Is Windows Phone really dead

[abduz]

Windows phones are amazing, actually the best.
The problems is / was all this old NOKIA style, 4,5,6,7, and models, and then then the top models, 920, 930, 1020 and 1520.
Only the topmodels are great, but I need to agree it?s a bit messy and change to much in style and design.
But again, it was all NOKIAs crazy style and way to manage smart phones, therefore they end up dead.
Microsoft continued with Elos as the top boss, and continued this crazy Nokia style, until the woke up and kick him out - hurray.

Microsoft will change it all, first they need to manage the WP 10 OS, it?s great but still nee to be polished a bit, ant it goes fast with that now.
And then we will get SURFACE phones, can we say phones in a high end class, and with a top design like the amazing Surface serie of tablets.
It means they have a full program of SURFACE devices, phones, tablets and laptop - actually like Apple. The difference is just the quality, MS is much better and what we know from the everyday.
What they will do with the low end devices - 4,5,6,7,8 - I think they are dead and Lumia is in my eyes dead, we know 650 will be the last one. Only MS know what the future will brings about these cheap low ends.

By the way, I love my 950 XL and docking station, wow amazing, and this way is the future. All this garbage people often write about this model isn?t tru, it works amazing.
And soon it will be even better, a bit more updates on he OS is needed, but it works amazing.

They have found there legs and put them to the ground - now we will get real MS devices, SURFACE.
And really look forward to the professional line, nice and good phones together with the strong SURFACE serie - big hurray for that.

I agree with your post, just few things I would like to touch up on.

I believe the reason Nokia released so many series, was because they were testing the waters to see which model price-range consumers bought into the most and eventually the result would allow them to focus on specific models and price ranges, like what MS is doing now.

As for MS, their Surface Phone and Lumias ....I believe the Surface will ultimately become their flagship device, which will replace the Lumia flagships but the Lumia's will live on as the mid-range and lower-range devices for low-cost and business-focused devices.

This would make sense for several reasons,

1) Surface have become known for their premium hardware, so a Surface phone will immediately be recognized as a flagship phone from MS

2) because the Surface is recognized as a premium device, they wont (or shouldn't) brand the mid and lower range devices as Surface, as that would tarnish the image of Surface devices, so keeping Lumia for those devices would make sense, especially since the brand name is already out there.

 

[MikeX74]

I fear that a lot of people have placed unreasonable expectations on the "Surface Phone." The idea is great: a hero device built with premium materials and boasting killer specs that rivals or surpasses everything on the market. Assuming that it becomes a reality, what's really going to change? Are devs that haven't embraced WP/W10M suddenly going to want to build apps for it? If not, what's the point? You can have the most powerful, most beautiful phone the world has ever known, but if the apps aren't there, it might as well be a paperweight.

 

[switch to iOS]

Windows 10 Mobile is far from being ready. Microsoft apps on iOS are superior to those on Windows 10 Mobile. You can have Cortana, Skype, Office, One Drive, All interacting with each other, Syncronized with your Mac or Windows 10 PC, as well as your Android Devices. It doesn't get better than! I have used Windows Phone (8.1 and the latest builds of 10) for a year now, and I don't see a future for the system.

 

[Bobvfr]

Bye bye.

And good luck to you, I am happy where I am thank you.

 

[abduz]

I fear that a lot of people have placed unreasonable expectations on the "Surface Phone." The idea is great: a hero device built with premium materials and boasting killer specs that rivals or surpasses everything on the market. Assuming that it becomes a reality, what's really going to change? Are devs that haven't embraced WP/W10M suddenly going to want to build apps for it? If not, what's the point? You can have the most powerful, most beautiful phone the world has ever known, but if the apps aren't there, it might as well be a paperweight.

Your thinking is in the right place it might not even be a Surface Phone and might just be a new Lumia powerhouse but I'd bet on a Surface Phone since it been mentioned by MS themselves.

There is an unreasonable expectation for a Surface Phone and those who are putting the highest of expectation, who are mostly the same people who have been complaining about the Lumia 950/XL not being worth the money, are going to be the first to complain that the Surface Phone is expensive, so let's get that point out of the way.

If the phone does indeed bring something new to the table that will make people think twice before dismissing the device, then that's already an accomplishment, especially if it's building off the momentum of the current Surface devices. Lumia's have been dismissed and ignored, so even if MS releases a Lumia rebranded as a Surface, it's already likely to gain more attention, so having it live up to the premium standards of Surface and offering some sort of a hybrid to continue the trend the Surface line set, can only be more in its favor.

