Today I asked myself this question and couldn't come up with an answer. So I'll ask you guys...

[detmek]

Lumia 640 was the first MS phone after they bought Nokia. And I bought it few months after it got on market. After a year it was clear to me that MS is giving up on W10m.
I wouldn't call that an effort.
I would understand that they decided to give up if mobile platform was isolated. But it was part of their UWP app platform. How can they have universal app platform without mobile phones? And tablet market is bad in general. Even their Surface line is mostly used as laptops and not as tablets.
And wtf is with all those reboots? Apple's and Google's OS development was always an evolution, next versions compatible with previous. Apps work across 5 different versions of OS.
MS always tired revolution. Apps coded for latest OS won't work on previous version. Apps coded on previous version may or may not work on next version.
Developers always had to rewrite their code or start from scratch. On platform with small user base and not really profitable. Why would they waste their time?
What happened with their promise to bring support for Android apps on W10m? They gave up after what, less then a year?
Lack of effort and commitment.
And now lack of any trust from my side when it comes to their mobile platform. Andromeda? No thanks. I will only use desktop Windows as long as it supports regular desktop programs.

 

[beman39]

There are many reasons that Microsoft's mobile effort died, but lack of effort is not one of them. Microsoft pulled out all the proverbial stops. It it turned out to be a liability on the balance sheet that was never going to be an asset. It's as simple as that.

really? what did they do? all these "proverbial stops" you speak of? I'd like to know... because every new iteration of windows mobile, they removed stuff and each new release, like another poster mentioned Devs had to start from scratch because there was no backward compatibility or forward! lol didn't push WM phones except 1 commercial that I can think of and that was ONLY for the L1020 with that awesome camera... didn't push or try to get it into other countries like India or Asia or Europe.... or crippling Groove because it wasn't as popular as they wanted (because WM 10 was already failing) and now little by little they're are crippling Cortana now... see these are the things MSFT is doing killing WM10...

also as another poster mentioned about competing, it had nothing to do with not being able to compete... WM was (I feel) in a league of its own... didn't have those static boring icons placed in rows like Android and Apple... WM was refreshing and different... nothing to compete with...no only MSFT couldn't compete with itself....

edit: and BTW the reason the investors voted to abandon WM was because MSFT wasn't able to save WM... they made to many stupid bad decisions and killed WM... so of course the investors voted to scrap WM... but I think a CEO with balls (not Nudella) should have fought to keep WM going and work into making WM better and badder and not abandoned its partners and consumers... but now its too late... I just hope they release Andromeda PROPERELY and with the same vigorously as their Surface lines and they can wow us all again and get back % of the market... at least get back that passion and glory! LOL

 

[fatclue_98]

really? what did they do? all these "proverbial stops" you speak of? I'd like to know... because every new iteration of windows mobile, they removed stuff and each new release, like another poster mentioned Devs had to start from scratch because there was no backward compatibility or forward! lol didn't push WM phones except 1 commercial that I can think of and that was ONLY for the L1020 with that awesome camera... didn't push or try to get it into other countries like India or Asia or Europe.... or crippling Groove because it wasn't as popular as they wanted (because WM 10 was already failing) and now little by little they're are crippling Cortana now... see these are the things MSFT is doing killing WM10...

also as another poster mentioned about competing, it had nothing to do with not being able to compete... WM was (I feel) in a league of its own... didn't have those static boring icons placed in rows like Android and Apple... WM was refreshing and different... nothing to compete with...no only MSFT couldn't compete with itself....

edit: and BTW the reason the investors voted to abandon WM was because MSFT wasn't able to save WM... they made to many stupid bad decisions and killed WM... so of course the investors voted to scrap WM... but I think a CEO with balls (not Nudella) should have fought to keep WM going and work into making WM better and badder and not abandoned its partners and consumers... but now its too late... I just hope they release Andromeda PROPERELY and with the same vigorously as their Surface lines and they can wow us all again and get back % of the market... at least get back that passion and glory! LOL

And you know what the shareholders did because you were present? Suppositions based on innuendo stemming from hearsay. C'mon man.

 

[beman39]

And you know what the shareholders did because you were present? Suppositions based on innuendo stemming from hearsay. C'mon man.

well isn't that what YOU and everybody else is doing? lol I'm just taking into consideration the things I've read and seen (everything what MSFT has done to this point) and extrapolated into the most logical hypothesis to the best of my ability… really doesn't take a genius to make an educated hypothesis... and I'm by far no means to say that I'm totally correct, of course theres variables that I can't see and take into consideration.. but everybody is guilty of making speculations.. yourself included...

