Is windows mobile really dying?

[ven07]

I don't know if I'm missing something here but how can "Windows Mobile" be dying when it is now the same thing as Windows on your tablet and PC? Wouldn't Windows 10 have to essentially be dead in order for phones running Windows 10 to be dead? Unless you're strictly speaking about Microsoft making its own smartphone hardware? Don't even see that completely ceasing in the near future.

Need to call in the NSA.. you're too smart! hehe

 

[Bittah Pupil]

If Windows Phone is dying, I'm sticking with it until the end and then will look to switch. For now, it does what I need it to do: call, text, MMS, GPS, some web browsing. I use very few apps. For others, many various apps are important so I totally understand their need to switch to another platform.

 

[wibgyor]

Sometimes I find it funny how some people are hell bent on proving that windows phone is dead. If its dead for you, good..if its alive for you, good..whats the fuss about.
I am using a Lumia 1520 and I am excited by the path windows 10 is taking. If it catches up my stand will be vidicated, if not then I'll switch systems when its time to upgrade. As far as MS is concerned they are pretty clear they are not going to abandon windows mobile/phone whatever you wish to call it. "If no one else produces it, we will"- Satya Nadella.
So sit back and relax. If you can't get your work done on windows phone because of lack of apps/functionality etc then you must invest into a system where your work gets done. After all that should be the priority. Every OS has some pros and cons that doesn't mean we start castigating people who are using a system we don't like. To each his own. Live and let live.

 

[Kevin Hill2]

Everyone here has a valid point, and I put my 2 cents worth in, but it all boils down to one thing, We are the ones trying to kill it. Microsoft is doing everything it can to make it better, and we tear it down as fast as they build it. I would love all my local and baking app's to be on Windows phone, but I just pin the webpage and I'm good to go. But yes, we are the ones killing it.

 

[LightenSkies]

All this bickering and all. I believe Microsoft can pull things together if they try. I know the Lumia 950 xl may look plain to so many people but to so many people it looks nice. Honestly I like the clean smooth look nothing fancy and so on like all the other phones out there that people go nuts over. Im enjoying the Lumia 950 XL with really good hardware and I got mine like 2 days ago granted there some bugs but name one OS in a real world that don't have no bugs?... Sorry to tell you but all OS have bugs and don't try to just say this or that doesn't cause no matter what they all do. After playing around with my Lumia 950 XL my first smartphone I ever paid for and well over 100 bucks and I have to say I am loving the device. Its a shame that devs don't see how good Windows Mobile 10 really is cause you know if there was a mid range phone of windows mobile 10 out there around the 300 bucks with good hardware even for gaming. I feel Windows Mobile 10 could deliver but it also need the developers and if they don't open there eyes and at least try then of course no one will come. Granted Microsoft could and should advertise more of what makes a Lumia 950/XL an awesome phone even if its not so catchy... Hell the first iPhone look ugly and honestly more ugly then the Lumia 950s but that just me. Point is with many of us here we all hope and want to see Windows Mobile become so much more and im sure it can as time goes on. People are just so suck into apple and android and both fight like cat and dogs beating each other of which OS is better. And honestly to me none of the OS are any better there is no Perfect Operating System in the world. Cause if there was. Then apple and android and windows would be screwed... All I can say is this.... Long Live Windows Mobile... It made it this far And its not giving up just yet.

 

[wgs84]

Sometimes I find it funny how some people are hell bent on proving that windows phone is dead. If its dead for you, good..if its alive for you, good..whats the fuss about.

Well said. I have a 640 with .218 installed. It still needs a little polishing, but I still remember what the very first builds were like, and W10m has without a doubt improved, and with the Anniversary update on the horizon, I think it's still worth using. But if I ever feel that W10m isn't cutting it for me anymore, I would just simply switch back to Android, and that would be that. No big deal. There's no need to pontificate about the switch.

 

[FlyHalabi]

I know WP failed in the past, but to be honest, W10M is doing great now. Updates keep coming, they are listening to consumers, the system is usable now and responsive. What Microsoft is doing with publishing apps for iOs and Android is smart in my opinion. If apps are what makes te system, then they are on the right track, it will be easy for people to move to WP in the future when they see a lot of the apps they're using are actually native to WP10. After all, MS is a software giant. To sum it up, moving up slowly but steadily is way better than starting a large marketing campaign and then let a big number of people down... slowly but steady is the way IMO.

