have no other choice anyway. It would be foolish to give up on the platform because it can be used for IoT and tablets as well and it is also allows them to be more agile if things ever change. Not that I see them changing in the short term, but who knows, the pendulum may swing back into MS's favor in time and if it does, they will have the OS and infrastructure ready for it.
Anyway, I will continue to use a Windows Phone because I like the interface. The lack of apps is not a concern for me.
In addition, the fact that Windows Phone OS has such a low market share helps ensure its security as well since most malicious software and exploits will be developed for Android and iOS.
My eyes reflect the stars and a smile lights up my face.
I know this is being pedantic, but I really can't fucking stand it when people use that fucking dumb quote about the definition of insanity.
My friend works at a Sprint store. They have a small stock of Microsoft phones in the back and no demo units out in front. No one in the last year has ever asked for a Microsoft phone. The employees have no incentives to sell the phone.
And do let the door hit you in the ass as you leave.
I like it. I don't need all the apps every other platform has, but I admit I would like some of them. However the big story is lack of consumer choice and the inevitable stagnation of progress.
Two competitors is not enough. I like Coke. I Like Pepsi. But wouldn't it be sad if there was no Dr. Pepper.
Microsoft has only themselves to blame.
I hated the flippy tiles when I first saw them. Then someone thought it would be GENIUS to force the metro UI down our throats. Windows 10 they exclaimed "the start menu is back!". Well, it's not. They just took the "flippy tiles" and made them FLY OUT from the pseudo start menu! THANKS!!!!!
Someone, or a whole group of people at MS need to be fired immediately like the excision of a toxic freaking glioblastoma before the host is entirely dead.
I understand they were trying to do "touch", but they should pay closer attention to their own studies that were done ages ago with the Pre-Windows95 tablet based computers and touch screens. Gorilla Arm should have been enough to make them realize there should be a UI mode for tablets and a mode for desktops. Trying to force the tablet interface on the desktop was fantastically idiotic.
Yup, the Windows phone got Zuned. Shouldn't be a huge surprise, customers are tired of being treated by a cash register by Microsoft, time to be treated like a cash register by Apple and Google instead.
Website Just Down For Me? Find out
So it would be sad if they go. It is beating Android on battery life and also has many OS functions that I only find in custom Android roms. For example you can switch off notification sounds and messages individually per app. Also the standard email application in Android is a joke compared to Windows phone email. And it has built-in offline maps that are used in apps too.
The lack of a few apps is a problem if you need these.
Clearly, it's just resting.
(NetCraft confirms it!)
... until MICROSOFT says it's dead. Some online clickwhore doesn't get to decide these things, least of all The Verge.
Netcraft confirms it: Windows phone is dying.
Was it ever alive?
I sit next to a box of Lumia's that someone bought for the school I work for before I started. They were only ever used as... well... phones. Nobody ever even tried to log in and use apps on them. And when I started two years ago, they'd not been used in over a year. Recently they were given to me as they'd been "sitting in a box" in someone's office collecting dust, and had been replaced with bog-standard dial-only phones.
My tech had one when he first started here - but he was 19 and naive. Within days of seeing what a real phone did (and not crashing his on-screen keyboard like his one did all the time), he changed his contracts.
The only other one I've ever seen was a teacher's at a previous school - who knew nothing about them and bought it because it "had Skype". She never managed to collect her email or anything else reliably and so never used anything that it could do.
That's out of literally HUNDREDS of adults that I know who come to me with all their tech problems, all the new-starters whose phones I set up with our email etc., all the parents and kids that I see every day about anything even vaguely technical. I must touch several hundred different phones a year, and the majority are almost 50:50 iPhone and Samsung, with the rest being cheap knock-offs and less common brands.
But Windows phones? Honestly? I've touched more Palm Pilots and Windows CE devices in the last year. And to be honest, they probably worked better and did more.
(Funniest thing ever was trying to get a WPA key into a WIndows phone where the on screen keyboard crashes, and then trying to modify the key so it didn't use the numbers that you couldn't get to, then finally getting it online and finding out that the "Update" button not only would never fix the problem, but also that it never actually did anything... it would download for over an hour, reboot, and be exactly the same... this was THREE MONTHS after the tech discovered that it was sucking up all his data trying to download the update and his phone company just wrote off the data charges the second he mentioned "Windows phone" because they were so accustomed to it).
Windows will continue to sell on the desktop as long as they remember to keep it productive. I need Windows so I can get work done. On the other hand, phone interfaces sell the majority of their devices by appealing to the part of the consumer's brain that wants to pull one out at dinner and have their acquaintances ooh and ahh over it. Windows is for getting work done, and smartphones are for getting laid. Two very different requirements.
