News: Microsoft's future in mobile?

[Mike Gibson]

Why i believe Microsoft next step is create android phone?

MSFT has done many stupid things in mobile but *that* would be the dumbest thing ever! Let other companies suffer with the low hardware margins and associated hardware hassles. MSFT should focus on making money selling software and services that run on Android and iOS.

 

[Bloobed]

My wife has a Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5. Absolutely beautiful machine and she paid plenty for it when it came out. WAY more than her current touchscreen laptop for crying in the mud. Updates? What updates... She received one update and is now stuck on Lollipop 5.0.2 and hanging on to rumors that Marshmallow may come to the Tab S sometime, whenever, if Uncle Sammy feels like it... By contrast my lowly and discounted Nexus 7 (2013) is running 6.0.1 and gets monthly security patches.

A2-year-old device has so far gotten one major update, so it's been no worse than the best supported WP phones, and even has a good chance of getting a second major update. Not saying it's a perfect or even a good situation, but Android devices do tend to get more major updates than WP devices.

 

[Bloobed]

One thing I wonder if people realise is the the people laid off were mostly working in the feature phone business? Or is that not the case?

IIRC correctly feature phones were being worked in China, Finland was strictly smartphones.

 

[Ivan05il]

Why i believe Microsoft next step is create android phone?

They don't necessary need a phone with Microsoft written on it, having their software on Android and iOS phones is another story. Ballmer wanted a strong mobile OS with attractive services available only for Windows phones, Nadella said **** it, software is enough. That's why Windows phone is in a free fall, they don't care if W10M is doing well or not. Also it is in such a sad state because the MS programmers were busy porting their software to Android and iOS, W10M got neglected.

 

[RumoredNow]

A 2-year-old {Android} device has so far gotten one major update, so it's been no worse than the best supported WP phones, and even has a good chance of getting a second major update. Not saying it's a perfect or even a good situation, but Android devices do tend to get more major updates than WP devices.

What?

Lumia 1520 was released in November 2013, eight months prior to the Tab S 10.5 which released in July 2014.

Lumia 1520 launched with Windows 8 + Black. It received 8.1 + Cyan, it received Denim, it received W10M Threshold 2 and is getting monthly patches. That's 3 major version updates and now on the monthly patch train and riding along nicely. Looking forward to Redstone this summer. And my 1520 has never been off official. All these advances came to it OTA.

Galaxy Tab S 10.5 launched with 4.4.2 KitKat. It received 5.0.2 Lollipop. That's it. Not even a patch after.


How is the update record for my example using a top $, widely sold, highly advertised Android not worse than a Windows Phone? How is it receiving "more major updates" than well supported WP devices? Don't say root and flash custom ROMs. That isn't an update and it isn't an official push. It's a workaround for the sorry state of sell and abandon that is the Android OEM model.

 

[sportex]

I am done rooting for Microsoft's phones. I have wasted the last 6 years telling people how great they are and expecting MS to get their **** together. Now with that ****tard Satya Nadella in charge, under whose "stewardship" Windows Phone has fallen from its highest market success to under 1%, it' clear that Windows Phone will never, EVER be a major player.

I wish Ballmer had never left. But I'll tell you this much for sure: my next phone will be an iPhone. Microsoft has betrayed my trust enough times, and I've already started moving all of my business clients away from Windows Phone. A number inquired about the new 950 series, but I've had them move to iPhone. There is no point wasting another dollar on a product Microsoft is too incompetent and disinterested to do a good job on.

NEXUS 6P for me in a couple of weeks

 

[ArtificiallyYours]

A2-year-old device has so far gotten one major update, so it's been no worse than the best supported WP phones, and even has a good chance of getting a second major update. Not saying it's a perfect or even a good situation, but Android devices do tend to get more major updates than WP devices.

And not even mention how companies peddling out Kitkat (which is the only Android I care about atm) at 4.4.2 instead of 4.4.4? Come on man. Lollipop is probably the worst Android build I've used on phones and 5.0.2 made every device eligible for an upgrade chug. Kitkat was supposed to be a low-resource alternative to "more sophisticated" builds, but the way companies like Alcatel and ZTE have handled Kitkat is sort of embarrassing to say the least.

Then there are these dumb 5.5'' Lollipop devices on the higher-end of prepaid networks and they almost never get updated. Even cheap Android phones should be able to update without a hiccup.

 

[J Dubbs]

Microsoft have a habit of deliberately obfuscating any negative news because they obviously don't want to reduce confidence in Windows 10 mobile and and their possible Surface Phones.

With regards to OEMs it seems like the same thing as happened before ie a bunch of OEMs were announced within a short time but it seems interest has died down. I mean how many consumer Windows Phone devices are there directly available? I can only think of the T-Mobile Alcatel!

