It was growth of Chinese phones around 2014-2015 which killed Windows Phones

[amits1024]

Windows phones were doing decent during the days of Nokia Lumia in 2012-2013 and were competing well with the Samsung Galaxy phones, Sony Xperia phones, LG Optimus phones well in those days. But with Nokia selling themselves to Microsoft and the Chinese brands like Oppo, Vivo, Xiaomi taking over the market in 2014-2015 and offering high specifications at cheap prices, Windows phones could not compete with that

Windows phones had better hardware, better build quality and were long lasting, but still people ignored that in those days as they ran after the higher specifications of Chinese phones in 2015 and that was 1 of the reasons which led to the downfall of Windows phones

There was lack of innovation in the Microsoft Lumias compared to Nokia Lumias which were very innovative

Now with world turning away from China, it's time Microsoft launches Windows phones again starting with the Surface phones and looks to capture the market again

 

[Chuck Finley69]

Windows phones were doing decent during the days of Nokia Lumia in 2012-2013 and were competing well with the Samsung Galaxy phones, Sony Xperia phones, LG Optimus phones well in those days. But with Nokia selling themselves to Microsoft and the Chinese brands like Oppo, Vivo, Xiaomi taking over the market in 2014-2015 and offering high specifications at cheap prices, Windows phones could not compete with that

Windows phones had better hardware, better build quality and were long lasting, but still people ignored that in those days as they ran after the higher specifications of Chinese phones in 2015 and that was 1 of the reasons which led to the downfall of Windows phones

There was lack of innovation in the Microsoft Lumias compared to Nokia Lumias which were very innovative

Now with world turning away from China, it's time Microsoft launches Windows phones again starting with the Surface phones and looks to capture the market again

That’s similar argument to BBOS and BB10 failed, or Symbian, PalmOS, webOS and whatever other mobile OS that’s not Android/iOS duopoly and simply isn’t the cause but has benefited cheap OEM products.

The Android/iOS duopoly allowed developers to focus on two mobile OS to reduce unnecessary expense of supporting multiple platforms. Just like the standardization of hardware allows for all the accessories to not be as fragmented. Even if the western OEMs completely abandoned current manufacturing locations and moved everything to Seattle metro, you’d still only see Android/iOS phones.

 

[tgp]

The Android/iOS duopoly allowed developers to focus on two mobile OS to reduce unnecessary expense of supporting multiple platforms.

This is a good point. I would say that developers had as much to do with the current situation as anything else. They currently support two mobile OS's, but that covers virtually 100% of smartphones. There is zero benefit to them to need to support three (or more) mobile OS's to cover 100% of smartphones. Developers would probably rather have only one, but the balance between developers and competition settled on two.

 

[Chuck Finley69]

This is a good point. I would say that developers had as much to do with the current situation as anything else. They currently support two mobile OS's, but that covers virtually 100% of smartphones. There is zero benefit to them to need to support three (or more) mobile OS's to cover 100% of smartphones. Developers would probably rather have only one, but the balance between developers and competition settled on two.

That’s reasons behind the reasons. These arguments have been pretty hashed on CrackBerry forums and confirmed by several app developers with a couple being executives in large corporations.

It’s similar to Desktop/Laptop OS environment as well. Just how things are...

 

[justjun555]

I have come to conclusion that except for a few regions windows phones never got traction in the market. people didn't liked tile interface & overall limitations of platform.

when normal people hear about windows on phones they expect powerful PC like operating system but windows phones was far cry from that.

 

[Laura Knotek]

I disagree that the failure of Windows Mobile has anything to do with hardware from Chinese companies or from any other companies. The lack of apps were the reason that Windows Mobile failed. Developers weren't interested in building apps due to few users, and users weren't interested in buying phones that lacked the apps they needed. That is the fault of Microsoft being late to the market. Android and iOS were too well established by the time Microsoft entered the market, so no traction could be gained.