"I have never let my schooling interfere with my education." - Mark Twain
I thought the Windows Phone UI was pretty good. Certainly better than the Android UI, which I never liked. I suppose I consider the iOS UI in between the two.
I'm guessing the fragmentation of Android devices means I never picked up an Android device and felt that it worked the same as other Android devices. So those differences grated on me. I haven't used WP in a while. but it was pretty easy for me to get to the things I needed quickly.
Your ad here. Ask me how!
Or as Nokia would have called it, out of the frying pan, into the fire.
SURELY NOT!!!!!
iPhone sucks from a power user perspective. I could never stand the small screen even if that's fixed with the new generation devices, and then the software itself is crippled because Apple forces power user features to be disabled.
Android versions of identical software tends to have more features as such, but the problem I have is the platform is stale. It doesn't improve generation after generation. It's also slow and glitchy. Estimates are the software is about 10 times slower thanks to Java. I like my Android phone but wish it were faster and smoother as a result.
The only alternative on the market would of been Windows 10 Phone but it's been announced as dead.
Only issue I had with Windows is Microsoft killed off the head end devices and device choice became scarce. I tried out a low-end phone and while it wasn't terribly bad, it could have been better. Only problem I had software wise with the platform was the lack of Google Apps such as YouTube. I upload and view plenty of YouTube, and Windows Phone is limited to using a web browser to use the site currently, which is not as nice.
The potential of Windows Phone is nice- by having a full version of Windows, you could potentially run all your Windows Apps including traditional Windows 32 ones wherever you went.
obamasweapon.com
With a lack of hardware, lack of sales, and less than 2 percent market share, it's time to call it: Windows Phone is dead.
If less than two percent market share really matters, here's a modest prediction: Martin O'Malley's Presidential campaign will be next.
The word "Windows" is a crappy name for a desktop OS, but at least the desktop OS *has* windows.
Windows Phone has nothing to do with windows, and if anything, they've been trying to take the windows out of the desktop OS as well.
The name just isn't catchy. But Microsoft used the name because it thinks since people have Windows computers, that their love for desktop Windows will transfer to phones.
Except that:
- Most people probably don't understand their Dell, Toshiba, etc. computer runs Windows. Ask your average non-technical person what their OS is and they will probably more likely than not say the brand name of their computer. Typical end users don't give a shit about Windows. Many end users probably don't even realize the Windows key on their systems is a window.
- No one LIKES Windows except technical people who get paid to set it up or maintain it. Everyone PUTS UP with Windows and its shit. Even though it is far less shitty than it was in the 9x/DOS days. Microsoft did a really good thing by NOT naming the Xbox the "Windows Game System."
- Your average end user is now more immersed in phones and how the UI there operates. I gave a laptop to a family I know for Christmas. They still haven't bothered to hook it up. Because they use their iPhones/iPads for everything. Microsoft keeps touting the "Windows Experience" here and there but no one outside of people who have to use Windows for work or games gives a shit. It made sense for Microsoft to twist their UI towards how phones work but people *still* *hate* *Windows.*
Microsoft has to understand that outside of the enterprise and Xbox space no one likes Windows or Microsoft. It's a necessary evil to many people. They need to stop using the Windows name on products.
Not ashamed to admit it. I loved my giant yellow Lumia 1520 and the HTC One isn't so either. I find the Metro UI (whatever it's called these days) to be really pleasant to use. In a way I like being the black sheep of mobile users, my phone solves the problems I need it to solve handily and looks good doing it and it doesn't look like the phones of everyone else.
Plenty of iOS devices have gone through our household and I resent how there's still a lingering dependency on them because of old iTunes libraries requiring them. I resent the iTunes interface and how poorly designed it is; a miscarriage on a dinner plate is more appealing than that shitty software. It feels like the whole paradigm is a way to fuck over people.
Android strikes me as a mass consumer oriented product which is probably why it's been so successful. Conformal and uninspiring in every way.
It'd be a shame if the whole Windows Phone platform just died off. I've always told everyone good things about it.
Do you have any idea how much money just 2% of the US mobile market is?
2% of the US market is still 6.5 million subscribers.
If you sell a new one every 2 years at $400/each, thats still almost 3 billion dollars a year in revenue. Drop it to $200/phone and its still 1.3b. In ONLY America. Then theres the rest of the world.
Just because some moron at some shitty magazine makes an ignorant statement doesn't make it news for nerds any more than Donald Trump talking about tech is news for nerds.
As far as every number indicates, the business is profitable. Its not an iPhone, but it still makes money. Killing it would be stupid. Selling it might be more profitable, but killing it would just be utterly stupid.
