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Windows 10 Mobile Needs To Be Put Out of Its Misery (betanews.com)
From a column on BetaNews: It's time for Microsoft to pull the plug. Windows 10 Mobile has been on life support for a long time, and the software giant is only making things worse by not giving it the mercy killing it deserves. It may sound harsh, but there's no future for Windows on smartphones in its current state. Microsoft wants to keep the door open to future developments but, let's face it, when it decided to sell Samsung's new Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ through its stores it basically sealed its own platform's fate. There is no turning back from this. We know it and its fans know it too. [...] Really, the only reason I can see Microsoft developing Windows 10 Mobile -- or Windows on smartphones -- further is to give its fans the illusion that something could happen. One day. Someday. Eventually. Maybe. Hopefully. If all the stars align. And Apple and Google and all the other successful vendors are wiped out from the face of the Earth. Hey, it could happen!
is coming out soon.
Blackberry FTW!
Windows 10 Mobile is for the most part just windows 10 and runs the same "windows apps (non win32 variety)". There is no real reason to kill it.
Microsoft are just holding on for a cycle or three until they get a functional surface-phone that can dock-&-desktop up and running. Then it will die off.
But I can't make a straight-faced recommendation that anyone else get one because of the lack of apps available. It's a great choice if you don't want to be spied on :-)
When this thing finally breaks, I can't see getting another one.
I think I read somewhere that Windows Phone is still the platform of choice for local governments because of the security policies that can be applied to them.
But it appears the company goal is to kill it by making it a huge pile of shit first then saying well, it's a huge pile of shit, lets get rid of it.
It's becoming a pile of shit because Microsoft refuses to hire the right kind of people to work on it, use the product internally and to work as one company. Keeping your teams separate and building APIs between team is great for security and the right thing, but when you have shit teams writing shit APIs and lots of teams writing on top of them, what you need is a good piece of middleware with a team whose authority comes from experience instead of contracts and database access.
"Windows 10 needs to die" --
What's next? How a title like "Let's all swarm the White House and demand that Trump SURRENDER his presidency because of communist Russian interference"
So much for "journalism." Even Dice managed to run this site better than that
Such insight! Such a well thought out opinion piece. After reading it, I realized that Mr. Bamburic is right. How can I use a product knowing that so many other people don't? What will people think about my choice of phone? What an incredible loser I must be for using a relatively unpopular gadget. I'm running out today to replace my Windows 10 phone.
I don't respond to AC's.
MS provides support for its products even when they have signally failed in the marketplace, like Win 10 Mobile. Contrarily folks bitch when they DON'T provide patches for old out-of-support software -- there's a current furore over a security hole in Win2003R2 Server which MS isn't patching since they stopped support for that particular version over two years ago.
Regular Win 10 runs perfectly well on phone-sized systems such as tablets without the hardware limitations of phones two generations back (ARM CPUs with one or two cores, limited memory, limited storage etc.) so Win 10 Mobile isn't really needed but there are still customers out there who do use it. It will reach EOL and support will eventually be terminated but there's no rush.
Just give it another year! According to Windows Central, next year everything will get fantastic! They have been saying so for half a decade or so now, so it has to be right.
Windows 10 Needs To Be Put Out of Its Misery
fixed typo in title.
Windows RT was killed off the moment Microsoft decided it would run store apps only. .NET applications, but Microsoft just said no.
It could have run native desktop applications built for ARM or
Even today, nobody gives a crap about the Microsoft store, and nobody is buying apps on it.
Yes, because when Microsoft decides to support your platform, that's a great assurance of (a) your platform's longevity and (b) how they will never compete against it. They couldn't start adding features to the Galaxys sold through their store that start winning the battle against Google for control of Android!
Also, unlike Google, MS has really good support for failed products. It's one reason I'm far more likely to build something on an MS platform than a Google web-service. (Okay, I'm on AWS, but the point holds.)
Your ad here. Ask me how!
...get into the 3rd party phone OS business. Code up a specific version of Windows each for iPhone and Galaxy, and sell it for download. Apply the PC model to phones. Just concentrate on the big sellers.
Analysts and pundits have been telling Microsoft to do this for some time. Personally, I think they need to get out of the business of telling Microsoft how to run theirs. Microsoft has a vested interest staying in the mobile space, even if their phones don't sell shit. The personal computing market is so spread out across the spectrum of devices, people's primary way of digital interaction can change a easily as the wind. If Microsoft does not stay in this space, they will be ill-prepared for this.
