Could Microsoft revive windows phone?

[FunGuy13]

Follow the money. MSFT has basically thrown in their lot to Android and there's money in it for them. Some of you may have forgotten, but MSFT has some key patents on Android and they supposedly get between $5-$25 in royalty payments for each Android phone sold. It is estimated they get close to $1 Billion in free profits each year from this. I believe this was a major factor in them ditching WP. After all, I just recently switched from a Lumia 951 to a Galaxy S8...

 

[OMG55]

No, because Satya isn't willing to invest ore focus on cellular outside of the garage crew working on Android and Apple when it comes to mobile; also remember he stated he sees no reason for a third ecosystem.

 

[anon(10172601)]

Easy...

* Scrap the Lumia 650 and all support for Windows 8 phones

* Stop calling the phones by the name "Lumia"

* Sell only two phones: the MS 950 and the MS 950XL

* Put a metal back on the MS 950 and MS 950XL

* Take the silly Microsoft lettering off the front... but keep the windows logo on the back

* Include an active pen for free (which can lock into place inside the phone)

* Cut the price in 1/2

* Spend some of the 9 billion in cash reserves on the MS App Store in the following ways, all under the Microsoft brand:
. Resurrect MS Money as a UWP app to rival Intuit's Mint (who pulled their UWP app from the store in 2015). Without a personal finance app to connect to our accounts (en lieu of Mint, major bank, credit card, and utility company apps) their platform is not attractive to their bread and butter demographic (30 to 60 year olds)
. Build a generic Boarding Pass app which partners with the big airlines (United, Southwest, Delta, American, Alaska, Hawaiin, Jet Blue)
. Resurrect Groove, complete with a family plan of $9.99 (5$ cheaper than Spotify and Pandora)
. Add audio messaging/walkie talkie functionality to Skype (to be a serious competitor to Voxer)
. Create a unit on their Xbox team that creates MS original family friendly/mobile friendly games like Zoo Tycoon
. Integrate full parental controls on Edge mobile, Groove mobile, xBox mobile, and the OS, and work with AT&T to discount MS 950 phones when purchased for an entire family. Market the phones as the family friendly option in a complicated online world.

* Offer a $250,000 interest free loan programs to qualifying start-ups who will bring their app to the MS store (a MS shark tank)

* And finally, market the shorts off the device during every major primetime sporting event and special event (Oscars, Grammys, Emmys)

Keep doing this until they come out with the ultimate mobile device... the Surface phone!

 

[Mister Wolf]

Bad shape? Whatever. Maybe just your phone. Swim with it? Never update it? Don't flash it now and again? Can't operate anything more than an iPad? WM is still the best OS

Living in a fairytale world. It isn't the best. It's dead. Lol.

 

[BrackleyDave]

I think the single most important thing on any operating system is Developer Support. You can have the greatest OS in the world on the most amazing devices, but if nobody is writing software for it then it simply won't succeed.

Which is why I'm really concerned that Microsoft have killed off Windows Mobile like they did. UWP is a great concept for software engineers - write it once and it'll work on your desktop, your phone, continuum, xbox and so on. Yeah it's still a bit immature, but that's improving all the time, and so right now Microsoft need to be pushing it hard, so that when the new Mobile Operating system does land, late in 2018 or 2019 then it'll already have a bunch of apps that are going to work on it.

But instead they've killed off Mobile - which has also killed off Continuum, which has basically left developers with a big question about why bother writing UWP applications, when really they can only target the desktop.

I don't know if it's not already too late for UWP, but I think if Microsoft are even remotely serious about re-entering the mobile market then they need to do something NOW to stem the bleed and at least give the software community a reason to continue working on windows 10 UWP applications.

 

[abel46]

The only thing that makes no sense is they invested so much time and effort in developing a mobile platform and when it was actually beginning to become a full fledged OS in the form of W10M, they killed it.

1. W10M today has all the features unlike WP8.1 and works fluently unlike initial 2015 builds.

2. It's file system is probably the best.

3. It's security and integration with Windows 10 for PC it's also among the best.

4. It supports OTG and WiFi direct.

KILLING IT AT NOW IS LIKE WITHDRAWING FROM THE RACE JUST BEFORE THE FINISH LINE.

This can only be possible if they have found a better alternative due to which it made no sense to further continue the development of W10M. The new alternative will use all the developments and features of W10M. That can be the only explanation.

Let's hope you are right. But I do not hold my breath...

 

[Isaiah Heart]

Yes. Whether they think they can or not they are right.