Did this guy work at GM when they decided to stop selling the only 2 profitable brands they had as well? Idiot.
Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
'One of the definitions of insanity is "doing the same thing over and over again but expecting a different result".'
Yeah, we've all heard that one. Not new, not fresh, not insightful, and not even all that accurate. Can we bury it now, please?
It's pretty hard to expect a big marketshare for a phone manufacturer that does not release a top-tier device for over two years. Before the 950 and 950 XL, the last phone that they released that had a shot at fighting for the top tier was the 1520, which was released in October, 2013.
On the other hand, Windows Phone has pretty decent marketshare in other countries, seeing double digit marketshare in places where flagship phones aren't what everyone buys (e.g., much of Europe).
Microsoft's failure has been to launch a true flagship for the US; the Lumia 950 was clearly a device that was released because they needed something rather than a real attempt at taking the mantle -- it's a fan device that does not even run on Verizon (or Sprint, but no one really cares about that). But even that might become less relevant as companies like AT&T move to no contracts and upfront phone purchases.
Still, Microsoft truly needs the mobile front to help to push their universal apps, which are much friendlier to High DPI displays as well as touch devices. If the Surface Phone falls on its face, then they'll just reboot the device again and again. Losing billions in profits to Android and iOS is one thing, but losing relevance to its home base is something much worse and that's what lacking a mobile device would lead them too.
I think windows phone had a lot to like; the performance was great, even so that the only reason to get a flagship phone was basically for the camera. The day-to-day performance didn't matter much. It's a shame MS themselves basically killed the platform by rebooting it twice when things were just going better. Once by going WP7 to WP8 and killing app compatibility, and again by going to WP10.
Thank you for selling the long-doomed platform before it was completely driven into the ground.
Yours, happy Finnish Nokia shareholder since about 2012.
I want to play Free Market with a drowning Libertarian.
Guessing this puts MS for the choice whether they want to:
a) Keep flogging a dead horse, and push phones with their OS on it even if they sell poorly. Or
b) Just call it a day, enlist the help of their 'arch enemy' Linux, and make some phones that actually sell.
In short: is MS in the OS-pushing business, or in the phone-selling business? Tough one... :-)
Basically, anyone who's ever used a Windows Phone device has known that the platform, from birth, was performing a slow-motion hara kiri.
It was just a matter of time.
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
they were stupid to ever trust MS
That's a naive simplification of a wise rule of thumb: in any relationship defined by money (such as a product/consumer relationship, business/employee, bank/customer, financial advisor/client, etc), there is absolutely no place for trust. None. Nada. Zip.
Follow that rule, and your chances of being taken advantage of drop like a rock.
This guy is an idiot. The platform is mature, and arguably, the best out there. Everybody I know who uses one likes theirs, as well. MS isn't going to walk away from this because of current fashion trends.
I don't respond to AC's.
It was a valiant effort but we must bid the noble Windows Phone farewell as it joins up with friends Bob and Clippy who high five each other sporting Zune music players.
We'll make great pets
It was a slick HTC One8
One of the things I liked about it was the lack but not total absence of in app advertising. For example, I could play Sonic Dash for hours and rarely see an ad. When I came back to Android, I had to watch a full one minute video ad between each level, unless I paid for it. I no longer play that game. I imagine Microsoft must have paid developers a lot for minimal advertising as a failed tactic to advance their platform and that it would have gone away had the had success. All-in-all it had the apps I needed, but I am not as heavy and demanding a user as most, so that's just me.
Enter the home screen interface
While at first I liked that wild and wacky tiled home screen, I recognized right away that the interface would be a major factor in the platforms death (already knew it was dying but I am a very curious nerd so I tried it all the same).
What did I like about the interface? I'll come back to that. First let me say what I think made it platform suicide among but above most others. If you hand any Android phone running any version of Android stock interface or 3rd party to either any other Android users or iPhone users, they will be able to operate it in a matter of seconds if not instantly through intuition. Likewise, if you hand an iPhone to an Android user, they will be able to use it. If you hand a Windows phone to either an Android or iPhone user, the interface will be so foreign and seemingly archaic, they will not want to learn how to use it let alone take to it like a duck to water. So that's that. Back to my love hate situation with the interface.
So as I said at first I liked it. I am a full time geek so it didn't take "too" long to figure out. Over the first few days, I methodically laid out the home screen. At first it seemed very efficient and I perceived clear advantages over other platforms. I was excited. Then I started adding more tiles. It started to become a complex puzzle game, finding the most logical places and sizes for tiles. It got to the point where adding one new tile caused me to rethink the logic and efficiency of the entire I layout. I started to think really hard about anything and everything I felt I needed on the home screen, so one evening I went to town. I spent a good two hours re-arranging everything after adding the rest of what I needed and went to sleep. The number of tiles representing apps was be no means excessive. When I woke up the next day I looked at my home screen and I was absolutely and completely fucking lost.
