Once Pro-Microsoft, Here Maps Drops Support For Windows 10, Windows Phone (here.com)

An anonymous reader points us to a blog post at Here website: Here Maps has announced that it will be pulling its mapping and navigation service from the Windows 10 store on March 29, 2016. The parent company, Here, also announced that it will limit the development of the apps for Windows Phone 8 to critical bug fixes. In a blog post, the company wrote, "We've been developing mobile maps applications for about 10 years, since the first smartphones came with GPS. As the market evolves, we keep in step by introducing our apps for new operating systems while stopping support for others. Back in 2014, Here was one of the few divisions at Nokia that Microsoft hadn't acquired in its multi-billion dollar deal. Since then, the mapping and navigation service has been aggressively expanding. Once exclusively available to Nokia and Microsoft-centric platforms, Here Maps is now available for Samsung's smartwatch, Android as well as iOS. "You cannot be delusional about this one. HERE Is a huge loss for the Windows Phone community," tweeted long-time Microsoft watcher Paul Thurrott.

Comments

Re:HERE lies Windows Phone

[DogDude]

Unless Microsoft comes with a deal with Here Maps, most consumers will shun Windows Phone.

I'd be willing to bet that 95% of Windows Phone users have never heard of "Here Maps" before. I hadn't. Even Here Maps said that they aren't bothering because most users are perfectly happy with the built in mapping system.

From the article:
For maps, routes and navigation, we recommend using the preinstalled Windows Maps application. The Windows Maps app contains many HERE elements since Microsoft has developed it using the HERE Platform and with assets they received from HERE in 2014. Based on your comments on HERE 360 and elsewhere, we know many of you are already having a good experience using Windows Maps.