News: Microsoft's future in mobile?

[Rhody#WP]

Ms have very bright future in smartphone coz uwp and once Surface Phone realize Microsoft turn around every thing

I never understood why people think UWP is going to save W10M. The thinking is that the W10M apps will come when companies make W10 apps for the PC. But there is no reason to make a W10 app for the PC, because the PC has a web browser. I use my Surface 3 Pro every day without opening a single app. It is never going to happen. If anything, UWP would be more successful working the other way if W10M had any market share.

 

[FXi2]

Google made tarnished premium phones and then randomly dropped support for them when they felt like it. They were never really premium enough to compete with Apple because they didn't want to harm their 3rd parties. That has changed in the last 2 generations, but it's only just changed and only somewhat. If you compare a 6P to the S7 you don't really find them on an even footing. A consumer compares those and goes with the Samsung. Surface tablets did go premium and have done very well against Apple, albeit it has taken time and it hardly killed Apple, but that's a good thing. Google may, with the new direction, do better now that they are putting high end behind their devices. But only 2 years of support? That's insane for what their devices cost and who they are marketing to. But might still work. We'll see.

 

[calibos70]

Smart phone market is saturated. Don't see MS being any more successful than the HTC i had for a year.

 

[Ryujingt3]

It's easy to understand why Microsoft are trying to create hardware that is 'a whole new category and paradigm for mobile devices'. Because they've completely missed the boat already they are now trying to reinvent a new kind of boat instead that they think people will want.

 

[anon(50597)]

It's easy to understand why Microsoft are trying to create hardware that is 'a whole new category and paradigm for mobile devices'. Because they've completely missed the boat already they are now trying to reinvent a new kind of boat instead that they think people will want.

Absolutely. Companies like BlackBerry and MS didn't think the mobile market would take off like it did. Now both are changing their focus.

Sent from mTalk on my SP4

 

[Ryujingt3]

Absolutely. Companies like BlackBerry and MS didn't think the mobile market would take off like it did. Now both are changing their focus.

Sent from mTalk on my SP4

So imagine, at this year's Build, if Microsoft backtrack and allow W10M to run Android apps again. Not sure how they would get around the Play Store and Google's rules for that, but I imagine the sudden doom and gloom would disappear and everyone would proclaim Android as Microsoft's savior and this as the fourth coming of Windows Mobile.

It would make sense for Microsoft to have this as their backup plan. That is why they make sure both iOS and Android get all the usual Microsoft apps. Just somehow allow the handful of devices that get Creators Update to run Android apps emulated as part of W10M and many people might start to see W10M as an attractive option again. This is something that Paul Thurrott also suspects is Microsoft's plan.

 

[anon(50597)]

So imagine, at this year's Build, if Microsoft backtrack and allow W10M to run Android apps again. Not sure how they would get around the Play Store and Google's rules for that, but I imagine the sudden doom and gloom would disappear and everyone would proclaim Android as Microsoft's savior and this as the fourth coming of Windows Mobile.

It would make sense for Microsoft to have this as their backup plan. That is why they make sure both iOS and Android get all the usual Microsoft apps. Just somehow allow the handful of devices that get Creators Update to run Android apps emulated as part of W10M and many people might start to see W10M as an attractive option again. This is something that Paul Thurrott also suspects is Microsoft's plan.

Lets hope not. There are enough Android devices flooding the market. Need more alternatives.

Sent from mTalk on my SP4

 

[Ryujingt3]

I see what you mean but this would be the easiest option for MS. After all, they have tried many times to reboot Windows mobile and failed. It makes sense to piggyback off an established OS now, same as BlackBerry.

 

[anon(50597)]

I see what you mean but this would be the easiest option for MS. After all, they have tried many times to reboot Windows mobile and failed. It makes sense to piggyback off an established OS now, same as BlackBerry.

But MS has an OS used on other devices (PC's, tablets, etc), BB does not. BB had no other choice.

Sent from mTalk on my SP4

 

[sporosarcina]

Yes W10M is probably dead, long live W10ARM. I expect we will see a small tablet (I can dream about a folding version, but guessing it will be a phablet) that will have W10ARM, CShell, Pen Support, and Telephony (maybe eSIM).

 

[fdalbor]

The only trouble is with the plan if you are going to run Android apps you might as well use a Android phone to do it. Just my opinion but this does not seem to be a viable option.

 

[Drael646464]

I never understood why people think UWP is going to save W10M. The thinking is that the W10M apps will come when companies make W10 apps for the PC. But there is no reason to make a W10 app for the PC, because the PC has a web browser. I use my Surface 3 Pro every day without opening a single app. It is never going to happen. If anything, UWP would be more successful working the other way if W10M had any market share.

Because you don't use them, nobody does?. There's a browser on phones too. Web pages are slow next to apps, not as refined in UI. Its also a cluttered way to experience something, nested in a browser. Something clean and simple about loading up Instagram or facebook, in the app, and scrolling through. An almost magazine like experience.