Nerdy experiment #23,943,284 complete. Back to my Nexus.
Brought to you by Carl's Junior.
Full disclosure: I'm not a Microsoft fan. Yes, Windows phone sales have been abysmal. We've known this for.... decades, actually. Whatever Microsoft renames or redesigns the phone, it's never done well. Microsoft doesn't appear to "get it" at a fundamental level.
But, so far, Microsoft continues to pour money into it. And Microsoft still has a lot of money. So realistically, the Windows phone isn't dead until Microsoft says it's dead.
The "windows phone dead" meme, like "the year of linux on the desktop" meme, is one of those wishful-thinking things that may actually be true someday. But not today.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
Really, 2016 is the year that Windows will finally gain mainstream acceptance as an OS for Phones. Windows has been relegated to the desktop for far too long and it is only a matter of time until users demand that their phone experience match their desktop experience. Already iPhone sales are declining so there is clearly an opportunity in the market place for Windows to step in. Do else do you trust to deliver a product to market and take advantage of a rival's misstep? Google? Please - people are sick of having to pay the advertising/surveillance tax just to use a phone.
What for? Legacy applications?
I don't want to use software designed for monitor+keyboard+mouse on a small touchscreen.
Its UI is fine - different, but fine. The problem is platform loyalty and being late to the game. iOS and Android were well established before Windows phones hit the market, and if you are already embedded in either platform with many paid apps and familiarity with it then why change? It wasn't a killer deal on price, which could have swung things potentially, and it was *really* late to the party. I argued at the time that they were too late to even bother entering the phone OS market, and instead should have focused on offering versions of their desktop software on the two existing OS platforms.
William George
Windows' growth problem is one of image, not technology. None of my techie friends have bothered to even give it a serious look -- they assume it doesn't have the features they want and leave it at that. And I don't think it's their fault. Microsoft hasn't made it interesting to them, and it certainly doesn't have the allure of the Google name.
I don't write mobile apps, but as a dev I like to have a good mix of technology so I've bought high-end Android for my tablets and high-end Windows for my phones. Having used both sides for years, I'm intimately familiar with both systems.
I considered Windows Phone 8 to be a better experience than Android. While there are not as many features, the ones there were well polished and felt more responsive in every day use. It's not a coincidence that they've been able to get away with releasing it on markedly less powerful hardware than the equivalent high-end Android phones. Windows apps, aided by excellent baked-in controls and UX guidelines, generally behave more consistently than Android apps.
Like you, the rare people I've met who do have Windows phones tend to think they're great.
But, that's about to change. Oh boy. My Windows 10 phone has been a different experience. It is buggy, has unacceptable battery life, and responsiveness is all over the place. If anything finally kills it off, this will be it.
app store lock is an issue and there are touch based windows apps and the touch screen is the mouse.
Keyboards are nice to have as an addon as well.
Either you've never used a Windows Phone, or you have the most bizarre opinions about user interfaces... wait, I'm guessing you're a command-line person, right?
I don't respond to AC's.
MS just doesn't know how to connect with consumers. They think consumers make purchase decisions like CTOs. When MS tries to be cool, it inevitably backfires. The Xbox division somehow manages to escape all the corporate and branding baggage, maybe someone in Redmond should them how?
Consumers don't actually like Windows, either; they just accept it... like death and taxes. If MS is going to get their mobile efforts off the ground (after what, 5 tries now?), they need to separate it from the Windows brand and make app development/porting ridiculously effortless with no platform-based barriers to entry.
Am I the only one that thinks they should have named the Mobile Operating System Cortana? This would do a wonderful number of things. 1. it sets the expectation that this is a mobile OS with a voice interface 2. All UI improvements and integration can be focused on Cortana, and Cortana integration. Today it's windows or Microsoft, and with that carries a certain ahh man among developers product marketing managers, C levels, etc. It's not that Microsoft is bad, it's just associated with a lot of work. Cortana can be the Catalyst for windows mobile cross platform development. Just like iOS brought people to MAC Cortana can bring people to windows. Just like Continuum which sounds cool but really can't be associated with Microsoft by a normal user. Whereas if the name were used with Xbox user adoption would be much much higher. 3. Refreshes the product marketing, ideas, platform and creates something that Microsoft could ultimately spin off.