... only because MS could never convince PHONE app developers that it was worth using. It always was a bit player, and has become irrelevant given the Google-Apple ownership of the market.
Full disclosure: I do have a Windows phone. For the most part, I like it.
What's special about Windows on a phone?
Primarily, the user interface. As much as the tile orientation stinks on a desktop or non-touch laptop, it makes great sense and works very well on a phone. Better, really, than the way stock or most phone makers' Android implementations do.
Also:
* Multitasking works well, though that's also true of the competition.
* If you join the Insider program, you can get system updates and even upgrades well beyond the year or 2 that most phone carriers will support anything - regularizing that (so you don't have to be an Insider to be independent of carrier lack of support) would make Windows more like Apple.
* Even in 10 (was better in 8.1), hardware requirements are somewhat less than for Android. Same Snapdragon etc. processors, but Windows runs acceptably in half the RAM of Android. Which is funny because in the non-Mobile world it's the other way around (Linux runs decently in half the RAM of Windows).
So what to do? Since MS seems to be moving all of its mobile stuff to Android, move the UI as well. After all, it's just a shell anyway. Then, if the corporation eventually gets back into the phone-mobile game on its own, think about some way to do an Apple but do it right (unlike previous attempts).
Beta news is years late to the party.
WTF, is that idiot spouting?! There IS a place for W10 mobile to exist. I love my Windows phone, it's a hell of a lot more intuitive to find what you want/need than Android devices or iOS devices. The one who wrote that article is obviously being payed by Google, who btw, actively blocked microsoft from making their own, much better, youtube apps. Ask any windows phone user and I'm sure they will all tell you they love their phones, it's just better than Android in every way but people shy away from it because "oh this app I don't need in my life is not available! Guess I have to get the less secure platform that is android!"
I don't know why people bash the Windows phone. I love mine. It is the perfect size to shim up that old table in the den with the short leg.
How ya like dat?
How many mobile operating systems has Microsoft released over the years, each one incompatible with the last? They've been doing it since the Palm III era at least.
I'm posting this comment now from a Windows Mobile device.
As a long time android user, I have to say my one year of Windows Phone use with the Lumia 1020 back in 2014 was excellent. That OS was far and above more stable than the slew of android devices I have used since. It was clean, well implemented, and didn't waste tons of CPU cycles trying to spy on me. Of course microsoft of today probably isn't like that...
...like iOS but much less popular. Yawn.
Microsoft has done a poor job of making phones but they got a lot of good designs after they bought Nokia's phone making division. Yes, they are losing a lot of money on making these devices but I think they need to totally rededicate themselves to building a new phone to put on the market. Doing this will undoubtedly cost them even more money and other parts of Microsoft may even possibly suffer as a result but it's for the greater good. We are talking about how best to destroy Microsoft, right? ;)
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
This is like someone saying, "there are more VW's than Mercedes on the road, Mercedes should just give up already", it's fucking retarded. You don't attempt to compete by giving up. If you don't like windows mobile don't buy a fucking phone with windows mobile on it, it's that simple. I know a lot of companies who prefer windows mobile because the ease of integration and security when paired with a windows based network, there IS a demand for it, albeit a bit low.
There are three kinds of falsehood: the first is a 'fib,' the second is a downright lie, and the third is statistics.
Where the article falls flat is by assuming that Win10 Mobile only exists for consumer phones which is vastly inaccurate. In the corporate, supply chain, logistics spaces, windows 10 mobile is still selling today. Motorola and Honeywell plus a bunch of new players in the space have been selling inventory systems running win10 mobile. You have POS systems running on win10 mobile, even some ATM systems running on win10 mobile as well. Win10 Mobile will be around for quite some time.
Every time I am forced to interact with Windows Server 2012 I feel a little more violated by Microsoft. Every thing that I need to do with it is just a little more difficult and obtuse than it was in Server 2008, with not a single benefit for it anywhere that I can find.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
I'm not saying there's no market for an Xbox Phone, but keep in mind that Sony has pretty much given up on the Vita and even Nintendo is struggling in the portable market. Android and iOS didn't just kill every other phone, they also put a serious dent in the portable games market (not to mention MP3 players, low end cameras, personal organizers and if you include tablets, even the laptop market).