If it also does indeed run Win32 apps AND runs continuum, then it practically would have just carved out a new market, as people will see more benefit in buying a Surface phone over competing devices, which is what I think Microsoft is doing. The current Continuum is just like Win10m, a feature in development which needed more time, hence the release of the "Fan devices," until the actual device they wanted to release with the completed OS is ready.

Having a Premium Phone in your pocket that is capable of running full Win32 apps through continuum is already a game changer, Surface branding will also give it more weight since the brand is already popular among consumers. The only issue I can foresee, is the price, it really has to hit the sweet spot, so it doesn't put people off.

Having it run Win32 apps, would also partially solve the app gap, since consumers would be able to install actual programs on their devices, so this would give the new Win10m/Surface phone leverage over iOS/Android, since both of those can't do that. If this scenario catch on with consumers, then MS will have a new-found success in their hands and devs will begin by porting their existing apps through the Bridge solution MS has provided to make their lives easier.

Again, we know nothing of Surface phone but I'm drawing my opinion from what currently IS a success for Microsoft and what made it a success - The Surface Series ...and what they have worked hard on to develop, one OS for everything ...as well as continuum to allow for a laptop experience in your pocket ...so with all that in mind, I don't think my opinion is far-fetched but it could be just that, my opinion and nothing else.

 

[Captain_Eric]

Bored to tear by these threads. Just saying.

 

[ArtificiallyYours]

Competing Indirectly =/= Pretty Much Dead

To be blunt I think the only people callout Windows 10 mobile "dead" are the ones who preach sanctimonious about Duopolies being the only future for Smartphones. Since when did smartphones become a matter of less options equaling more innovation? It'd be a boring market if Win10M was actually going away for good (which it isn't).

 

[Jack Neill]

Its not dead, they just don't care how much market share they have anymore. They will still continue on with W10M but it will go nowhere fast as everyone expected, but that doesn't mean it will suck. The 950/XL is exactly what they said it was, a phone for the fans, everything we have wanted hardware wise. Software will get there someday I suppose. W10M is getting better with every release, but with phones like the Galaxy S7/iPhone 7 coming out and no "Surface Phone" response on the horizon, MS will still have a 1.5% market share. The best we can hope for is a really good flagship in Q1 of 17 and hope that the app gap gets better with universal apps. As a fan I hope its not dead. I don't want a future with only iOS and Android.

 

[Jack Neill]

Windows 10 Mobile is far from being ready. Microsoft apps on iOS are superior to those on Windows 10 Mobile. You can have Cortana, Skype, Office, One Drive, All interacting with each other, Syncronized with your Mac or Windows 10 PC, as well as your Android Devices. It doesn't get better than! I have used Windows Phone (8.1 and the latest builds of 10) for a year now, and I don't see a future for the system.

I like your enthusiasm, enjoy your iPhone. I like my iPhone 6.

 

[djeire84]

If windows phones hasn't got a future then they wouldn't be updating wp10 insider all the time so like it's a bit of a stupid thing for msft to do. Especially since they have just released the 950 xl. I don't know it's a bit confusing to say the least.

 

[rageofthemike]

I'm starting to think so.

the app gap, the ''always in beta'' software, hell, even the lack of cases and accessories.

Hardware's pretty neat though. I like the hardware. Software's just really lacking, IMO.

 

[slimchap]

I'm starting to think so.

the app gap, the ''always in beta'' software, hell, even the lack of cases and accessories.

Hardware's pretty neat though. I like the hardware. Software's just really lacking, IMO.

I still don't understand the app gap cos my 16GB SD Card is soo full of apps that I had to upgrade to a 32GB... But for the accessories' and cases, yup! Windows mobile is really lacking.

 

[Jonnie LasVegas]

I still don't understand the app gap cos my 16GB SD Card is soo full of apps that I had to upgrade to a 32GB... But for the accessories' and cases, yup! Windows mobile is really lacking.

Bank apps, work apps, regional apps, popular apps, most games. That in a nutshell is the app gap on Windows.

 

[Alfred Yeap]

With WeChat pulling the plug (WeChat is China), and Whatsapp Exec complaining of WP giving up customers too easily, I will say WP is indeed dying.
It is a sad stage, I was hoping it would become the 3rd platform of choice but it never work out.
MSFT does not seem to bother much either. WP 8.1 was perfect. W10m is buggy, sloppy and signals the direction MSFT set for WP platform.

I guess it is iOS time again. I do miss all those great apps.

Unfortunate for WP OS, if 8.1 get enough attentions and efforts, w10m would be one of the best mobile OS in the planet.