Apparently Stephen Elop already caught fire when he jumped back to Microsoft from the burning platform... http://www.businessinsider.com...
What more appropriate reward could there possibly be for sliming Nokia to death?
When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
What is so sad Microsoft has elected to do this to themselves intentionally. The underlying technology is quite good yet like metro UI in Windows 8 some assholes within Microsoft just had to fuck it up with their crappy shells and politics in a continually failing and hopeless bid to emulate the financial success of the crappy apple walled garden.
One of the reasons I will never use Windows phone aside from crappy 8-bit UI designed by children is it is openly hostile to the end user. Apple style lock down with Google style spying on steroids.
Even trivial features such as local address books are denied to the end user. Nor can WiFi be used without participating in crowd sourced location spying. If you don't capitulate to untenable demands of the vendor you end up with a worthless brick that doesn't even make a good paper weight.
If the platform would have remained open without endless calling home that cannot be disabled. If it allowed for reasonable personalization / widgets / replaceable shells rather than take it or leave it metro crap developers and in-turn users would have been all over it. The people who would have supported it early on all bailed after WM.
Although Microsoft basically lost the client side when everything went to mobile, at least the servers those mobile clients connect to still run Windows. Oh my bad, even Microsoft's own servers are likely to run BSD these days.
At the office, I did see one guy with a Windows desktop instead of a MacBook Pro, so there's that.
The only person I've met who has a Windows Phone was a Microsoft employee. That same employee told me he would never recommend SharePoint. LOL. Microsoft seems to have a trend of getting into markets too little too late and if they can't buy/push out the competition their product effort dies a SLOoooowww death. Such products include IE 7 (yes there are still a few people on it...), Zune, ASP (in my opinion worst web scripting language...ever). Visual Basic died less painfully/faster once NET came out. (Remember "Option Explicit" folks...what a concept). there are probably others I've forgotten about (or it like ASP was so painful I wanted to block out the memory).I suspect the Windows Store will not gain a lot of traction even though MS is force feeding Windows 10 down people's throats. (I tell my friends how to stop MS updater services before it hijacks their Windows 7 computers.) How is it Microsoft waits for someone else to "strike while the iron is hot" and come in after the the market has already been dominated by someone else. It boggles the mind. Apple/Google are with or ahead of the curve and MS Windows is consistently behind.It's just so funny and sad. While it's probably true that this article is there to fan the flames, the flames are there..or in this case, the embers of the dying coals.
"Imagination is more important than knowledge" - Einstein
Whenever it is pointed out that Windows Phone is dying, people come out with the same trivialities: that they like it, that the UI is great, that it is much better than Android and iOS, etc. People, that is irrelevant. One can argue whether or not it is true, but it is irrelevant. What is relevant is that the market share of Windows Phone has been dwindling for years, that it is collapsing precipitously, that Microsoft is keeping it alive by losing millions each quarter - in a word, that it is an abject failure in the market place. Spin it whichever way you want; that essential fact remains.
Well, now you know how we desktop users felt when Win8 hit the market.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
For a historical footnote in the draw I have filled with failed tech.
And there is a launcher for Android that looks just like Windows 10...
Has Netcraft confirmed this?
Slow down, cowboy! It has been 4 hours since you last posted. You must wait another few hours.
nonconformity of the Microsoft user interface to Apple and Android's widely adopted aesthetic appeal
Lolwut? Windows phone sucked because the app store sucked in terms of app availability. Period. Almost everything about it from a "normal user" perspective was better than Android and on par with Apple. It was responsive, consistent, etc.. I still miss my Windows phone in every way _except_ for the shitty app store selection. I may have even lived with that if they only had Puzzles and Dragons.
Microsoft had a few problems, and this analyst's nonsense about the user interface was not one. First, they were late to the game with a modern phone OS. This was the biggest issue. Second, their app selection sucked because.. largely see the first reason. That is all.
Now, that's what I call a burning platform.
How about this: your PC won't boot unless your phone is running Windows.
When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
I strongly believe this market has 2 players. A 3rd players is a difficult task at best. The sales of the OS is of no value if you have not already found a place in the market. Google offers theirs as ZERO cost. So new players HAVE to use the same model as Google unless they have a ridiculous amount of money to burn. MS has already burn a few billions dollars trying to break in. Strategic partnership have not yielded much so that avenue is also dead.
And THAT is why the "tablet PC" model from the XP era went nowhere, but suddenly the iPad was a hit: Apple realized that different devices need different interfaces.
Sounds so obvious in hindsight, no?
Circumcision is child abuse.
