Why doesn't someone at MS just refute all the "W10M is Dead" claims?

[runamuck83]

The negative press surrounding the never-ending "death spiral" of Windows Mobile/Phone has created such a toxic atmosphere around this platform that I don't know how it could ever recover.

But, one thing that I think would help would be if Microsoft would just flat out release a press release DIRECTLY addressing the headlines.

Why won't Nadella, Myerson or whoever just release a blog post stating in so many words: "Listen, stop saying Windows Mobile is dead because we have plans to develop it for years to come. We know we're in a moment of rebirth but from the ashes will rise a phoenix".

Or, is the reason they won't do this because they are hedging their bets? Maybe they AGREE it's dead and just want it to hit rock-bottom so that the miniscule .01% left using it won't be offended when they pull the plug?

This whole thing is ridiculous to me... The 5 straight years of negative press toward Windows Phone finally did its job.

 

[steve_w_7]

re: Why doesn't someone at MS just refute all the "W10M is Dead" claims?

It doesn't matter whether Nadella or Myerson declare Windows Phone dead or not. To the consumer, it's dead. To me, it was dead over a year ago and I have moved on. The numbers indicate that, for all intents and purposes, Windows Phone is dead.

 

[Mark F24]

re: Why doesn't someone at MS just refute all the "W10M is Dead" claims?

It doesn't matter whether Nadella or Myerson declare Windows Phone dead or not. To the consumer, it's dead. To me, it was dead over a year ago and I have moved on. The numbers indicate that, for all intents and purposes, Windows Phone is dead.

So why do you waste your time hanging around a dead phone forum?

 

[steve_w_7]

re: Why doesn't someone at MS just refute all the "W10M is Dead" claims?

So why do you waste your time hanging around a dead phone forum?

Windows Central is no longer a phone forum (it hasn't been since the re-brand a couple of years back). Since the death of Windows Phone, the majority of the articles these days are Xbox or PC/Tablet related. I am heavily invested in the Microsoft ecosystem, so I come here for MS related news and such. For phone related news, I go to iMore.

 

[xandros9]

re: Why doesn't someone at MS just refute all the "W10M is Dead" claims?

So why do you waste your time hanging around a dead phone forum?

C'mon there's still some of us at webOS Nation!

 

[oviedofreak82]

re: Why doesn't someone at MS just refute all the "W10M is Dead" claims?

They're not addressing it because the tech bloggers aren't privy to Microsoft's internal plans. If people want to declare Microsoft's mobile ambitions as dead, that is their opinion........ Opinions are like feet.....we all have them and they all smell. I think people need to stop focusing so much what one company is doing over another. But hey everything written on the internet is factual!!

 

[Ma Rio]

re: Why doesn't someone at MS just refute all the "W10M is Dead" claims?

You know, that's not the problem. I don't care what other people think about my phone's OS, they can think I'm running CarotOS 5.6 and that it's dead for 16 years, I couldn't care less. The only thing that matters is if it works well. And Windows 10 Mobile currently works well, for most things. It's good, but some stupid stuff still hangs around. So, they can keep calling it bad, dead, or whatever they want as much as they can - it works for me, it works well, and I'm happy with it.

 

[Guytronic]

re: Why doesn't someone at MS just refute all the "W10M is Dead" claims?

We all know how the media works.
If there's a scandal or any other dilemma that might raise an eyebrow then they're right on top of it no matter how irrelevant the details might be.

The sky is always falling.

 

[mikepalma]

re: Why doesn't someone at MS just refute all the "W10M is Dead" claims?

The negative press surrounding the never-ending "death spiral" of Windows Mobile/Phone has created such a toxic atmosphere around this platform that I don't know how it could ever recover.

But, one thing that I think would help would be if Microsoft would just flat out release a press release DIRECTLY addressing the headlines.

Why won't Nadella, Myerson or whoever just release a blog post stating in so many words: "Listen, stop saying Windows Mobile is dead because we have plans to develop it for years to come. We know we're in a moment of rebirth but from the ashes will rise a phoenix".

Or, is the reason they won't do this because they are hedging their bets? Maybe they AGREE it's dead and just want it to hit rock-bottom so that the miniscule .01% left using it won't be offended when they pull the plug?

This whole thing is ridiculous to me... The 5 straight years of negative press toward Windows Phone finally did its job.

Because it is dead. Come on, we all add up to 0.7% market share!

 

[a5cent]

Because it is dead. Come on, we all add up to 0.7% market share!

In the market of all humans, you represent about 0.000000013%. So according to the definition used by you and many others here, we're all dead. Make sense? Nope...

Market share has absolutely nothing to do with whether or not a product is dead! It's only a measure of popularity! Were all the unpopular kids in school dead? Nope...

WM isn't dead until it stops evolving. As long as MS keeps paying people to develop WM, it isn't dead.

The typical approach with a product like WM is to evolve it further and rebrand it as necessary (e.g. Surface Phone rather than Lumia). This will be repeated over and over again, for as long as MS sticks to their current strategy.

MS can't afford NOT to have a UWP compatible device slotted in at the phone-sized form factor. They will continue to develop that capability until they change their strategy, which would likely mean exiting the consumer market and becoming another IBM.

Until then.... not dead...

 

[wgs84]

re: Why doesn't someone at MS just refute all the "W10M is Dead" claims?

In the market of all humans, you represent about 0.000000013%. So according to the definition used by you and many others here, we're all dead. Make sense? Nope...

Market share has absolutely nothing to do with whether or not a product is dead! It's only a measure if popularity! Were all the unpopular kids in school dead? Nope...

WM isn't dead until it stops evolving. As long as MS keeps paying people to develop WM, it isn't dead.

