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Microsoft Has Run Out of Windows Phone Stock (venturebeat.com)

Posted by msmash on from the thanks-for-the-fish dept.

Even if you really wanted to buy a Windows phone, Microsoft has run out of Windows Phone devices to sell to you. From a report: I've been watching the number of Windows Phone options on the Microsoft Store website dwindle for over two years now. I was honestly expecting them to disappear completely more than six months ago. It's 2018, and there are still two remaining phones. Last night, they both flipped over to "out of stock." The HP Elite x3 with dock, normally $799 but on sale for $299, and the Alcatel Idol 4S, normally $299 but on sale for $99.99, are officially out of stock. The third option for $169, the Alcatel Idol 4S with VR Goggles, is of course also out of stock.

50 of 81 comments (clear)

  1. Oh no! by jimtheowl · · Score: 5, Funny

    Next Story: "This guy bought the last Windows phone!"

    1. Re:Oh no! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      Story after that: Guy wonders why he bought a Windows Phone.

    2. Re:Oh no! by jellomizer · · Score: 2

      I expect it was some old guy where is current phone was broken. Perhaps a flip phone from the 1990's found these as a cheap phone for a replacement. With markdowns like that, it is a good price.

      If he is going to be using it to make phone calls, and perhaps some new fancy smart phone thinks like internet browsing, it is probably perfectly fine.

      Microsoft actually put some effort into the Windows Phone 8 and 10, vs the old Windows Phone powered by CE which just crammed the desktop UI onto a small phone. While I argue Windows 8 and 10 just crammed the phone interface on the desktop instead.

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    3. Re:Oh no! by Tablizer · · Score: 2

      Last Post! (from Windows phone)

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    4. Re:Oh no! by FatdogHaiku · · Score: 1

      It's not dead yet...
      https://www.google.com/

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    5. Re:Oh no! by youngone · · Score: 1

      Or... someone like my sister, who was conned by a slick sales guy who told her it was "the latest phone".
      Boy did she get pissy went I laughed at her.
      To be fair, it was not a bad phone for $150 (local money) nice camera.

    6. Re:Oh no! by rtb61 · · Score: 1

      What is dead though is https://www.computerworld.com/.... They could not even sell their own phone, blew $7.6 billion dollars not to mention destroying a company and unemploying it's staff . Now it's all Windows anal probe 10 and you have no right to privacy or the right to control what software is installed on your computer once you install windows anal probe 10. They are just a disgusting company.

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  2. Wow! by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 4, Funny

    That means they finally found a vict^H^H^H^H buyer for the 10th Windows Phone! ;)

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  3. So much for ... by CaptainDork · · Score: 1

    ... my 401(k) wherein invested it all in Windows fucking Phone!

    All gone, you say?

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  4. Which is really kind of sad by Xoc-S · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The Windows Phone was really well done. (We'll ignore Windows Phone 6 and before as if they never existed!) Much more coherent interface than either the iPhone or Android. And the battery life was way better. The problem with it was timing and apps. If it had come out before the iPhone, they would have ruled the market, and Apple would probably be suffering. But coming out after the iPhone and Android, they were continually playing catch up. They never got the app base, and without that it was chicken and egg...nobody bought it because it didn't have apps and no apps because nobody bought it.

    1. Re:Which is really kind of sad by jellomizer · · Score: 1

      I am not arguing your assessment of the quality of windows phone 8 and 10. I knew people who had them and loved them. But I doubt it would be like it is without the iPhone. Apple actually broke the mold with the original iPhone, multi-touch screen as a primary interface, Microsoft would had just made a blackberry clone. That said, By the time the iPhone was released Microsoft was getting a backlash of its dominance. The Zune wasn't bad, but people didn't want a Microsoft Zune, Their PC and Gaming Console was enough. And picking who you hated more Microsoft or Sony was a tough bet.

      If the Windows Phone came out before the iPhone, I don't think it would get the same love. Much of the iPhone sales were from Apple Fan Boys until the iPhone 3Gs where normal people started wanting them. There is a much smaller group of Microsoft Fan Boys back in 2007.

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    2. Re:Which is really kind of sad by David_Hart · · Score: 1

      The Windows Phone was really well done. (We'll ignore Windows Phone 6 and before as if they never existed!) Much more coherent interface than either the iPhone or Android. And the battery life was way better. The problem with it was timing and apps. If it had come out before the iPhone, they would have ruled the market, and Apple would probably be suffering. But coming out after the iPhone and Android, they were continually playing catch up. They never got the app base, and without that it was chicken and egg...nobody bought it because it didn't have apps and no apps because nobody bought it.