Support Right To Repair Legislation.
i had a windows phone (80 bucks at target) wasn't a bad OS, mainly just a lack of apps and such.
not sure why it gets all the hate, it seemed at least as usable android.
(definitely miss webOS on my old palm pre though, that was great.)
I would actually like a windows phone. I'm an Android man, and the options for Windows phones on t-mobile sucks compared to my Nexus 6P, which I'll probably run for 4 or so years like I did the last phone I had. That said, when I bought this phone, I wanted to try a Win10 phone. I enjoyed playing with my friend's and it seems it has a really good thing I would enjoy more if Android had such an option: integration.
I can shoehorn my own set of services for one or two aspects of this, but the same apps on my desktop, a similar experience if I suddenly use my phone as a desktop when docked, the use of XAML for development. Man, now I'm tempted to look at my abysmal options again.
This forum Sig is licensed under the LGPL.
Make an x86 phone in a Motorola Droid 3 case that can run Linux/WindowsXP-Win7 with pinch-zoom functionality along with the regular bells and whistles and Apple/Android wouldn't be able to compete. Legacy Windows desktop programs are so much more efficient(ideal for lower resource mobile) and full featured compared to the single view crap all modern "apps" are made to support.
Everyones interested in the 'new' mobile market where they re-invent the wheel and get to charge for it all over again in a DRM environment... Isn't it suspicious theres no x86 legacy windows capable phone on the market when ComputeSticks/hdmi PC's exist?
Intels most power efficient x86 chips beat arm, common excuse supporting arm but not valid for a few years now.
Windows 8.1 will be my last, I only run that because I've yet to find a power efficient system that can run win7 or earlier(no drivers or legacy bios issues)
So why would Microsoft not make its own skin for Android? It's not merely trivial, but it's already been done, almost. Or maybe closer. Or even by somebody else.
deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
He hates it when you do that. How can it be a mercy killing?
Just set your system date to the EOL date of Win10. And only then we can say, It expired, Good riddance!
Ooo... does this mean that they will get rid of the 'ringtones' directory in the windows server OS root?
Microsoft is looking big at the augmented reality and virtual reality spaces and lacking the skills to engage that workspace could cost them big in the long run. There might be a longer game where they're using the Mobile platform as a way to advance their understanding of computing with physically mobile systems. Their current market share is floundering, sure, but the profitability expectations might be leveraged considerably further down the road than many are presuming.
Most the of Win10 tables are using the same or similar processors. So compiling a mobile phone version for teh same code base is relatively easy. The only real difference is the drivers and couple of apps to dial a phone and take text messages. Its all part of Microsoft's Universal Windows Platform So Microsoft pays $1-2 million dollars in developers and testers to keep a product running and keep the door open for the next big thing.
I look forward to a full version of Win10 on a RaspberryPi like platform. Go to the store and get a TV box about the size of a Roku for $100. You have basic computer that can plugin anywhere. That would be the PC killer more then a tablets and Chromebooks. Full Windows on a small cheap machine.
I would switch to a Windows phone but cost has been the biggest factor for me. I can buy a cheap $20-40 Android phone for what I need. Why put out $200-500 for features I don't need or use? I just need to make some calls, get text, and occasionally use the GPS directiond.
You say things that offend me and I can deal with it. Can you?
"This indicates that they don't really have a clue..." ["They" are Microsoft top managers.]
That's the underlying problem. Apparently Microsoft top managers are socially and mentally extremely limited.
If you were a top manager of a software development company, would you do things that caused stories like this article to be written? Network World, Aug. 4, 2015: Windows 10 is possibly the worst spyware ever made. Quote from that story: "Buried in the service agreement is permission to poke through everything on your PC."
The abusiveness of many of the features of Windows 10 are like a multi-billion-dollar advertising campaign that very effectively says, "Dislike Microsoft products".
The answer? Replace ALL the Microsoft top managers, in my opinion. Does anyone else have an idea that would fix the problems at Microsoft?
Another solution: All countries and the U.S. could support ReactOS so that the Windows OS can be eliminated. No company should be allowed to have a virtual monopoly!
Companies that are routinely abusive should be re-organized or eliminated.
I meant to write "All countries and the U.N."