The typical approach with a product like WM is to evolve it further and rebrand it as necessary (e.g. Surface Phone rather than Lumia). This will be repeated over and over again, for as long as MS sticks to their current strategy.

MS can't afford NOT to have a UWP compatible device slotted in at the phone-sized form factor. They will continue to develop that capability until they change their strategy, which would likely mean exiting the consumer market and becoming another IBM.

Until then.... not dead..

Yes, very true. Microsoft still works on W10m. Revisions to 10586 are still rolling out, the Anniversary update is around the corner, and the Redstone 2 release is slated for next year. Plus some apps get updated almost once every two days. It's not too shabby.

If you want to see what dead really looks like, you should've seen the box of old electronics I recently e-recycled: my Palm m130, HP iPAQ 1940, Sharp OZ-730, various Magellan GPS units. Now those are dead.

 

[Adjaero Pascal]

re: Why doesn't someone at MS just refute all the "W10M is Dead" claims?

Windows Central is no longer a phone forum (it hasn't been since the re-brand a couple of years back). Since the death of Windows Phone, the majority of the articles these days are Xbox or PC/Tablet related. I am heavily invested in the Microsoft ecosystem, so I come here for MS related news and such. For phone related news, I go to iMore.

No matter how you put it, you're still participating in a forum post within the Windows 10 mobile section of the site. Something you can easily avoid.

Posted via the Windows Central App for Android

 

[zocster]

re: Why doesn't someone at MS just refute all the "W10M is Dead" claims?

It doesn't matter whether Nadella or Myerson declare Windows Phone dead or not. To the consumer, it's dead. To me, it was dead over a year ago and I have moved on. The numbers indicate that, for all intents and purposes, Windows Phone is dead.

Just as dead as BlackBerry? Lol .

 

[Chintan Gohel]

re: Why doesn't someone at MS just refute all the "W10M is Dead" claims?

When the last shop stops selling windows mobile devices, when the last online retailer sells its last windows phone, when the last windows phone has gone for repair and failed, when the last windows phone in the world is finally switched off permanently, then say the windows phone ecosystem is finished. Until then, there are still millions of people with windows phones, millions using windows apps for mobile, millions using accessories for windows phone, millions of people in the future who will consider and maybe buy windows phones/mobile devices.

All that negative press you see probably is concentrated in some places, not all. Just yesterday I saw people using lumia 640, 550 and 650 in a span of 1 hour. Shops are selling 550, 650 and 950. Newspaper adverts still appear about the 950.

So, no, not yet. We're still using windows mobile devices, apps, accessories and we're still interested in the ecosystem.

 

[a5cent]

re: Why doesn't someone at MS just refute all the "W10M is Dead" claims?

Here's another way of looking at it. If market share is the measure by which we determine if a product is "dead", then every new product is DOA, as it starts with a market share of 0%. Is every new product DOA? Nope...

For consumer devices the term "dead" means nothing. The term that is most similar to "dead" but which does have a defined meaning would be "EOL" (end of life). However, I've not yet seen anybody claim WM is EOL.

I think most people using the term "WM is dead" are either themselves unclear about what they actually mean, or fail at communicating. Maybe both.

Why won't Nadella, Myerson or whoever just release a blog post stating in so many words: "Listen, stop saying Windows Mobile is dead because we have plans to develop it for years to come. We know we're in a moment of rebirth but from the ashes will rise a phoenix".

Those who interpret "WM is dead" to mean "WM's market share is low", must conclude that there is nothing MS could refute. That's just true.

Those who interpret "WM is dead" to mean "WM is EOL" (or close to EOL) should maybe consider discussing a topic they know more about. This isn't true and MS has already refuted it:

We are currently in development of our next generation products and I wanted to reconfirm our commitment to Windows 10 Mobile. We believe in this product's value to business customers and it is our intention to support the Windows 10 Mobile platform for many years.

source

As far as I'm concerned that's the definitive answer to this thread's topic.

Anyway, the toxicity surrounding W10M is somewhat deserved, and it won't go away until MS actually delivers something that is (in at least one way) more useful than a smartphone and which many people appreciate. In the mean time, people have made up their mind and nothing MS can say will change that.

 

[Chintan Gohel]

re: Why doesn't someone at MS just refute all the "W10M is Dead" claims?

Microsoft is restructuring its smartphone business, will cut 1,850 jobs | Windows Central

The article above has a memo worth reading. Interpretations will of course vary

 

[justonlumia]

re: Why doesn't someone at MS just refute all the "W10M is Dead" claims?

Some make decisions and some others who have no control over it suffer

 

[Great deal]

re: Why doesn't someone at MS just refute all the "W10M is Dead" claims?

If you read the news and think Mobile is dead read this and and you will see its just starting (admitedly its started a few times, this will clarify) Microsoft?s 20-year journey to finally putting Windows Everywhere | Ars Technica UK

 

[rockstarzzz]

re: Why doesn't someone at MS just refute all the "W10M is Dead" claims?

Microsoft is restructuring its smartphone business, will cut 1,850 jobs | Windows Central

The article above has a memo worth reading. Interpretations will of course vary

We've been pulling back but WE ARE NOT OUT - Terry Myerson's words in that link are the answer OP is after. There, Microsoft said "Windows Phone is not dead" in a nicer phrase.

 

[Gunbust3r]

re: Why doesn't someone at MS just refute all the "W10M is Dead" claims?

It's dead, they wont have a surface phone device out for at least a year and maybe that has just been lip service to keep devoted fans off their back. Your product development pipeline doesn't just stall out like that and have ZERO new devices coming without some intent behind it. This was decided many many months ago, hell they must have known even before they dribbled out the 950 twins.