      It's also why the Windows RT version of the Microsoft Surface failed. Microsoft tried to make an iPad but they just can't seem to get traction with mobile App developers.

    3. Re:Which is really kind of sad by ansizfark · · Score: 1

      They still could have caught up if they had bitten that bullet and turned the Windows phone into a "loss leader" kind of device. Cut the price down super low, and allow them to become the cheap device of choice, build up a market, gradually work up the ladder. It's not like Microsoft doesn't have the kind of cash to have done that very thing.

    4. Re:Which is really kind of sad by IGnatius+T+Foobar · · Score: 1

      That's the problem. Microsoft couldn't have come out with a design like that before the iPhone, because Apple and Google had to show Microsoft what a usable smartphone should actually look like. Come on guys, this is Slashdot, we've known for decades that Microsoft isn't capable of coming up with good ideas by itself, they have to copy someone else. Unfortunately for Microsoft, the market was already saturated, so even if the product was better, it never stood a chance. It's the same problem the desktop Linux people have.

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    5. Re:Which is really kind of sad by UnknownSoldier · · Score: 1

      > Microsoft couldn't have come out with a design like that before the iPhone,

      /sarcasm What do you mean, man! They only had a ~11 year head start (from 1996 to 2007) and they STILL couldn't get it right with WinCE. Oh wait ...

      /Oblg. If MS designed the iPod packaging -- Ironically, the video was created internally by MS showing just how cluessless MS is/was in branding.

    6. Re:Which is really kind of sad by Lunix+Nutcase · · Score: 1

      The Windows Phone was really well done.

      Except that part where you’d buy a Windows Phone and your phone wouldn’t qualify for the next version? And then Microsoft did it again with the next major version? Yeah, that was really well done... NOT.

    7. Re:Which is really kind of sad by iamhassi · · Score: 2

      Windows phones were out before iphone. They were called Windows Mobile. They were rather popular too, only real problem is they needed a stylus, some apps downloaded to PC and transferred to the phone, and the touchscreen keyboard was small and sucked, but that was the way things were back then so we didn't know any different. Apple came out with full touchscreen designed for fingers, not stylus, and a well designed App Store built into the device.

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    8. Re:Which is really kind of sad by Lunix+Nutcase · · Score: 1

      The hubris in having that mock iPhone funeral is still funny as hell. That’ll go down as one of the dumber moments along with Ballmer saying no one would buy an iPhone because there was no physical keyboard.

    9. Re:Which is really kind of sad by Stormwatch · · Score: 1

      I have some complements to that:

      3) Nokia had their own new system, MeeGo, under development at the time. Nokia users were hyped for it. App devs and phone carriers had sunk sweat and money preparing for it. Everyone who actually used it says it was excellent. So when that was killed in favor of WP, simply because the new CEO was a Microsoft puppet, you have tons of people - a very vocal fanbase and several big companies - furious and ready to jump ship to anything but WP.

      4) Like that hadn't angered carriers enough, Microsoft bought Skype, which was seen as trying to steal their bread and butter. You just can't win in this market without carrier support.

      5) WP was born osborned. Even before the first Lumia devices came out, it was known they would not be upgradable to the next version of WP, so everyone avoided them in a critical moment.

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    10. Re:Which is really kind of sad by UnknowingFool · · Score: 1

      Virtually every 7.0 device got upgraded to 7.5 (unless the manufacturer abandoned it), ditto on 8.0 devices getting upgraded to 8.1.

      Which is not what the OP was talking about. He's talking about WP7 -> WP8. No device could be upgraded. Imagine not being able to upgrade a computer from Vista -> 7 or 7-> 8 or 8->10. We're not talking about a long time here. From XP -> Vista (5 years) might be tricky if the computer was really old but WP8 was released only 2 years after WP7.

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    11. Re:Which is really kind of sad by UnknowingFool · · Score: 1

      They never got the app base,

      Much of which I would blame on MS. From what I understand from the migration from WM6 -> WP7 -> WP8 required developers to write new apps each time. A developer would be lucky if it was as simple as opening the old app in Visual Studio and migrating, but often it would require re-writing different parts. With Android and iOS, your app would work for a few versions for the most part before you had to release a new version.

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    12. Re:Which is really kind of sad by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

      Microsoft couldn't have come out with a design like that before the iPhone, because Apple HAD to show Everyone else what a usable smartphone should actually look like.

      FTFY.

