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Windows Phone Dies Today (theverge.com)
From a report: Microsoft is killing off Windows Phone 8.1 support today, more than three years after the company first introduced the update. The end of support marks an end to the Windows Phone era, and the millions of devices still running the operating system. While most have accepted that the death of Windows Phone occurred more than a year ago, AdDuplex estimates that nearly 80 percent of all Windows-powered phones are still running Windows Phone 7, Windows Phone 8, or Windows Phone 8.1. All of these handsets are now officially unsupported, and only 20 percent of all Windows phones are running the latest Windows 10 Mobile OS.
But they never would have been first. The iPhone was a fundamental reimagining of the mobile phone, a generational change. After the iPhone razed the landscape of clunky, carrier controlled phones, others, like Android and Windows phone, were able to step into the new world. The iPhone was the big bang of mobility devices.
Microsoft was not late to the market: they have been working on phones for a long time, and PDAs before that. Windows Mobile on phones predates both the iPhone and Android.
For whatever reason, Microsoft was just never able to get mobile right.
But they never would have been first. The iPhone was a fundamental reimagining of the mobile phone, a generational change. After the iPhone razed the landscape of clunky, carrier controlled phones, others, like Android and Windows phone, were able to step into the new world. The iPhone was the big bang of mobility devices.
That's not entirely true. There was the IBM Simon and the Palm Pilot phones and blackberries before iPhone. There were also other "dumb" phones that could run apps. I had one that predated iPhone.
Apple were just the first to put a really solid device together that worked well and appealed to a large market.
It's not impossible to believe that someone at Microsoft could have thought "Let's make a better version of the Palm Pilot Phone" before Apple had the idea... they just didn't. Or if they did, the stupidity of the MS management squashed the idea until it was too late.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
My coworker has a new Windows phone. He likes it. If you don't need a million apps then it's not a bad product. The UI I think is pretty nice; what fails on the desktop works on the phone.
However, it's not dead because even the summary says there's a still Windows 10 phone. All that died was the previous version. That in itself should be the story, the Microsoft is accelerating the planned obsolescence in their rush to emulate Apple. But it's not dead. I know it's a Slashdot meme to declare things dead at the first sign of sniffles, but sheesh...