Haven't seen anyone mention one of the pretty cool features that windows phones offer such as being a mobile PC. They can screencast to a lot of new devices, which means if you have access to a tv/monitor, and a bluetooth keyboard/mouse you can boot into windows and work just like you would if you had a laptop. Sure, you don't run to be compiling huge amounts of code, or trying to play games, but for basic stuff - browsing, email, coding, etc, it gives you the power of a full size keyboard and monitors, and access to your regular work environment without having to carry a laptop around. No other phone offers that to my knowledge.
I think MS are looking at a longer term view anyway, seamless integration and UX across all their devices (probably one of the main reasons why the original surface was rightfully killed off, the other main reason being that it sucked hard) with everything cloud based. Don't underestimate the potential market for seamless integration between xbones, phones, and surfaces - no other company has any vision that I can see to compete across all 3 of those markets.
I hope they stick with it and get some of these visions working because they have the potential to be really, really good.
But in the mean time I'm sticking with my iPhone. The UX is always silky smooth and fast, and I have all 7 apps I need on it - google maps, spotify, uber, whatsapp, kindle, banking, hipchat. I don't need 10million apps to pick from, I just want my day to day stuff.
They can't abandon the smartphone market because of Samsung's move.
I know Microsoft is coming out with a phone that will have the docking features to turn it into a desktop but more importantly will run Win32 desktop apps natively.
I think this could be the way for them to get a foothole into the market from the business side where companies could give employees phones that double as their work computer.
Still, it's quite a dumb idea to try to sell a Samsung product running Android in their own store that can be both a phone and a desktop along side their own computer and phone solutions.
I guess their own products are too far behind to offer as an alternative at this time. This will put them in a bind at some point.
Just doing it to get a response from readers. Absolutely no value otherwise.
If you look at the number of Windows Phones being sold, it is small in comparison. But if you compare it to any other market, it is a pretty impressive business. I've been running preview releases and the platform is moving ahead at a pretty great rate. My work phone just got switched to a Samsung, and there are SO many things that are so backwards on the Samsung platform. Many are small things, but they add up. The text suggestion process is significantly better.
The market is turning around, phones aren't phones anymore. I've got a feeling that we are headed back to the flip phone, a much better suited device for making calls, maybe with augmentation by a tablet. As the new Samsung has reinforced, the difference between phones and computers are now an arbitrary line that needs to be moved or dissolved.
It was great before the web turned into tracking-addled DOM garbage.
I guess the small percentage of stubborn Windows Phone owners shows how many people are actually fans of MS vs how many people use it because they're stuck with it
Remember when Michael Dell said Apple should just distribute it's remaining cash and put apple out of it's misery since everyone was using Windows now?
The answer? Replace ALL the Microsoft top managers, in my opinion. Does anyone else have an idea that would fix the problems at Microsoft?
I still smell collusion. Microsoft was found to have violated its monopoly position, then Ashcroft announces that there will be no punishment. Gates puts his funding into a foundation where later administrations can't get at it easily, just in case a people's candidate somehow makes it into office, and runs around the globe pushing Big Pharma IP law while he was massively personally invested in Big Pharma. Microsoft develops the ultra-spyware OS and gives it away for free. I don't think Microsoft would be allowed not to make spyware.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Does anyone else have an idea that would fix the problems at Microsoft?
Stop using Microsoft, and the problems with Microsoft automatically fix themselves. It's amazing how well computers work when you don't allow Microsoft to touch them.
Why the FUCK do you care if you're not using it yourself?
My Lumia 640's still going strong, and I *like* the fact that I still get regular updates for it, whereas I have two Android tablets that have been sitting in a drawer for years now because they're running 4.2 and 4.4 respectively, and they've essentially been abandonware since the moment I purchased them.
When I bought my phone it had Windows 8.1 on it. I updated it to Windows 10. Runs great. If it were lost or stolen, I would try to replace it. I need a phone that works and is relatively free of the phone malware that is around. The Android and IOS eco-streams are rabid with malware, unlike the Windows stream. I do not need every fad app there is, and have only installed a few from the store. I have rooted the phone. The phone does what I need it to do, and I bought it from the Microsoft store in the City Creek Mall. My wife has one just like it.
Windows 10 mobile is not Windows 10 Desktop. there is a world of difference between them. If I need to alter the system files or the registry, then I have to tether it to a desktop.