    13. Re:Which is really kind of sad by UnknowingFool · · Score: 1

      The Zune wasn't bad, but people didn't want a Microsoft Zune

      The problem for MS was that the Zune was a severely crippled and mediocre competitor to iPods that was released when Apple was leaving the market for smartphones. If you are a new competitor to an established player, you have to have something that makes you better than the established player. The one actual defining feature "squirting" was so crippled as to be useless.

      Add to that problem was the nonsensical marketing and advertising that MS employed. It seemed like by being obscure and mysterious, MS thought that would generate buzz for their product. If you are new player to a market, you want everyone to know what you do. Compare that to the iPhone first commercials as Apple was trying to enter the cell phone market. Notice the difference. With the iPhone ads, you know it's 1) a cell phone, 2) called "iPhone", 3) made by Apple, 4) has other functions like music, email, web, media, maps, 5) how it works, 6) when it is available, and 7) where you can get it AT&T and Apple stores. With the Zune commercial, you would have no idea what it is or what it does. Vaguely it might be music related.

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    14. Re:Which is really kind of sad by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

      The hubris in having that mock iPhone funeral is still funny as hell. That’ll go down as one of the dumber moments along with Ballmer saying no one would buy an iPhone because there was no physical keyboard.

      Hey, a lot of Slashtards essentially agreed with him...

    15. Re:Which is really kind of sad by Lunix+Nutcase · · Score: 1

      Yep just like how the iPad was panned here (remember when people said no one would buy one since it sounded like maxipad?) as well and Apple has sold 100s of millions of them.

    16. Re:Which is really kind of sad by Lunix+Nutcase · · Score: 1

      Stop being dense. I was clearly talking about the move from 7 to 8 and then from 8 to 10. This wasn’t some obscure thing that happened. It was all over the Internet.

    17. Re:Which is really kind of sad by greenwow · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Two friends of mine interviewed at Microsoft recently to work on Windows phones, so it sounds like they're trying again.

    18. Re:Which is really kind of sad by tazan · · Score: 1

      I was a windows mobile developer back then. I dropped out when they wanted me to learn a completely new tool set. If I'm going to do that, I might as well switch to Android.

    19. Re:Which is really kind of sad by Darkling-MHCN · · Score: 1

      The problem with it was timing and apps. .... and the fact apple had iTunes back in 2001... which made the iPod a huge success and a natural lead to a very successful launch of the iPhone in 2007.

      Microsoft sought a deal with the music industry for years and failed to broker it until 2004 and by that time the iPod craze was well underway. I believe it was Steve Jobs and the connections he brought with him from Pixar that helped catapult Apple into becoming the major player in the digital music and film industry.

      It was the access to content that was a key issue. What is the point of developing a platform for content you don't have access to?

    20. Re:Which is really kind of sad by Bert64 · · Score: 1

      Before the iphone they were selling windows mobile (the 6.x versions and below), had the iphone and android not come out they never would have developed windows phone 7+, they would have continued selling 6.x until they got bored of it.

      Development stagnates without competition, the reason windows mobile 6 was so terrible you'd like to forget it ever existed is because the competition wasn't much better at the time.

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    21. Re:Which is really kind of sad by Bert64 · · Score: 1

      The problem was also with the branding...

      If they brand it windows, people will assume its compatible with what they know as windows - ie desktops... When it's incompatible they become disappointed.
      The brand is also tarnished, windows is associated with crashing and malware but people put up with it because they now think computers are inherently unreliable and insecure, just look at all the movies and tv shows featuring "hackers" who gain access to anything they want at the drop of a hat. People have become to expect this as the norm and tolerate it on desktop computers, but they don't expect the same from other products.

      Apple made it very clear that the iphone and ipad were separate products, not compatible with existing macos software. Their marketing did not give users incorrect expectations, so they weren't disappointed with the product.

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    22. Re:Which is really kind of sad by Bert64 · · Score: 1

      They did, a lot of windows mobile devices were dirt cheap and most of the people who bought them did so for precisely that reason.
      But most of those users were replacing dumb or feature phones, and didn't make use of many of the features, or they always felt frustrated because they wanted an iphone but couldnt afford one.
      But as the dirt cheap chinese androids improved, windows phone becomes less and less attractive even at a low price.

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    23. Re:Which is really kind of sad by sonicmerlin · · Score: 2

      No, Metro UI sucks. Tiles are useless. It's ugly. It's cluttered. That's why it failed.

    24. Re:Which is really kind of sad by Darkling-MHCN · · Score: 1

      You've never used it right?