I am forced to be a Windows Phone User and loathe it's user experience. It's settings are incoherent. As a command-line person i am stunned by the idiocy, that there's no way to group apps - they just mingle in one long alphabetically sorted list of apps and settings. While battery life is quite nice, you don't actually get to enjoy it because they crash within 48 hours; you don't know when or how often, but it's at least once within that time period.
Now that's not just one faulty device; I am on my 4th different phone and experienced 3 different models. Most of my 700 co-workers experienced the same problems.
Those problems don't seem to be app-related, since apart from an app for public traffic, i am only using MS own apps.
And don't get me started on the zune software to update your phone or move documents from or to a PC. I'd be happy if that stuff were as shitty as iTunes, but it's worse...
DogDude, i don't get why you're spamming this article's discussion so much, because you really have to be a fanboy to remotely enjoy a Windows Phone. I'd be happy if there were some competition to Android and iOS, but let's face it. Rooting for Windows Phone is like you're trying to flee from government surveillance and your destination of choice is North Korea.
I don't play many phone games, so app store functionality wasn't big for me. Instead, web browsing, e-mail, and office documents were important, which Windows Phone did beautifully. Plus, it had innovative features such as native drive mode based on bluetooth connection.
I got the gears of death on 3 Nokia 920s all within the span of a year. After the third, I gave up and went to Android.
The problem wasn't the platform, it was the hardware.
I have always loved Nokia phones. I love the excellent audio quality, excellent reception in low signal areas, excellent battery life, great hardware features. I had one of the last Nokia smart phones. Great hardware, but the software was half-baked. I own an iPhone 5. I have grown weary of the poor battery life and I really do not like the new Apple iOS design direction. DO NOT LIKE. So I bought a Lumia 640 Go Phone for $40. I unlocked it, upgraded to WP10, and for $12 added a 32 GB MicroSD card. I love this phone. It is true to the excellent design principles of Nokia. I actually really like Windows Phone 10. As someone who uses Windows at work and at home, it is very, very familiar. It is easy to use.
Microsoft could have given the Metro name to the Windows Phone OS, since the Metro interface was perfect for the phone. Or once they bought Nokia, they could have renamed the OS Lumios, and be done w/ it
Perhaps you should look up the definition of the word "definitive".
Tiny hipster infested start-ups don't count unless you think that corporate America is about to issue their peons with very expensive laptops instead of much cheaper Dells.
In the tradition of shitty "journalism" at the Verge the author is trying to convince others of something so they can be hailed as a technical prophet.
Microsoft has enough money that they can pour it into Windows Phone for a very long time and not bat an eye. The Windows Phone platform will only die if Microsoft loses interest, not because of poor market performance.
That being said this article is full of weapons grade stupid. It claims that last quarter 400m smartphones were sold yet only 1.1% were Windows Phone devices. That's a small percentage but works out to 4.4m phones. If the ASP (average sale price) is $200 that's almost a billion dollars in revenue for the quarter. While that's nothing compared to Apple's iPhone revenues it's not anywhere close to zero or any number less than zero.
Yet again someone trots out a "market share" number as if it is a meaningful comparison of anything. As has always been the case market share percentages don't need to be large in order for a company to be making money. Apple's "market share" of the overall PC market is likewise small compared to all PC manufacturers yet they make an enviable amount of money off Macs. They make a ridiculous amount of money off the iPhone despite Android "winning" with market share percentage.
You can compare revenue, profit on that revenue, and unit sales. Share percentages are virtually useless when trying to gauge the health of a competitor in a market. They're used by "journalists" that don't want to bother with math or real analysis.
I'm a loner Dottie, a Rebel.
You know the reason many corporations are turning to Apple over Dell is both cost and support. At my corporate buy-everything-from-Microsoft-partner-vendors overlords I see lots of Apple machines running Windows. Dell only has cheap stuff on the personal low end and those are 3 year old machines. Business-Dell is a lot more expensive.
Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
Tiny hipster infested start-ups don't count...
Hate to say it, but even the staid corporate drone-factories are buying more MacBook Pros for their higher-end employees (developers who want/need a *nix platform to work from, marketing/graphics types who want the tools and UI they're already comfortable with, executives and sales-critters who want to rub that glowing little logo into others' faces, etc).
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
Very expensive laptops that aren't supportable for any reasonable cost, don't have a massive ecosystem of ready software, don't play well with other corporate infrastructure, and aren't easily integrated with remote monitoring and support tools.
Corporate anywhere will never switch to Mac. Not in the foreseeable future.
There have been no significant movement in Mac market share last few years, so if you see this it is a localised phenomenon.
If this was the case, why is it not showing in increased Mac market share figures?
> Tiny hipster infested start-ups
$120 billion / year (twice the size of Google) is tiny? An organization that's 170 years old is a startup?