As far as spying? You are using a cellphone. it does not matter because all carriers spy, as do all phone OS's. Spying is a false flag when it comes to cell phones. Data security? That also does not exist on a cell phone. If you have data you want to protect, then do not access that data, or bank account or whatever with a cell phone. Instead use a computer that you have personally set up to be secure, including removing offending binaries. It only took me 16 hours to completely secure Windows 10 Enterprise by remove all the spyware and data tracking, and edge, and so on - that included finding the binaries, removing them and purging the registry of them. But would I do that on a cell phone? Hell no. I cannot secure the carrier, and federal mandates that the carrier cooperate with the government.
It's dying already, but Microsoft doesn't NEED to put anything out of it's misery...
The truth is that despite Windows Mobile completely failing to compete against Android or iOS, they did manage to get a bit of the low end market, particularly in a few developing countries.
You know, I had a Lumia 1020, and despite all it's pitfalls and problems (which was why I jumped to Android right after it), it still is a perfectly functional phone.
Apps are either abandoned, outdated or alternative versions because devs refuses to work in ports that will have such a low userbase, the promises of the platform getting better overtime particularly from rabid Microsoft fans gets tiring pretty fast, community is kinda toxic, and rather than a matter of being third to receive every new app (like Android users expect to be second), it's a matter of not expecting to receive anything new at all.
On the upside though, it is a solid, relatively secure and locked down platform. The basics of what most people use is there, even if sometimes in an incomplete or outdated shape or form (apps like WhatsApp, Facebook, Google suite among others). For a time, there was some pretty interesting Microsoft experimentation around the camera and some other stuff. It's an interesting route to go with for those wanting an alternative platform that forces you to keep things to a minimum (something between Symbian and iOS).
Microsoft will just keep rolling with it up to whatever time they finally come out with the next gen of Surface/Continuum phones, if that ever happens knowing how slow and hesitant Microsoft is. And then, they'll promptly abandon Windows Mobile 10 just like they did it with Windows Mobile 7.
Would I recommend the platform to anyone these days? Nope. It's moribund. Flies and vultures are flying over it. Even the market that the platform had some penetration is shrinking fast. Android is fast becoming the king of low end market, and chinese brands will quickly take the position over the coming years, if they don't take the mid and high end position too.
Microsoft "graced" some of the developing countries with it's presence in the low end smartphone market, but they remain absent as a company with a functional, official product line for some reason (they don't bring Surface products to Brazil officially, their online store stuff directly links to some other retail store filled with outdated 3rd party crap, it has nothing about new stuff like Hololens or Surface Studio, they pretty much treat the country as dumping grounds for cheap outdated crap).
As a tech brand, Microsoft and several others failed to catch on in developing countries because they keep shoving outdated stuff to us whilst ignoring that we're plenty aware of what's going on outside the country. That is, for hardware... software like Windows and Office probably still are kings in install base, even if most of it is pirated. Meanwhile, chinese brands among a few others just knows that in order to build traction in developing countries, you need a presence here and you need to release your latest brand new stuff in order to have real presence, even if most of the country don't have the money to pay for those. It's about brand presence.
Back on topic, I think Microsoft needs Windows 10 Mobile to keep going 'till it dies of old age not to add insult to injury. It'll already be bad enough to make the shift for another mobile version, or the full Windows 10 version that works on mobile with Continuum, by itself. But if they just kill Windows 10 Mobile out of nowhere abandoning the few people who are still hanging on a thread out there, then they'll lose even those. If we were to backtrack sometime ago, truth is, Microsoft should've stopped in Windows Mobile 8.1. It should've gone from there directly to Windows 10 without the Mobile part, with a new Surface Phone and the Continuum thing. But they didn't, and lost the opportunity. Remediation time.
Windows Phone, it must be said, has much less success than Mercedes in the marketplace. For now.
I know the whole history, don't bother repeating it. The issue is, the past is not necessarily the future. Microsoft may well want to keep the capability of running on a phone for a future attempt at one.
Remember Windows RT? Total failure. Remember Windows 1 and 2? Garbage! Microsoft Clippy was universally mocked. But Microsoft kept at it and replaced failure with success. Whether they do or not with Windows Phone, I have no idea. The thing is, neither do you.