      The last thing anyone would say about the metro ui is that it's cluttered... especially compared to Android and iPhone. The UI is actually quite beautiful and I would describe it as very clean. Windows Phone failed despite it's UI... not because of it

    25. Re:Which is really kind of sad by Darkling-MHCN · · Score: 1

      It was terrible because it was designed for devices around in the 90s. It wasn't designed to be used with fingers, it was intended to be used with a stylus, and this was because the technology to operate a touch screen hand held mobile device with a finger just wasn't practical at the time. Plus the processing power was such that the interface had to be minimal, with no fancy transitions or animations. The issue was they had to rebuild the Windows Mobile OS from nearly the ground up and it took Microsoft way too long to bite the bullet, get it built and get it to market.

    26. Re:Which is really kind of sad by jellomizer · · Score: 1

      Reminds me of the OS/2 Warp vs Windows 95 Advertising.

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    27. Re:Which is really kind of sad by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

      Yep just like how the iPad was panned here (remember when people said no one would buy one since it sounded like maxipad?) as well and Apple has sold 100s of millions of them.

      No WiFi. Less space than a Nomad. Lame.

      Isn't that how it goes? ;-)

    28. Re:Which is really kind of sad by toddestan · · Score: 1

      What they really needed to was just stick with it. They kept on coming out with some new attempt at mobile, and when it didn't completely set the world on fire, they killed it off and replaced with some new, incompatible, hotness. Eventually, the Microsoft faithful, the early adopters, and the app developers had been burned enough times that they no longer took any of Microsoft's platforms seriously no matter how good they might have been. Microsoft never gave any of their platforms a chance to gain momentum - sure, maybe the user base initially was small and they were losing money, but eventually they may have managed to carve out a chunk of market.

      Really, it's kind of sad as we really need another player to help break up the Apple/Google duopoly, even if it is Microsoft.

  5. And probably was not by a person by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I think that most people who bought them were companies, I met 2 sales reps that use Windows phone and those are the only Windows phones I have ever seen.

    1. Re:And probably was not by a person by PPH · · Score: 2

      2 sales reps

      What were they selling? The last two Windows phones?

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  6. Really? by old_skul · · Score: 1

    They still sell Windows Phones? I thought that was a done deal years ago. Or was that Zune? /smh

    1. Re:Really? by fredgiblet · · Score: 1

      Nah, it's Zune. They stopped making Zunes a long-ass time ago. Got contacted by a customer with a 5 year old Zune that was broken and she wanted a replacement and it was like..."We haven't made ANY Zunes for years, that model for even longer and your warranty ran out 4 years ago."

      "But I never dropped it!"

      *sigh*

    2. Re:Really? by Bert64 · · Score: 1

      Under UK law you can claim for up to 6 years from the date of purchase against a manufacturing defect which caused a device to stop working, assuming the type of device in questionable is generally expected to last that long.

      Aside from reduced battery life, it's reasonable to expect a portable music player to continue working for much longer than 6 years so if that customer had bought the device in the UK they'd have a reasonable claim under consumer law.
      There are many ipods out there much older than this which still work. I still have an ipod mini which i bought in 2005 and it still works fine now.

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    3. Re:Really? by fredgiblet · · Score: 1

      Here in the US items have warranties, if you're out of warranty you're out of luck.

  7. It's 2018, and there are still two remaining phone by Trailer+Trash · · Score: 1

    "It's 2018, and there are still two remaining phones."

    Literally.

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  8. Small wonder by nospam007 · · Score: 1

    Since there were only 2 of them in stock.

  9. Well, I'm also surprised it took this long. by filesiteguy · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Being a Windows Mobile fan, especially Windows 10, I really liked where the devices were going. Microsoft even sent me a 950xl, which I mostly loved. (I very much disliked the power button placement, but the phone and camera were top-notch.)

    Since I abandoned Android after they dumbed it down in Jellybean, I decided to move on to an Iphone and have both a 7+ and a X. Great phones and the Microsoft apps like Office, OneNote, OneDrive, OfficeLens, Skype for Business, and Office 365 Admin work better on Ios than on Windows Mobile.

    Go figure.

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  10. You never go wrong with buying Microsoft by eclectro · · Score: 3, Interesting

    There's probably a lot of corporations stocking up on this phone who developed in-house applications that run on Windows phones and not Android. Part of the reason for this is that they could have much better control over the phone/environment once it was in a worker's hand. There are inventory tracking companies that still use it.

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  11. Did support for a couple years by fredgiblet · · Score: 1

    Surprised it took this long.

  12. Re:Does it run Linux? by Lunix+Nutcase · · Score: 1

    The phones aren’t for sale anymore. That’s the whole point of the submission...