News: Microsoft's future in mobile?

[Allen Rhodes]

I swear..... Can someone show me a mobile OS that doesn't have bugs? I work in an office abundant in iPhones, they have bugs too. Where does this "we deserve better" sense of entitlement come from? The redstone builds are pretty damn good, you guys. I don't know where the complaints are coming from. Oh WAIT!! Could it be complaints from people running a beta on a device not meant to run it? Hrmmm. MS doesn't need to employ thousands upon thousands to develop a phone line that, to date, hasn't been that successful. They gambled with Nokia and were not close to successful, so sell it off and back to the drawing board. Also, let's not forget that they are pushing UWP which will run on all devices. It's not like they have to have a dedicated team for that. Let the Surface team develop a phone, then yell the sky is falling if that fails, keeping in mind we will probably never hit 10% share so be careful on what you consider success. They have said time and time and time and time again they aren't getting out of the phone business. They are pushing Continuum, and last I checked, that on phones. They won't best Apple or any other brand at this point, they've admitted that. None of this is "news", it's "news" to the easily scared.

 

[michael Otlowski]

LOL, did I hit a nerve? My ANDROID work phone works fine, all of my ANDROID work phones have worked fine. Why would any mobile operating system need to be in the beta stage for as long as WP10 has been?? They released (2) premium phones with a beta OS, WHY??

 

[Soma Sekhar1]

---This may seem more like complaining. I had hopes for Lumia(or affordable windows 10 mobile?) and now it seems that there might not be any more Lumia---
I am using a Lumia 640 XL from the last 2 months running production build of windows 10. I have used fast ring insider builds for 3 weeks and switched back to production build. Prior to this, I used the first generation Moto G for a little over 2 years and that phone still works fine (I am not a gamer and I use my phone for emails, messaging, a few apps, maps and web browsing). And before that, I used a Sony Xperia Ray phone for almost a year.

So I have used Android almost for over 3 years and have been using windows for the last 2 months. The reason I switched to a Lumia was windows 10 OS and UWP apps. I had high hopes for windows 10 mobile though I miss a few things after switching to windows. For example, after I turn on my bluetooth, my Moto G automatically connects to my previously paired devices if they are available, where as in windows I have to manually connect. When I play music on my Moto G, the controls are always available where as in windows, the controls are available only when I open the app or I am on lock screen. I am okay with the app gap as I am not using that many number of apps.
Overall when I compare my experience on Android with that of windows (even if I do not consider app gap), I feel that my experience on Android is much more better than what I have in windows(except may be live tiles). My Moto G just works. If I turn on the mobile data or wifi on my android, they work. In my Lumia 640 XL, its a hit or miss. Even then, I believed in MS thinking that when people move to windows 10 on desktops, that would be the moment people realize how powerful the experience of having windows 10 on both mobile and desktop and meanwhile MS would improve the windows 10 mobile OS. Now it seems like they may improve windows 10 mobile, but there might not be any more Lumias. This would mean that there might not be any more affordable windows 10 mobile devices, as MS has shifted focus to enterprise. Also, MS did not mentioned India(I am not saying it should, but its a big turn off for me atleast) in the list of countries where its focus would be.
Overall it appears to me that MS has given up on consumer space and I may have to switch back to Android.

 

[Great deal]

Ive decided to stay. Using a 1020 as a daily driver, does everything i need it to (I run a company) and will get the X3 when its out. I cant bring myself to give Apple any money and thieving Google can keep their grubby mitts off my data thanks. Looking back the best thing thats happened is the realisation I dont need to upgrade phones at the rate manufacturers and 'marketing' teams dicatate. People see my phone and recognise it as the one with the amazing camera. Bring on the X3 and then the Surface line which will boost more manufacturers to jump on. I 'hope' MS can become the darling of the business world like Blackberry was.

 

[rromerof]

It is known.

This has already been talked about as the "retrenchment" phase for the mobile branch of the OS.

"Retrenchment": a fancy word to say: "We f*cked up Windows Mobile and we don't know what to do"

I have only a question: If this "retrenchment" was going to happen no matter what, why didn't Microsoft do it before, let's say, before releasing a crap OS as it is now W10m? I would've preferred a pack of visual tweaks and some new "features" a la WP7.8 and then wait a little more for W10m instead of a mess full of bugs and design inconsistencies.

 

[squire777]

LOL, did I hit a nerve? My ANDROID work phone works fine, all of my ANDROID work phones have worked fine. Why would any mobile operating system need to be in the beta stage for as long as WP10 has been?? They released (2) premium phones with a beta OS, WHY??

If you're using ANDROID and happy with then why are you so upset about W10M? WHY??

 

[Great deal]

There is a much bigger picture here than a simple 1 or 2 year time frame. Take a step back and look at whats happened with the journey to get to Onecore and Windows 10 everywhere. MS are doing the right thing from a strategy perspective, few hiccups along the way yes, amazing accomplishment if you look at the bigger picture. I know many cant see it right now, good times are coming, probably best to get iPhone or Android for a year.