Windows phones are over. From everything I've read the "possible" surface phone is just a stock saving statement from microsoft. They've lost over 7 and a half billion dollars with the whole Nokia/Windows phone fiasco, and shaken up stockholders confidence a bit I'm sure. I suspect they're in recovery mode now and have moved way beyond the whole mobile phone business.

They need to focus more on their windows pc division, people have not appreciated their handling of windows 8.1/10 at all, and their mistakes have really boosted mac and linux....especially linux.

I personally know several large offices including a medical office that are still running windows xp, and I hear that's pretty common :unhappy:

 

[Chintan Gohel]

Windows phones are over. From everything I've read the "possible" surface phone is just a stock saving statement from microsoft. They've lost over 7 and a half billion dollars with the whole Nokia/Windows phone fiasco, and shaken up stockholders confidence a bit I'm sure. I suspect they're in recovery mode now and have moved way beyond the whole mobile phone business.

They need to focus more on their windows pc division, people have not appreciated their handling of windows 8.1/10 at all, and their mistakes have really boosted mac and linux....especially linux.

I personally know several large offices including a medical office that are still running windows xp, and I hear that's pretty common :unhappy:

people mostly don't upgrade because of lack of finances, softwares that can't run on anything higher than XP or old hardware

 

[fdalbor]

I hate to tell you about the stacks of software i have that wont run on 8.1/10. I keep a XP computer just because of that. Even though i have a W10 unit and one with 8.1 on it. I wish i still had a W98 system as i have a lot of stuff that needs it to run on. I bet there are a lot of people in the same situation. Piles of software with no place to run it.

 

[Chintan Gohel]

I hate to tell you about the stacks of software i have that wont run on 8.1/10. I keep a XP computer just because of that. Even though i have a W10 unit and one with 8.1 on it. I wish i still had a W98 system as i have a lot of stuff that needs it to run on. I bet there are a lot of people in the same situation. Piles of software with no place to run it.

and the software developers never created newer versions that could run on a higher version of windows?

 

[yvsmadhav]

It is sad that MS which is the dominant platform in the world of computing is not doing anything worthwhile in the world of mobile phones. There is the failure to develop an eco-system that would have connected the phones with the laptops and the mobile devices. It is sad considering MS has been responsible for the explosion of the internet while Apple has not ventured beyond the world of consumers.

 

[jimmy s1]

so any news when is the surface phone launching, would it be next april or this fall?

 

[Karl Vincent Alvarez]

Hope they release the future hardware devices to more markets. It's quite irritating to go to one of the so few Microsoft stores here in our country and ask for a Surface tablet and they'll tell you that the Surface family won't be available here

 

[kaktus1389]

so any news when is the surface phone launching, would it be next april or this fall?

WindowsCentral and a lot of wannabe tech sites report that it is supposed to come together with Redstone 2 update, scheduled for Spring 2017.

 

[Shahreen Hussain]

we live in an iPhone world lol

 

[johnh3]

Seems like the mobile analyst Tomi Ahonen maybe have predicted the outcome correct. He wrote on his blog that Nadella will fire Stephen Elop, then winding down the phone business. And shut it down completly probably in 2017.

He get the Elop part correct. And no more Lumias are in production,they only sell those who are remain in stock.

With so small userbase its only a matter of time before some like WhatsApp or another company stop supporting the platform.

 

[jmaga3080]

Their smartphone business is not yet over, and actually (even being a big fan of the Lumia line) I think it is the best to end this generation and create from scratch a new one, a new line. *looking at you Surface Phone*

 

[MikeX74]

I see a lot of people referencing the mythical Surface Phone, but no one seems to ask the question, what problems does it solve? Does it solve the "need" for a premium device? Wasn't that the job of the 950/950XL? Does it solve WP/W10Mobile's biggest problem, which is apps? No. Is it supposed to spur developer interest? All I see happening is this becoming another device that gets great reviews, but no one buys(or keeps for very long) because they can't play/try the hot, new app of the month.

 

[gold-stars]

Yeah the main attraction a Surface phone would have would be the ability to run Win32 apps. If it's just another Arm device then it's just another Windows Phone, it sadly doesn't matter how good it is.

So that leaves some kind of phone which likely transforms into a PC perhaps a hybrid Arm/x86 system with shared storage but x86 CPU/GPU in dock connecting via Thunderbolt 3 than allows you to run Win32 apps but when in Phone mode it can only run UWP touch apps.

The dock approach would be ideal as it could be used an upgrade system so your "PC" isn't left obsolete, even do a games focused version as proper AAA games is one of the few things Windows has going for it and something iOS/Android covet but cannot replicate yet.

Also loosen up the Windows Store, support more ports of Win32 apps, the large semi-hostile to MS PC user base still see the Win store as a mobile garbage dump, until proper apps start filling in it's ranks like AutoCAD, WinRAR, Refect Backup, Steam, Malware-Bytes etc no-one is going to take it seriously.

If it's just an Intel Atom in a phone running Win10 with no means of expansion then it's got no chance outside of a few business customers.