 

[Tasha Jaiswal]

I know WP failed in the past, but to be honest, W10M is doing great now. Updates keep coming, they are listening to consumers, the system is usable now and responsive. IMO.

The problem lies here only. The OS is only responsive and usable and nothing more than that. For me Windows 10 mobile is not as fluid as WP8.1 I used windows 10 mobile for a very long time but then eventually got fed up with so many bugs, slowing down of phone and pathetic battery life. I did hard reset almost 3 times but nothing helped. I hope MS soon develops Window10Mobile so that it becomes as fluid as the WP8.1

 

[PrinceM]

Whether it's dying or not depends on what Microsoft wants with the platform and how much they need to sell before they start making money. I don't think Windows on mobile will gain market share in the consumer market in the near future (a few years from now on). They need the popular apps (such as Snapchat), it's as simple as that. Hopefully Snapchat is dead in a few years.

However, I do think that if MS starts pushing out a proper built phone with Windows x64 (or at least x86), then I believe they will gain market share in the business market. And I don't mean just the physical phone, I mean the complete package - from physical phone to the OS itself. The 950 XL could almost be there, if it were not for the bad build quality.

Personally, I can't wait to use my phone as my laptop at work! And, to be honest, I do not care about any app if I can throw my laptop away and use my phone instead!

 

[gm08]

I Windows 10 as an OS is gorgeous, if you make it look gorgeous. And that's part of what makes the phone. And that's why the focus was on the screen.

Do you mind posting a printscreen?

I need some ideas to improve mine

 

[CR35]

I love my 950XL and W10M still feels as the next step in mobile computing. However I'm currently not recommending it to friends and family. Maybe still for my parents, who just use whatsapp and facebook and not much else. However a friend still upgraded his 920 to a 950, despite my advice, he should look into switching for an Android or iPhone. He likes the camera and interface over Android's interface and Apple is too restrictive.

edit: also I love the whole universal apps. I have a high end IEM(headset), and I was listening to .flac files on my PC. But groove suppported it, so I was using groove. Then I thought, my Lumia 950XL should also be able to play it since it is basically the same groove App. So I transferred the files to my phone, and yes it plays .flac!

 

[Florin_Anghel]

I think it doesn't matter if it lives or dies, Microsoft tends to kill their apps/services and restart them on a pattern (as soon as they are working, they kill them and redo them more badly than they were).

Zune -> Xbox Music (trash) -> Groove (trash at the beginning, took 9 months to make it usable).
Messaging (fb mess integrated - was trash then it got polished, it worked at the end, was quite nice) -> (killed fb mess) Messaging standalone, only sms -> messaging + skype (trash, then it was polished and it worked: awesome) -> killed it! messaging everywhere available now (trash, another 6 months probably) -> Skype UWP (probably trash looking at the history).
OS design (pivots - awesome!!) -> hamburger button -> now they are ditching the hamburger button again because Android is moving away from this design. Inconsistency all over the OS and apps. Hamburger on the top, on the bottom, ellipsis button instead of hamburger button in core apps.
People hub (awesome square for people) -> killed it! (now tile square shows circles of people inside - no need to say it's trash.
People hub (fb and twitter integration) -> killed it! (twitter no longer uses people hub, fb does not work properly with hub).
Lumia Camera (awesome app for taking shots) -> killed it! (windows camera - trash, updated -> trash, updated again -> trash, another 50 updates -> still trash).
Here Maps (great app) -> killed it! (Maps - trash!)
Xbox games (live integration - awesome achievements) -> killed it! (no more achievements, games are kinda standalone).
Alarm clock (it rang!!!) -> it doesn't wake us up anymore from time to time (trash).

 

[N_LaRUE]

The whole dying question is somewhat meaningless. The main reason behind that is because W10 is universal. The reason why MS is concentrating on W10 PC is because that's where the market is, but if they can get people to start producing W10 universal apps then W10M gets them by default. I don't think it matters about the actual platform because it will always be there.

The real question is, will universal apps succeed and will W10M benefit from that?

We all know at this point in time that W10M/Phone is a mere 2% of market share with little likely to happen this year unless a load of OEMs come on board. But even then there might be little movement due to the W10M community mindset of updates. That of course doesn't mean W10M is dead it just means it's on hold. But what does the future bring? We simply don't know.