 

[Moe920]

Nope, they can't the damage to windows phone's reputation is too far gone and cannot be repaired with customers and the loyal fans.

They would have to release a phone that has the app situation FIXED! not repairing. Meaning all popular apps need to be in the store and working before lunch. MS needs a developer incentive program. So that devs bring and supports their app to the MS app store. Make sure in the incentive terms and conditions that regular updates to their app is part of the deal.

2) having OS thats feature rich. And can at the very least do everything that Android and iOS can do at lunch.
MS cannot have the we'll ship it then. Updated mentality.

3 lastly Microsoft needs to swallow their pride and be willing to sell. Premium hardware. At a loss. ( Until reputation or market share starts to recover.) Basically. equally specked phones need to cost half as much. Then the phones running Android or iOS.

 

[rich_bryant]

The platform that MS relies on for their mobile efforts is called the UWP. I doubt anybody could name something that the UWP should be able to do but couldn't at least potentially achieve, i.e. MS have in no way taken the UWP to its technical limits. It's certainly not standing in its own way like Win32 is, where almost any attempt to fundamentally modernize it would break compatibility with existing software.

It can't read from an external drive at the moment. I know, I've tried to write software that could do it. Currently the only way is writing a WPF app and using the Bridge framework.

 

[anon(10172601)]

I couldn't agree more. Developer support is the key to an ecosystem. Nadella should not have abandoned Windows Mobile until his ultimate mobile device (hopefully called the Surface Phone or Surface Note) was sitting proudly on store shelves and they were marketing the shorts off it during the NBA finals!

As both a consumer UWP developer (by night) and an enterprise dev lead (by day) I was disappointed... even disillusioned... by MS' decision to kill off Windows Mobile prior to releasing a Surface Phone. A couple of years ago I was zealously championing Surface devices, UWP, Cortana, Azure, the whole nine yards to upper management, now I find myself championing iPhone, iPad, objective C/Swift, Echo, and Amazon Web Services in the enterprise.

 

[a5cent]

It can't read from an external drive at the moment. I know, I've tried to write software that could do it. Currently the only way is writing a WPF app and using the Bridge framework.

Using the StorageDevice class, UWP apps can read from USB mass storage or anything that supports MTP or PIP. Those are external drives. There's also the Windows.Devices.Usb namespace which gives you direct access to any USB device, meaning you can do pretty much anything you want.

However, none of that really speaks to my point. Even if it was entirely impossible for UWP to communicate with external drives, which would be a strange oversight on MS' behalf, there is absolutely nothing inherent to the inner workings of UWP that would prevent MS from adding that capability. That is my point.

This is entirely different from Win32, where some concepts modern OSes are expected to support simply can't be added to Win32 (like the concept of an app model), at least not without sacrificing compatibility with existing software, which defeats the whole point.

 

[jacksmith21006]

No. Saw that MS looks like they are pulling the plug on Bing maps.

 

[zr2s10]

I couldn't agree more. Developer support is the key to an ecosystem. Nadella should not have abandoned Windows Mobile until his ultimate mobile device (hopefully called the Surface Phone or Surface Note) was sitting proudly on store shelves and they were marketing the shorts off it during the NBA finals!

As both a consumer UWP developer (by night) and an enterprise dev lead (by day) I was disappointed... even disillusioned... by MS' decision to kill off Windows Mobile prior to releasing a Surface Phone. A couple of years ago I was zealously championing Surface devices, UWP, Cortana, Azure, the whole nine yards to upper management, now I find myself championing iPhone, iPad, objective C/Swift, Echo, and Amazon Web Services in the enterprise.

THIS is EXACTLY what I've been saying about MS since they decided to focus on "Enterprise Customers"! You cannot separate "Enterprise" from "Consumers", since consumers run enterprise! They p!$$ed away an opportunity, that Google and Apple are capitalizing on. MS takes for granted that a lot of business applications only run on Windows. Only a matter of time before Chrome becomes a full blown OS capable of running high performance drafting software, etc. That day will be the deathblow to MS, I guarantee it.

 

[theefman]

Consumers don't run enterprise when it comes to the computing platform they run, corporations run what works which is desktop Windows and employees use what they are given and like it.

Sent from mTalk

 

[Robur10]

Yes.

 

[M_A_Adams]

How hard would it be for Microsoft to change its mind on windows phone and not kill it off? And i mean 'phone' in the truest sense of the word, not a device with telephony capabilities. Is there a reason why they couldn't revive it?

Could they? Of course, they have the resources.

