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Neowin: Microsoft's Windows Phone Business 'Is Dead' (neowin.net)

An anonymous reader quotes Neowin: If you've been expecting Microsoft to issue a press release formally announcing the end of its Windows phone business, you're probably hoping for a bit too much. But make no mistake: its phone hardware business is dead. RIP-dead. Send-flowers-dead. Worm-food-dead. Some fans, and even some in the media, have consistently refused to acknowledge this, despite the clear signs in recent quarters. Now, Microsoft's own figures, and its statements regarding its phone division, should make it irrefutably clear that there is no life left in its Windows phone business.

During the quarter ending in December, Microsoft's phone revenue dropped to just $200 million, which included some sales of feature phones, before the company completed its sale of that business unit to Foxconn in November. That figure has now dropped to virtually nothing... Today, as Microsoft published its earnings report for Q3 FY2017, it revealed that its "Phone revenue declined $730 million". Based on its earlier financial disclosures, that means the company's phone hardware revenue fell to just $5 million for the entire quarter ending March 31, 2017. During Microsoft's earnings call today, its chief financial officer, Amy Hood, acknowledged this, stating that there was "no material phone revenue this quarter". The outlook for the next few months is similarly bleak, as Hood predicted "negligible revenue from Phone" in the coming quarter.

3 of 180 comments (clear)

  1. Good riddance! by Stormwatch · · Score: 5, Interesting

    As we witness the end of this sad tale, let us not forget that Microsoft tried to hijack Nokia's rabidly loyal userbase by planting one of their own as CEO and switching the company to WP, only to be universally rejected. They killed the top-selling smartphone system of the time (Symbian) and the new system that everyone was hyped for (MeeGo), all to peddle a late, rushed, still unfinished piece of crap that no one wanted.

    So, good fucking riddance to stillborn WP, the mobile equivalent of "this is why we can't have nice things" (and by "nice things" I mean MeeGo).

  2. Re:Just an opinion! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Non of the big phone sellers in my country sell Windows Phones anymore. They were pretty angry when Microsoft's flagship phone was sold for 750 euro when it finally arrived in our country only to see it appear in a low cost supermarket for only 199 euro 5 weeks later. They were still selling their phone for 750 euro while they were dumped in the supermarket. How do you explain your customers that you ripped them off, even when it is not your fault?
     
    I've read that these phone sellers couldn't even turn the phones back to Microsoft. They had to sell them with a loss to get rid of them.

  3. Re:Really? by drewsup · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Wait... your Windows phone gets updates??!!!
    Wow, you are the lucky one then, because my my Lumia 625 and 635 were promised Win 10,(along with 78% of the MS phone market), then left to die alone in the digital wilderness, like ALL MS hardware eventually does. So Skype,Messenger, and Whatsapp are all unsupported now, in fact, even with the latest FB update, you get stuck in the loop, where if someone messages you, the screen asks to download Messenger, which you cant, they couldnt even roll it back to letting FB receive/reply PM'S,even thought the icon is still there.
    No MS, you lost because your place in the phone arena because you ABANDONED it, it was a TOY to you, Like your first Surface was, Like the Zune was,like...well, ANYTHING not PC related.