The main issues surrounding uptake of W10M is about apps at this point in time and the lack of them. We can all talk about future this and Continuum that but that means little to the person just wanting to chat with their friends on a common app or whatever might be missing. W10M is a good platform, there's nothing wrong with it if it does what you want, however, it's not doing what the majority of the public wants currently and until it does it won't move very far from where it is now. As sad as that may seem to the fans.

It will take a very long time for the mind shift to happen from where we are now. Tech may run at a fast pace but group thinking doesn't. I also think W10 in general has a while to go before it becomes the common OS in general. So we're at the 'wait and see' stage still with W10M and W10.

 

[Timbre70]

I like their new calculator on w10m. Hope they don't kill it!

 

[scottinmd]

I suspect there are no threads on the Android or IOS forums asking this question. That should speak volumes.

 

[justforsabbath]

I think Windows Mobile 10 really has what it takes to be a great number 3 OS. I feel Microsoft is going wrong with its entire approach towards mobile strategy. Instead of looking to take on iOS and Android, they need to create a good healthy space for themselves. This can be done if they release fewer niche phones(Could be the Surface phones) and create an eco-system around them by creating exclusive apps that are unique to WM10. Hardware wise too they need to create something unique and I feel Camera department is where their expertise lies.

W10M OS experience is great so far, you almost have all the essential apps required though not the latest updated one's but usable apps. The new Outlook email experience is great and gives you experience similar to Gmail. Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, Clients for Hangouts, Dropbox, Evernote, Office, Whatsapp, Uber, YouTube alternatives all are easily available. Soon expect new Facebook app to hit the Windows Store. Besides that, if MS can convince Google to release their Apps for W10M I see them create a good space for themselves in the Mobile industry.

 

[SFabio]

AS what is going on by now, It wont die, just give ppl some time to release that they need what they have been using before smartphones, which is a PC, then when they can't do more and reach the top of other solution limits (IOS and Android) then they will sure move to Windows Phone, i can see smart ppl around me has started to make the step

At the end, the majority of ppl using MS OS.

 

[Jean Claude Lopez]

For all intents and purposes WP is dead for the average punter. Maybe just maybe the corporate world will pick up WP and MS can end up with a miniscule market share but that is the best case scenario.
Love my WP but lets face it, way to little, way to late. WP is a dead man walking.
HD DVD died a quick death when it was in a far healthier state than WP currently is.

Not exatly the same. HD DVD was a media format that died because it wasn't picked by major manufacturers such as Sony Playstation and Netlfix video rentals, etc. It's not the same. WP is a platform on its own, such as if I buy it, doesn't depend any other manufacturer to survive.

 

[cmucodemonkey]

I think Windows Mobile 10 really has what it takes to be a great number 3 OS. I feel Microsoft is going wrong with its entire approach towards mobile strategy. Instead of looking to take on iOS and Android, they need to create a good healthy space for themselves. This can be done if they release fewer niche phones(Could be the Surface phones) and create an eco-system around them by creating exclusive apps that are unique to WM10. Hardware wise too they need to create something unique and I feel Camera department is where their expertise lies.

W10M OS experience is great so far, you almost have all the essential apps required though not the latest updated one's but usable apps. The new Outlook email experience is great and gives you experience similar to Gmail. Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, Clients for Hangouts, Dropbox, Evernote, Office, Whatsapp, Uber, YouTube alternatives all are easily available. Soon expect new Facebook app to hit the Windows Store. Besides that, if MS can convince Google to release their Apps for W10M I see them create a good space for themselves in the Mobile industry.

All the essential apps? "Essential" is a very subjective word. For example several large banks do not have mobile banking apps in the Windows Store yet and whenever you ask them about it their response is "Well, umm, yeah... its not something we are looking to do anytime soon..."

 

[Queen Kong1]

It's not Microsoft they are updating , but more the Developers and Apps, like Snapchat!... For some people, they use a phone just to text/calls..Other it's Apps... these Apps are updated with new features like face book live, Hell if the official Facebook was released, that alone would help since it's prob the number one App. One thing i know, I'm sticking with my Lumia i have, and Android and not budging for 3 months, if nothing changed in Apps the Lumia goes in the draw and the Android comes out f/time since i don't like IOS Apple... So for me it's between Lumia or Android right now.. I am liking some of the new WP 10 features though like Messaging everywhere..