 

[anon(6078578)]

I still don't understand the app gap cos my 16GB SD Card is soo full of apps that I had to upgrade to a 32GB... But for the accessories' and cases, yup! Windows mobile is really lacking.

That's like saying "What do you mean when you say there's no decent restaurants in town?" When all we can see are fast food Burger Places.

 

[sikurunana]

Here's what I think. This is simply my observation.

This main reason why Windows Phone took off at the beginning was due to Nokia's influence to provide a better OS than Symbian. Before Samsung and Apple took over, Nokia has a huge fan base. By the time Nokia realised that Symbian was not gonna go anywhere, it was already too late. Android and iOS has already matured in the market and Nokia and Microsoft's attempt to push Windows Phone with Lumia devices wasn't entirely successful, but at the same time wasn't a compete failure either, because there were a large base of Nokia fans that switched to Lumia. At this point, Windows Phone is still a developing OS, learning from its competitors and users to create a better OS eco-system.

Now that Nokia is no longer in the picture, everyone is relying on Microsoft to delivery its users with excellent experience with Lumia devices. The thing here is that the customer's expectations are very high, and everyone is eager to see what Windows 10 Mobile has to offer. I guess why Microsoft is delaying the release of the update is because they want to offer a seamless update with minimal bug and this of course takes time. Constant iterations are made with the help of the users from the Insider program. Also, you should keep in mind that Microsoft stated that they will release Windows 10 during the first quarter of January, so that could be anytime between January and April

You can't really compare Windows Mobile with iOS and Android, because the experience given and features provided are completely different. Windows Mobile clearly has its own unique features and will always cater to a specific group of people. It's not that Microsoft doesn't care about its users, it just that Windows Mobile will take quite a while to mature in the market and its not something that will happen overnight. I'm sure once they have Windows 10 up and running on all devices, constant updates will start to follow in order to improve their operating system. As Microsoft mentioned Windows 10 is no longer a product, but a service.

Windows Phone/Mobile is clearly not dead. People who say it's dead are the one that heavily compare it with iOS and Android. Also when sales figures go down, that doesn't mean it cannot rise back up again. These things will take time. Patience is the key!

This is open for discussion..

 

[rageofthemike]

With regards to the app gap aspect, I do have quite a number of android apps that are either missing in wp, or have limited functionality if available.

Examples are sms back up, apk extractor, and tons of games. shadowgun, square enix games, etc. Hell, even emulators are scarce on wp. no epsxe, ppsspp, etc.

 

[WinCoffee]

There is reasons why iOS sells so well and it's not because OS itself. It's more that "Brand" Apple have made. All teenagers want iPhone because celebrities have it and everybody else have it. they don't really understand that Apple really just sells 2 years old techonology twice expensive in a nice looking shell.
Why Android sells even more? Because more people understand over phone specs and price. But they choose android because it's familiar (Was there before WP) and it has all apps too. some people might switch to Windowsphone because they like it more personally. Some people might care about app gap so they choose Android or iOS. But I guess people might fell in love with W10M when it's officially released. so it's too damn early to say "Windowsphone is dead"
And sites like verge just need some media sexy stuff to say and people, just love to bash Windowsphone as failure.
But really I don't even understand how mobile phones turned into this big thing like people arguing over OS:ses.

 

[mariusmuntean]

Microsoft is sabotaging themselves with bad PR, no marketing. They have a very bad public reputation (at least in my country) and they do nothing about it. They frustrate their own fans and so on ... Man I really love the platform, somebody, please wake Microsoft up!

Same bad reputation here in my country, at least in my city and in my workplace, and the previous one...most of it towards the windows 10 and 10 mobile. I think it started with windows 8 on Pcs...anyway, people are angry here because many have been framed by MS with their OS reboots and no upgrade paths in the past.
My mobile operator was among the first to sell the Lumia 950, very close to the official launch date...I think it took them 2 weeks to start selling it in their stores. After massive returns, now they do not have it anymore, and do not seem to be stocking it. Last answer I've got from them was that they have no plans to sell this model again until it is able to run a non beta OS, as they cannot afford to sell a beta/demo/testing device to a real customer.

 

[RUCKUS_US]

With sales declining by 57%, are the days of Windows Phone really over?
Websites like Verge has already declared the OS as dead. And Microsoft doesn't really care about it. Last 3 phones- 950/XL and 550 didn't made any impact on the market. And the upcoming Lumia 650 is also on the same line. I don't think that the rumored Surface Phone will change the situation much if Microsoft continues the same attitude.

So is it safe to assume that Windows Phone is dead?

Look at the world market not just the US.