That's who I worked for at my last job, where I was issued a Mac desktop, A Mac laptop, and an iPad.
Erm...
http://www.informationweek.com/mobile/mobile-devices/ibm-mac-users-need-less-it-support/d/d-id/1322698
I wouldn't count them out just yet. The interface is pretty slick, and while the dearth of quality apps is... alarming, their push for cross platform apps across Win10/WinPhone 10/Surface might actually get some developers on board with the huge install-base of Win10 users.
And it just won't die. Before Windows Phone it was Windows Mobile. Before Windows Mobile it was PocketPC on phones. Before PocketPC on phones it was Windows CE on phones. And it's disturbing to see Windows CE is still getting around on ultra-cheap Chinese-made GPS navigators. Just die, already!
Hahahahahaha this comment is straight outta the 90s. It's 2016 bro.
Windows 10 and the Universal Windows App platform, on the other hand, are only just picking up steam.
Oh, it runs on phones, too? Huh.
I've had a Windows phone for just about a year now (Lumia 735) and I actually like the live tile interface. The ability to re-size and re-arrange tiles into grids, quadrants, rows and columns of various sizes, with subgrids (recursive!), is actually quite useful and represents a valuable original contribution by Microsoft to the smartphone ecosystem. The fact that tiles can be "live" with active updates on top of that is a nice plus. Compare this to iPhone or Android which use fixed arrangements of "dumb" skeuomorphic icons by default. I think that Microsoft deserves some credit for Windows Phone and the live tile UI, it's actually original and useful. Apple could do worse than to "borrow" this UI concept from Microsoft.
Well that sucks. I'm one of those who prefer Windows Phone's Live Tiles over iOS/Android's grid of icons. And while every once in a while there's an app I want that I can't get, I don't usually do much on my phone besides text, phone, camera and web. I would also miss a dedicated camera button when changing platform. I guess if MS does give up on Windows Phone, I just hope it's after my current phone gets the Win 10 update so I don't have to get a new phone for a while yet...
WOULD YOU LIKE ME TO?
1 FIRST POST!
2 FILL YOUR TIMELINE WITH SHIT FROM DICE
3 COMPLAIN ABOUT SEEING THIS ON GIZMAG YESTERDAY AND HOW SLASHDOT ISN'T THE SAME SITE IT USED TO BE
4 FUCK OFF AND DIE!!!
Build a Man a Fire, and He'll Be Warm for a Day. Set a Man on Fire, and He'll Be Warm for the Rest of His Life.
I forgot what the Windows 7 calculator was like, and don't have a Windows 7 box near me. But the Windows 10 has standard and scientific, as one would want*, and also 2 new modes - programmer and conversion. Programmer gives you conversions of binary to octal to hexadecimal to decimal, so that one could do things like calculating IPv6 addresses. The coolest part of this calculator is that it can convert most basic units, like length, mass, temperature, angle, et al. It does lack conversions of fuel efficiency, like miles/gallon to kilometer/liter.
The calculator on either an iPhone or an Android lack either of these - are restricted to standard mode. They do look prettier, though.
It is almost a decade since Microsoft quit actually supporting Windows Phone. I miss the old functionality they allowed to wither. You could plug in your phone or PDA and all your contact information, calendar information, and Office files in the transfer directory, and even Quicken data synchronized with your desktop or laptop.
They quit supporting then came out with a NEW version that would sync nothing. Just like Office 2007 they went for eye candy like ribbon bars and forgot functionality.
NRRPT/RCT
I just ordered the Lumia 950 XL the other day in order to take advantage of the free dock offer. If this is really true that WP is going to go the way of the dodo, then I am happy I ordered this device, which I guess will have to carry me through the demise of the platform.
Yes, I am one of those people ... one of the dozens of people who actually prefers Windows Phone over iPhone and Android-based devices.
I don't know what drugs the author or the verge is on. I own almost all flagship products from apple ipod touch, ipad, macbook air, iphone6+, and fair share of experiences with samsung notes and galaxy. No doubts about reliability and durability of iOS devices that I have and quite happy with them, whilst I always find issues with android devices even though there is more flexibility available for the likes of external storage and dual sim, but iOS rules for productivity and reliability than Android. I recently lost my iphone6+ and the samsung phone I have just sucks. I do not want to spend fortune on another phablet and looking for choices in the midrange with largest screen and specs. Now, i'm more than happy with Microsoft Lumia 640XL (quad core, 8gb, 3100mAh battery, 13 megapixel cam), with addtional 64gb SD card installed on it. MS Office is seamless together with the 30GB OneDrive storage where I have access to my documents from any devices anywhere. Upgraded to Windows 10 by joining developer program and I could not find a single problem for my new midrange phablet where productivity and best value for money is the key requirement for me than other fancy features which might be of interest only to teens. I don't even miss my iphone anymore when it comes to productivity. I just don't like android based on my experiences, so I would not even mention the details though there are some good android phones out there. The bottom line is if you are looking for productivity and best value for money, Microsoft Lumia 640XL is your best choice, and I bet Microsoft Surface Pro will kick out iPad Pro out of market soon, especially for business environments. Not only that, the new Microsoft Lumia 950XL with an adapter box you can connect to the monitor and keyboard to use it as a PC! Way to go Microsoft...