 

[Gregory Newman]

Folks now that the smoke has cleared here's the deal with Microsoft smart phones 1= it still intends to make Microsoft designed smart phones . A Reliable insider says Microsoft Labs are designing the new Windows smart phones. Microsoft may no longer Use the "Lumia brand name anymore. 2= Microsoft it appears will no longer have it's own factories to make Windows smart phones for them but design their windows smart phones and pay Foxconn or others to make their Windows smart phones and resell them to cell phone carriers, Businesses, and individuals who want to buy them from Microsoft's online and physical stores or third party stores. 3= some Windows 8.1 smart phones will get the update to Windows 10 Mobiles final Redstone update but some people will have to replace them with the Lumia 650, or 950, or 950 XL which already use Windows 10 mobile smart phone's OS.

 

[SeeVuPlay]

I swear..... Can someone show me a mobile OS that doesn't have bugs? I work in an office abundant in iPhones, they have bugs too. Where does this "we deserve better" sense of entitlement come from? The redstone builds are pretty damn good, you guys. I don't know where the complaints are coming from. Oh WAIT!! Could it be complaints from people running a beta on a device not meant to run it? Hrmmm. MS doesn't need to employ thousands upon thousands to develop a phone line that, to date, hasn't been that successful. They gambled with Nokia and were not close to successful, so sell it off and back to the drawing board. Also, let's not forget that they are pushing UWP which will run on all devices. It's not like they have to have a dedicated team for that. Let the Surface team develop a phone, then yell the sky is falling if that fails, keeping in mind we will probably never hit 10% share so be careful on what you consider success. They have said time and time and time and time again they aren't getting out of the phone business. They are pushing Continuum, and last I checked, that on phones. They won't best Apple or any other brand at this point, they've admitted that. None of this is "news", it's "news" to the easily scared.

What's hilarious is if you read an article with the same type topics from a year ago....everything in the comments is repeated. Watch....next Kantar Or IDC reports......you will see:

Windows phone is dead
Microsoft has 1 % market share
No apps
Bugs in the beta version
I have moved on to Android and much happier
I have moved on to Apple and much happier
Satya Nadella wants to kill mobile
No one wants a Windows phone
It's over
and so on....

It's been this way for 2-3 years LOL!

 

[Scotty_doesknow]

I'll never understand the logic of claiming windows mobile is "dead/alive". Windows is returning to the older days of pocket pc & transitioning towards vocal interaction via the OS. This change is a good thing.

 

[ArtificiallyYours]

Nokia fanboys and people in Finland can blame MS all they want but that company was already heading down the drain before MS got to them. Considering the state of Android OEMs not named Samsung I doubt they would have survived going with Android either.

Anyway I hope the memo that was posted today reminds people that Windows Mobile isn't dead.

Nokia: "Android SMART phones will NEVER take off!"

Teenie boppers seen pulling out their fifteenth Samsung Android in class

EDIT for clarity:

Yes. Nokia did make underhanded to very blatant suggestions about how their original (Not Windows Phone) platform will never be penetrated by Google, Apple, etc. Now maybe that they are only a name on a phone/tablet their idea of living off reputation without a bridge ironically worked? Pretty sad way to go. Nokia's PR was toxic nonsense.

I'm not cheering for the situation in W10 Mobile land, but I ain't kissing butts for the other team, I just want portability to become better as a whole.

Posted on my Windows 7 Netbook, because my 2010 HP died before I could upgrade to Windows 10...

 

[Queen Kong1]

Me also Android is fine, always updates, no lag, well least not for me on lollipop and the new N looks good.....Windows 10 is in the draw sitting its just to buggy right now. I also only download the Apps i need mostly paid, and use Nova Launcher.

 

[Queen Kong1]

I don't think the word lag means what you think it means, but anyway. Enjoy Apple.

One day someone is going to have to tell me what they're doing to get this so called lag....

Mostly from Jellybean days, things have improved since KitKat..Id even go as far as saying IOS is buggier than my Android.

 

[ioioos]

I swear..... Can someone show me a mobile OS that doesn't have bugs? I work in an office abundant in iPhones, they have bugs too. Where does this "we deserve better" sense of entitlement come from? The redstone builds are pretty damn good, you guys. I don't know where the complaints are coming from. Oh WAIT!! Could it be complaints from people running a beta on a device not meant to run it? Hrmmm. MS doesn't need to employ thousands upon thousands to develop a phone line that, to date, hasn't been that successful. They gambled with Nokia and were not close to successful, so sell it off and back to the drawing board. Also, let's not forget that they are pushing UWP which will run on all devices. It's not like they have to have a dedicated team for that. Let the Surface team develop a phone, then yell the sky is falling if that fails, keeping in mind we will probably never hit 10% share so be careful on what you consider success. They have said time and time and time and time again they aren't getting out of the phone business. They are pushing Continuum, and last I checked, that on phones. They won't best Apple or any other brand at this point, they've admitted that. None of this is "news", it's "news" to the easily scared.