 

[amits1024]

Developers back in those days were supporting Windows Phones too. Most main Apps like Whatsapp, Facebook, Instagram, Uber, etc had a Windows phone version as well and there were many people who loved the tile interface as well. Also there were Apps to help cover the app gap

It was lack of innovation and totally ignoring the phones by Microsoft which led to Windows phones downfall. Apps thing is just made a scapegoat

 

[jeffchapik]

I place the blame on Microsoft for not incentivizing the carriers to sell them. On three different occasions I had sales associates, two at AT&T and one at Verizon, actively try to talk me out of buying a Win phone when I went in specifically to get one.

The Verizon agent asked me "Why do you want one of those? Most people don't like them. They are hard to use.". Plus they had none on display. I walked out empty handed.

AT&T was a similar experience. Without fail, I was always pressed into getting a Galaxy or iPhone instead. Only after insisting I wanted a Lumia would they reluctantly go to "see if we have one in the back". Only one time did I ever encounter an associate that had actually even used a Win phone.

I don't know if Apple or Samsung was paying incentives for selling their phones, but it's obvious that Microsoft was not.

 

[tgp]

I place the blame on Microsoft for not incentivizing the carriers to sell them. On three different occasions I had sales associates, two at AT&T and one at Verizon, actively try to talk me out of buying a Win phone when I went in specifically to get one.

The Verizon agent asked me "Why do you want one of those? Most people don't like them. They are hard to use.". Plus they had none on display. I walked out empty handed.

AT&T was a similar experience. Without fail, I was always pressed into getting a Galaxy or iPhone instead. Only after insisting I wanted a Lumia would they reluctantly go to "see if we have one in the back". Only one time did I ever encounter an associate that had actually even used a Win phone.

I don't know if Apple or Samsung was paying incentives for selling their phones, but it's obvious that Microsoft was not.

I think that carriers selling phones like that is primarily done in the US and Canada. Phone sales and carriers aren't tied quite so tightly together in other places. Also, the reason reps didn't want to sell Windows phones is because the return rate was higher than other phones. They don't care what kind of phone you have, but they want you to get a phone you won't bring back. The odds of that happening went up sharply if you got a Windows phone.

Either way, it doesn't matter. It happened, and it's done. Different people blame different things, often tied to personal experience. There is nothing to do about it anymore. It's time to move on.

 

[Chuck Finley69]

I place the blame on Microsoft for not incentivizing the carriers to sell them. On three different occasions I had sales associates, two at AT&T and one at Verizon, actively try to talk me out of buying a Win phone when I went in specifically to get one.

The Verizon agent asked me "Why do you want one of those? Most people don't like them. They are hard to use.". Plus they had none on display. I walked out empty handed.

AT&T was a similar experience. Without fail, I was always pressed into getting a Galaxy or iPhone instead. Only after insisting I wanted a Lumia would they reluctantly go to "see if we have one in the back". Only one time did I ever encounter an associate that had actually even used a Win phone.

I don't know if Apple or Samsung was paying incentives for selling their phones, but it's obvious that Microsoft was not.

This was same argument excuse from BlackBerry supporters. Microsoft was throwing cash at the carriers too. Problem was that sales reps could make a lot more cash with Android/iOS because consumers wanted Android/iOS since their ecosystem was huge by comparison. When customers were lined up to buy Android/iOS screaming "take our money" it simply was the path of least resistance....

 

[me just saying]

I think if Microsoft stuck with Windows CE, they would be in much better shape today and more popular mobile devices. I had a ipaq pda that had it and it did everything I needed it to do at the time except make phone calls. It was easy to use and setup because of WinCE. I hate the tiles they came up with in the next versions of their mobile os.

 

[anthonyng]

I miss using a windows phone. SwiftKey on Android or iOS still doesn't work as well as it did for me on my windows phones.
I've been using SwiftKey on iOS for 3 years and Android for 6 months
I have maybe a few more apps and still have like 50+ tabs open in edge on my phone lol