Microsoft gets essentially unlimited pitches across the plate. As long as they keep trying they remain in the game. Should they create a winner then the customers win too.
An Operating System should not be used as an Advertisement Delivery System.
So I'm one of the 0.5% using Windows Mobile 10. I enjoy the OS, and prefer it to Android or the other mobile OS that people seem to like. I can see why the numbers are dwindling though. Worldwide, IOS is small and on expensive proprietary hardware. Android - though it is not as secure as IOS or Windows - is easily consumed whether one buys a US $2,500 Huawei Porsche Mate 9 (http://www.welectronics.com/gsm/HUAWEI/HUAWEI-Mate9-Porsche-Design.HTML) or an off-brand devices for under US$50. Microsoft really shot themselves in the proverbial foot changing from Windows 7 to Windows 8 then to Windows 10. I see what they hope to achieve with Windows 10 and the unified platform but think it will be more of a change in a few years.
The Kai's Semi-Updated Website Thingy
Imagine getting a Galaxy 8+ and having Windows on it? Don't tell me that doesn't appeal to you?
Windows 10 a death sentence!!! What a steaming pile of shit! do we go into all the problems with that POS! WIndows 7 was the LAST stable version of Windows I've used. But thank god for Wine - it lets me run all the Windows apps on Linux I really need....
The Truth is a Virus!!!
Like windows mobile, Ubuntu is years late.
The only viable mobile OS's are Android and iOS.
They aren't as much *late* as *not member of any large app eco-system*.
There's a really strong networking effect. People want to use smartphone also for the app featured
It's a catch-22 : nobody is going to write application for Windows 10 Mobile because there aren't as many user as Android and iOS, and nobody is going to use Windows 10 Mobile because there aren't as many apps on it.
Microsoft *was* aware of the problem. They *did* want to find a way to run android apps on Windows 10 mobile phone. But that's an extremely difficult task when you're not even running a Linux kernel. The only thing that came out of thes failed experiment is WSL (Windows Service Linux - a minimalistic Linux API layer that the NT kernel can expose in addition to Win32 etc. and that enables you to run a few unmodified Ubuntu console applications directly under Windows 10).
We'll see how it goes with Ubuntu. Canonical has toyed with the idea of running android apps.
Meanwhile Jolla's Sailfish OS isn't doing that bad, because it's designed on purpose to run android apps in addition to native QML apps.
(Official commercial version feature aliendalvik, community version relies on sfdroid).
So their users aren't left in the dust.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
Who would bother with Windows 10 mobile after the debacle of stopping support and and effectively bricking Windows Mobile 5 devices last decade. The seamless synchronization between Windows Mobile 5 and Office XP was wonderful. So they broke it.
NRRPT/RCT
I had never heard of ReactOS, but your post got me curious so I looked into it.
And I learned that it targets compatibility with Windows Server 2003.
Does that not make it a dead-end OS? Is there any software house that still supports Windows Server 2003?
Here's another commenter who recently came to the same conclusion:
ReactOS is a dead end, Linux works on everything nowadays and is way more stable, plus it has better compatibility with Windows software as it receives Wine updates, while ReactOS lacks a proper update platform
AFAIK.
That that is is that that that that is not is not.
what they need to do is come out with world class hardware that is super cheap, make windows phone run android apps natively, and the phone dockable as a desktop and a super cheap laptop that is just a screen keyboard and battery that wirelessly docks with it but runs on thew phone. like 199 u.sa. or less for the laptop or desktop monitor keyboard and mouse. able to dock in a dock but also completely wirelessly. google play store on the device as well as windows store. only way to save windows phone. be the best android available.
I've been a Windows phone user since they first brought in the Modern UI and have stood by it for a few reasons (for one, I much prefer Modern UI over rows of icons), although the lack of app support prevented me from ever recommending it to others, but my support is definitely waning now. My phone currently seems rather buggy, there are some apps I wish I could get and I've wanted to get a new phone for a while (I regret going 6"; I want something smaller) but there isn't really any exciting Windows phones. If Microsoft were to release a Surface phone by the end of the year that supported a stylus, I MIGHT buy one and hold on to the platform for a little longer, but at this point I'm just waiting for an Android phone (or iPhone, if they brought back the headphone jack!) to do something exciting enough for me to consider it worth ditching my completely capable phone.