Suggest you check out my poll on this topic, people do use UWP on desktop, laptop and tablets. It seems to be pretty much most people do, to some degree, but some don't at all, like yourself.

You probably don't just because you haven't really tried it, as an experience. People are like that with habits. I suggest you give some high quality apps from the windows store a whirl. See what you think of the experience Give a good test drive first like...

 

[Drael646464]

But MS has an OS used on other devices (PC's, tablets, etc), BB does not. BB had no other choice.

Sent from mTalk on my SP4

MS has an OS that is indispendable on other devices, and simply more powerful on others. People seem to forget this -android and chromeOS will never power a publishing company, a telephony company a university or anything where complex software has already built up a massive "ecosystem". Anyone who spends a lot of time on various tablets never stops at android. At worst, they'd stop at an ipad. But neither Samsung not apple have had growth in tablets for years.

MS has far more likelihood of moving into phones, via tablets, than google has of moving into enterprise and servers, via the "chromebook".

 

[Drael646464]

It's easy to understand why Microsoft are trying to create hardware that is 'a whole new category and paradigm for mobile devices'. Because they've completely missed the boat already they are now trying to reinvent a new kind of boat instead that they think people will want.

Along with everyone else, google, amazon, Samsung, apple included. They may thrive, but they know the show of slabs winds down soon, the boom ends, and the next adoption boom comes from elsewhere. If this wasn't an absolute certainty, they wouldn't all be investing in future tech.

 

[anon(7929613)]

The future of “W10” Mobile

Windows 10 Mobile has been suffering from some chronic disease for the last few years. Many experts have declared it dead many times in the past. But the recent lacklustre treatment of this platform by none other than Microsoft has casted doubts about it’s future in the mind of some of its die hard fans. So what exactly is going to happen to this OS?

To understand this, we have to go back to Windows 8.0. Yes, the same Windows 8.0 that brought nightmares to many desktop users through out the world. I was personally not a big fan of this OS but there is one thing that made this OS unique. It integrated many features of Windows Phone 7.5 and Windows Phone 8.0. Live Tiles was one such addition. There were many other under the hood changes that reduced the gap between Windows on desktop and on mobiles like action and notification center. This was the first step towards the unification. If you look at other subsequent versions of Windows, you will realise that they added incremental modifications to Windows 8.0. The Creators update of Windows 10 has managed to reduce that gap even further through the introduction of many universal apps.

Now it’s time to look at the other side of this story. It’s Windows on smartphones. While it is true that Windows 8.0 integrated many features of WP 8.0, the reverse is also true. Windows on smartphones started integrating many features of Windows on desktops. W10M introduced the file explorer, settings, Edge and many other desktop class features to the smartphones.

So in a way, the story of Windows 10 is incomplete without smartphones. I think that a time has come in the development process where the gap between the mobile version and the desktop version of Windows has reduced to such a level that there is no point in having two different OS. May be this is the last leg of unification. It’s not going to be easy. The last mile is always the most difficult one. But I personally believe that Windows 10 Mobile may die but Windows 10 on mobiles will survive!

 

[ttsoldier]

Re: The future of “W10” Mobile

And it will still fail because there won't be any apps.

 

[Drael646464]

Re: The future of “W10” Mobile

And it will still fail because there won't be any apps.

Symbian and blackberry had more apps than the iPhone 1. Its not about the quantity, its about the power.

 

[ttsoldier]

Re: The future of “W10” Mobile

Symbian and blackberry had more apps than the iPhone 1. Its not about the quantity, its about the power.

That was a different era to now.

 

[Drael646464]

Re: The future of “W10” Mobile

That was a different era to now.

That's exactly my point. Symbian had more apps than iPhone, but iPhone won because it had _better_ apps and a new better form factor.

If say, voice takes over, or folding phones come out, or smartwatches finally take of or any number of other things, that's where the new money will be, and those who do _that_ better first, will be the winners.

Tech is a war that is never over, and the current small screen, touch only format is hardly the one that's going to rule in fifty years time. As such, having a lot of apps moded for touch only, small screen isn't always going to be an advantage.

Imagine for example we all have AR glasses, that project 3d images and huge screens. None of the software in the android or ios ecosystem will be compatible, and none of it will be correct in its UI or input method.

Apps, like Symbian apps, are just an era.

 

[sd4f]

WP7 had a fair bit of developer support as well during its time. MS flushed it all down the toilet by rekernalling WP8 and making those older phones not forwards compatible. This seems to have happened again with the WP8->W10M migration as well.

One point I want to make is at the time UWP was being talked up by MS last year, there was some interest and positive press. When the media caught on to Windows phones being <1% of the market, that's when everything changed, and by everything, I mean it looks like that's when MS appears to have changed strategy. Before that, they were saying 2017 was going to be their focus on mobile. After that, we've been met with a lot of silence. Sure, something can still happen, but it's not looking good.

Like I've said before, they can be committed to mobile, until they're not!