Would they? Not with nadella running the show!

Does it matter? Probably not, most of us are SO disgusted after being led down the yellow brick road only to find a MS imposed dead end that we won't trust them.

Should it matter? YES!! W10M was a superior operating system that was intentionally left to rot and die by the current leadership.

I really get a kick out of the critics who try to tell us how great ios and android are. Let's see.... Static icons.... Widgets to emulate live tiles.... How VISTA like!!!

Happy Birthday, Vista!! It appears that those very people who killed you now love your look and feel!!!

 

[wpbestplayer]

1.

Everything in the OS that must be unified has been unified. That last step towards OS unification already occurred. That was W10.

MS still has some work to do in regard to replacing Win32 software with UWP software.

2.

The platform that MS relies on for their mobile efforts is called the UWP. I doubt anybody could name something that the UWP should be able to do but couldn't at least potentially achieve, i.e. MS have in no way taken the UWP to its technical limits. It's certainly not standing in its own way like Win32 is, where almost any attempt to fundamentally modernize it would break compatibility with existing software.

3.

The takeaway is that all of Win32 is now in maintenance mode. MS is no longer adding anything to it. All of MS' efforts are focused on the UWP side of things.

4.

Non-developers might think they are passionate about Win32, but what they are actually interested in is the grown-up desktop experience it provides and the software they use which relies on Win32. If this software was ported to UWP, or similar UWP based competitors popped up which were better than their Win32 counterparts, then that sentiment would instantly change. Non-developers have no vested and direct interest in Win32 itself...

5.

More importantly, nobody wants to run W10 on handheld devices! Least of all MS. That's just an unfortunate but necessary step towards popularizing the UWP.

A summary (past & future), well-written by @a5cent. Thank you.

I am not a professional developer (only in my free time), but I have seen UWP' evolution in the last 5 years and I really like.

I had developed an app on WP8(Silverlight). Then I ported the app to the Universal platform (W8.1/WP8.1) and later it has been ported to the UWP platform.

All the transitions were painful (especially the first one), but I don't regret. I know that very few (popular) Win32 apps will be ported (natively) to the UWP in the near future. I think that it will be a (very) slow procedure. The UWP is better suited for apps from the scratch.

Until now I notice a steady increase (month by month) of store-app usage. I am not sure what will happen, but I am optimist.

I disagree with MS' decision to kill off Windows Mobile prior to releasing a new portable device, especially if it's not powered by W10onArm(probably not). So the main difference will be the CShell. I suppose there are other reasons (marketing, etc).

In my opinion now, there is no need for wp revival.

 

[Wevenhuis]

I think it shouldn't be too difficult. It is lingering somewhere in maintenance mode. I would love to see it on a pixel 2 or Galaxy Note 8 with a tad of the Samsung pen UI on top of windows 10 mobile. App will be an issue, but with Xamarin and upcoming PWA things might be optimized for the store and Edge. I still love my 1520 and 950XL to bits and still use them as daily drivers. I would like to see pen support for onenote on a next device and a 40 mpix camera with pixel 2 algorithms on the camera. Replaceable battery if possible.

 

[Genghis7777]

It would require major commitment from MS: re-creating a mobile phone design team isn't trivial; setting up the logistics; gaining carrier support; then they have to overcome the stigma created by the failures of the past. A lack of backwards compatibility was a key factor in their demise. By adopting tech that was incompatible with previous versions marooned and punished early adopters. The net effect was the same as a flip flop. Instead they will have to focus on their current strategy and follow through with it to avoid the same mistakes: create a Microsoft galaxy within the Android and IOS universes. This has been successful in other scenarios. For example, MS Office dominates the Apple (OS X) world in productivity suites.

 

[Stephen Townsley]

How hard would it be for Microsoft to change its mind on windows phone and not kill it off? And i mean 'phone' in the truest sense of the word, not a device with telephony capabilities. Is there a reason why they couldn't revive it?

In theory they could. However, there are significant obstacles.

1. Developers have no confidence in Microsoft
2. Microsoft's natural community have mostly moved to Android
3. There is no consumer ecosystem any more
4. There is no enterprise ecosystem for their OS
5. Microsoft are reluctant even to use the word phone
6. They have let go the essential designers and people who understand about phone
7. The investment required to rebuild all of the above is a lot more now than it was 6 months ago or a year ago
8. Microsoft have spent the last year reducing expectations about a theoretical mobile device

In practice it is becoming impossible for Microsoft to become even a minor player in mobile. They expertly destroyed their own market.