This excellent designer imagined what Windows Phone would look like in 2024, and it makes me sad

[Windows Central]

Microsoft killed its phone platform a few years back, but that doesn't mean we can't dream. A designer on Twitter (X) recently offered some concepts for a "Windows 11 Mobile" that never was.

This excellent designer imagined what Windows Phone would look like in 2024, and it makes me sad : Read more

 

[jlzimmerman]

"Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella expressed in a recent interview that one of his biggest regrets is killing Windows Phone. That fact must sting ever harder in the AI world, given that Microsoft no longer has any control over the direction of mobile computing."

On behalf of so many of us who have been around here for many years, I would like to say....*clears throat* WE TOLD YOU SO!

 

[Arun Topez]

So after all these years, the OS would still look the same with just adding Copilot and MS Launcher panel? lol Seems in line with Microsoft.

It looks nice though, but way too limited for today's standards. Even the limited iOS home screen is able to do more than that now. But the other mockups are nice, but need a bit more optimizing for mobile size.

 

[tomworthjr]

I had a Windows Phone. Switched from an iPhone 4 or 4S to a white Lumia. Loved that thing so much, the camera was YEARS ahead of its time! It was shockingly shortsighted for Nadella to kill it, and I always thought that he was doing it just to put another in the coffin on the Ballmer years. But we all knew that Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android, Microsoft’s biggest rivals, would never let Windows get a foothold on their own platforms, so a long, expensive, painful buildout that was already several years underway was the only possible play in a world that would one day be not only mobile first, but virtually mobile only. We still are not in that world, but Microsoft is nowhere to be found in the mobile space. Satya is infinitely better than Ballmer, but this monumental own goal was incredibly damaging. Heck, Microsoft dumped $10B into OpenAI without batting an eye; they could have easily afforded to play the long game in mobile. But that would have had a lot of credit go to Ballmer, and Satya is not about that, in my opinion.

 

[taynjack]

I had a Windows Phone. Switched from an iPhone 4 or 4S to a white Lumia. Loved that thing so much, the camera was YEARS ahead of its time! It was shockingly shortsighted for Nadella to kill it, and I always thought that he was doing it just to put another in the coffin on the Ballmer years. But we all knew that Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android, Microsoft’s biggest rivals, would never let Windows get a foothold on their own platforms, so a long, expensive, painful buildout that was already several years underway was the only possible play in a world that would one day be not only mobile first, but virtually mobile only. We still are not in that world, but Microsoft is nowhere to be found in the mobile space. Satya is infinitely better than Ballmer, but this monumental own goal was incredibly damaging. Heck, Microsoft dumped $10B into OpenAI without batting an eye; they could have easily afforded to play the long game in mobile. But that would have had a lot of credit go to Ballmer, and Satya is not about that, in my opinion.

If this is true, that Nadella made a personal, emotional decision, then maybe Microsoft should consider chatGPT for it's next CEO.

 

[errole]

I think it would still not work because they would have no Apps. Look at Windows PC, No store apps that are good like IOS. I cant even say android. But it would still be bad. They begged and gave money to dev. and nothing came from it.,.

 

[naddy69]

"I bet Microsoft wishes it had Windows Phone in 2024"

I bet they don't. Microsoft was 10 billion dollars in the hole when they killed phones. They would be 25 billion dollars down by this point and STILL have nothing to show for it.

"Windows 11 Mobile exists only in dreams."

For you maybe. For most people it exists only in nightmares.

 

[MisterBear]

With all the horror that Windows 11 is, if Microsoft wildly announced a new Windows Phone, I'd be in line to get one (knowing they'll likely kill it in two years), and then maybe I wouldn't cringe so much when using Windows 11. I don't think it's too late to release a 3rd competitor, but it's more likely Microsoft will continue to ingest their slow poison.

 

[lostrune]

Like back then, developers wouldn't bother coding for Windows Mobile, unless MS paid them a ton of money (but even some wouldn't do it at all, like Google apps, because they don't want another competitor)

You'd have a very good phone with barren apps. It's still good for phone calls though (I hear they call those "dumb phones" now and are already available in stores)

Or they can team up with Huawei (who is under US injunction and thus can't use Google Android and Marketplace), so they have to get their own apps - but they have the support of the Chinese CCP and a billion population