So on one hand, you are saying, stop complaining, the bugs are probably because your are running a version non standard. On the other hand, you are defending the capability of the OS but only in the context of non standard redstone?

Its another case of 'its great, because the 'next' version will be epic.

I dropped out of developer builds and now only use stock. My 930 took to Win10 well at first, but it's getting worse by the day. The lag and stuttering growing, the amount of reboots is growing, and major apps like Facebook are starting to behave very erratic.

As a general user, like most of the 1% market share, I just want my phone to work, not a promise that it will work soon. Things are getting worse and loosing 1,800 staff isn't going to make anything better.

The whole thing is mismanagement, not game changing long term plan. Here in the UK they were pushing 12% market share and they threw it all away. It would have been simple to keep 8.1 going on all Lumia, then get 10 working behind the scenes for the next gen.

Building any market share in a saturated market is hard, and in Europe, they had been getting a good foothold. By mucking everyone around, not only do they kill their market share, they increase the chances of those people never returning because they feel they were burned.

I had friends who's only computer was a phone, and they had windows phones. They've all jumped ship now, and they love their new home. Onecore means nothing to them and nor will it.

 

[Ian_Superfly]

What's hilarious is if you read an article with the same type topics from a year ago....everything in the comments is repeated. Watch....next Kantar Or IDC reports......you will see:

Windows phone is dead
Microsoft has 1 % market share
No apps
Bugs in the beta version
I have moved on to Android and much happier
I have moved on to Apple and much happier
Satya Nadella wants to kill mobile
No one wants a Windows phone
It's over
and so on....

It's been this way for 2-3 years LOL!

You could say that they have been pretty accurate...
During these 2-3 years WP/W10M has lost almost all the market shares it had.

On the other hand we have also been reading:
?Now when Nokia Belongs to Microsoft, the success Is coming?
?When W10 is ready, the success is coming?
?When a new ?high end phone? is released, the success is coming?
?When W10M is ready, the apps AND success is coming?

But nothing is happening (except that Microsoft closes down Nokia related offices while the sales volume is declining).
BUT, now we hear ?When we have the Surface phone, the success is coming?
LOL!

 

[Godson Arun Kumar]

I was disheartened this morning when a coworker asked me if I had seen the news that MS might be discontinuing their Lumia line of smartphones.
I was shocked when I did not see any mention of this on the Windows Central site, or say even in these forums... Microsoft may have just killed its Lumia line. Good riddance - CNET Microsoft just hinted it's the end of Lumia phones | The Verge
I am not intending to troll, as I am rooting for MS. I sure hope that whatever strategy they have in mind grows the market-share. Surface phone? Sure hope so. Or, maybe they can somehow incentivize hardware mfg's to continue to roll out some good Win10M phones.
[Edit: Just noticed that there's a "Microsoft News and Rumors" forum... Could an admin kindly move my mis-placed post? ]

The CNET article heading doesn't complement the news that is portrayed inside the article in any way. This is an attempt by the naysayers to kill off windows on phones in peoples' minds at a time when MS is retrenching from the business. Hoping MS comes back in a big way either via the surface phone or other OEM windows 10 devices to give windows on phones the success it so deserves.

 

[RumoredNow]

Me also Android is fine, always updates...

For whom does it always update?



Marshmallow is at under 10% penetration. Nearly one third of users are 2 (almost 3 now) versions back on KitKat, 20% are still on Jelly Bean - so between KK and JB that is over half the users.

It's so bad with users never getting updates the FCC and FTC are launching a joint inquirey to find out WHY so many devices go without even rudimentary and demonstrably necessary security patches.
FTC, FCC want to know more about how carriers and manufacturers issue security updates | Android Central

Outside of the Nexus program, updates are an exception - not the rule.

My wife has a Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5. Absolutely beautiful machine and she paid plenty for it when it came out. WAY more than her current touchscreen laptop for crying in the mud. Updates? What updates... She received one update and is now stuck on Lollipop 5.0.2 and hanging on to rumors that Marshmallow may come to the Tab S sometime, whenever, if Uncle Sammy feels like it... By contrast my lowly and discounted Nexus 7 (2013) is running 6.0.1 and gets monthly security patches.

Android pushes updates, but way too few see them...


Source for graphic: https://developer.android.com/about/dashboards/index.html

 

[Ian_Superfly]

Old versions of Android can run the latest version of MS Office but WP8.1 can not run the latest MS Office...

 

[kaktus1389]

I think the main problem of MS is that they did not advertised even nearly as much as their competitors did.
As it goes for where it is now, I like redstone builds and we still have about a year until it gets released and one year of time is imho enough time to polish out the OS and make it even better.

 

[dorelse]

Old versions of Android can run the latest version of MS Office but WP8.1 can not run the latest MS Office...

True...but the 8.1 to WM10 is no different than the move from GB to ICS back in the Android days. GB support was very quickly dropped with many apps required to be on ICS. Leaving legacy versions in the dust is one way to push folks to move forward...and MS is all about Win10 (as they should be).