Unless Steve Jobs came back from the grave, Apple will be going all the way to the south. Nonetheless, I would still treasure my existing iOS devices as long as they last, but will not buy new Apple devices unless I see the need to for certain features that I cannot live without. Even for the smart watch, I would get the Tag Heuer Connected than Apple Watch! And also for that joke of Apple car, I would not consider anything than Tesla model X! I just like Steve Job's innovations and his unique creativity, not the company name or brand. No Jobs, no Apple!
this kind of explains why i can buy a used Lumia Windows Phone for $20 on amazon
When I first got my lumia 521 (lowest on the totem pole), I hated it. It was slow and wireless switching between cellular and wifi was atrocious. After the Win 10 update, I find I like it better. Far more tolerable and it's responsiveness has greatly improved. The HERE gps software is awesome and has never failed me, unlike my TomTom dedicated gps. Finding useful apps is a joke and I hate their calendar app for not letting me set two reminders on each appointment like my old iPod touch. The camera on it is awesome as well. As far as my phone carrier goes (Begins with T-), I can't judge cellular quality for it is fairly non-existent in my rural area. The messaging app tends to keep repeating responses from the people I'm texting at times. Wifi calling is awesome, though If they'd improve their current apps, I'd be happy enough to keep with this phone, than go to debtor's prison paying for apple/android on my current or other carrier.
Oh well.
Nowadays it is a general purpose computer and a user-tracking device, which happens to have the functionality of making calls. You might want to give more consideration when choosing that kind of tracking device/computer you will carry on you... With WP, YMMV)
Nowadays it is a general purpose computer and a user-tracking device, which happens to have the functionality of making calls.
I understand that. What's your point?
-
You might want to give more consideration when choosing that kind of tracking device/computer you will carry on you..
Why? So I can act like an asshat and wave my shiny rectangle around proclaiming its superiority? What a pathetic, embarrassing, and repulsive thing to do. No, what I have works for for me, I don't need some brand-obsessed loser shucking and jiving in my face about why his or her phone is "better". It's awkward and low-class in the extreme. Please stop it.
To be clear: I don't care what kind of phone you have. I'll never care what kind of phone you have. I have more important things in life to be concerned with than that kind of shallow consumeristic-nonsense.
Conversely, I don't care what your opinion is of the phone I have. I'll never care what your opinion is of the phone I have.
If you like your phone and it helps fill in all of the empty spots in your paper-thin ego, good for you! More power to ya. But I don't want to hear you blathering on about it to me, okay? It's embarrassing to hear people gushing about their phone. The first thing I think when I hear that shit is, "Holy crap, what a loser."
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
When the Surface Phone is also your laptop and your desktop and all you need is a screen that is nothing more than a wireless display/input device for your phone, the majority of the world will move over to it. Why? Because while other phones have all the apps, Windows has all the Applications. Apps are just a neat way to have a better experience on a mobile device than a browser provides. Full-blown applications are the real driver of this world.
As for just needing a display/input device, doesn't that sound familiar? Tablets, laptops, desktops are going to nothing more than terminal screens. Technology just repeats itself only smaller and smaller. It is the mainframe design, but the mainframe is your phone and the terminals are anything else you want to use.
Whether you like it or not, Windows run the most Applications by millions. This is why even though Apple laptops have cracked into enterprise, almost every last one of them has to have a Windows Virtual Machine to run some Windows only app the business needs.
The smart phone is the future. Microsoft isn't going to abandon it. Abandoning Windows Phone doesn't mean abandoning the phone market.
If you're using a newer version of Android, you don't need root to do most of those things anymore.
I'm using a newer version of Android on my brand new device Asus Zenfone 2 lazer, but non-root way of backup is still badly broken -- adb backup hangs randomly without finishing the backup. I know, Asus has its own backup but I don't want to use proprietary solution -- what if I decide that my next phone is NOT Asus anymore?
So I had to root it and install old venerable Titanium backup again.