 

[fatclue_98]

well isn't that what YOU and everybody else is doing? lol I'm just taking into consideration the things I've read and seen (everything what MSFT has done to this point) and extrapolated into the most logical hypothesis to the best of my ability… really doesn't take a genius to make an educated hypothesis... and I'm by far no means to say that I'm totally correct, of course theres variables that I can't see and take into consideration.. but everybody is guilty of making speculations.. yourself included...

I asked for stockholders to step up if there were any. The "news" we read are hunches no better than our own. Very little direct information has come from Microsoft or as I've said before, from the horse's mouth. Extrapolating a hypothesis from biased opinions from tech writers and forum posts is inherently flawed. Trying to pass it off as fact will surely draw ridicule no less than a 3AM cocaine-fueled Trump Twitter rant.

 

[nate0]

One day maybe Satya after he is long gone as CEO will have an AMA and everyone can blast him then.

 

[beman39]

I asked for stockholders to step up if there were any. The "news" we read are hunches no better than our own. Very little direct information has come from Microsoft or as I've said before, from the horse's mouth. Extrapolating a hypothesis from biased opinions from tech writers and forum posts is inherently flawed. Trying to pass it off as fact will surely draw ridicule no less than a 3AM cocaine-fueled Trump Twitter rant.

never said I was trying to pass it off as fact! go re-read my post buddy lol and I wasn't referring to just THIS thread, I was referring that you made assumptions just like the rest of us in other threads... nuff said! so go have your drink of JD lol

edit: seems you made some guesses yourself, in this post BTW... allow me to qoute you, and I can say that making guesses will have you join me in those cocaine fueled rants... hhhmmm?

. **My guess** is shareholders don't give a hairy rat's a** about anything other than ROI in which case dropping the mobile division was an easy choice for the Board. Does anyone think Apple investors care about iPhones no longer having headphone jacks? If the stock prices dipped after the announcement you could bet the farm they'd still be on. Mis dos centavos.

 

[fatclue_98]

never said I was trying to pass it off as fact! go re-read my post buddy lol and I wasn't referring to just THIS thread, I was referring that you made assumptions just like the rest of us in other threads... nuff said! so go have your drink of JD lol

edit: seems you made some guesses yourself, in this post BTW... allow me to qoute you, and I can say that making guesses will have you join me in those cocaine fueled rants... hhhmmm?

That guess is based on over 40 years of exposure to the corporate world. Not a hot take from the Verge. You really need to chill.

 

[beman39]

That guess is based on over 40 years of exposure to the corporate world. Not a hot take from the Verge. You really need to chill.

dude "I" need to chill? LOL its you that needs to chill buddy... whatever your "guess" is, at least I'm not saying your trying to make it like facts... I know its all conjecture and guesses... wow but anyways this my outlook on the whole subject and you have "yours" nobody is saying we're right or wrong, cuzz we will realistically never know... but anyways lets move on shall we?

 

[sd4f]

I think it's a number of reasons, in no particular order;

Transition to Windows 10 Mobile
In the broader picture, this was a completely stupid move. They repeated the mistakes of moving from WP7 to WP8, without forwards compatibility, with a disastrous roll out. More or less gave everyone looking to upgrade their phone with a massive reason to steer clear of the new windows phones. Additionally, treating their limited number of developers in this way just made them ignore the platform, whilst others left in droves. Most apps just didn't get updated, and the WP8 versions remained. They were buggy on W10M and wouldn't get updates because WP8 platform was dead, meanwhile W10M had no users.

Platform was an embarrassment
It was constantly getting negative press for lack of apps. I don't think they wanted a repeat of the zune, well they kind of got it. Also, I can't imagine them officially supporting the platform today. While sure, a lot of problems arose with them officially stopping further development, fact is, any person buying into it last year would have been severely disappointed. They don't need that sort of customer backlash or sentiment, better off just killing it.

It was probably haemorrhaging money
I think even MS would have funded it as long as they can justifiably think that it will become profitable at some point. The mobile platform just couldn't, and no features they implemented would make up for the lack of third party developer support.

Didn't fit in with the bigger picture
Listening to their ideas now, I think they decided they need to go into it with a reset. If andromeda does see the light of day, I think they decided that they're not targeting existing users, but rather a much larger user base, lets face it, they have to target a much larger user base than windows mobile users. So, better come in with a blank canvas than annoying users and developers, yet again.

Incoherent vision
Windows 8 was too soon, and had too many changes for the market it was being released to. Unfortunately, this plagued WP8, which was bug free, smooth and really good to use. Because MS couldn't let Windows 8 remain in that state, they had to do W10, fair enough, but by that stage it really looks like W10M was really neglected. This 'one windows' vision meant a lot of changes, which brought no benefit to the user, just bugs and awful performance. You can also see that the Lumia 950 series were basically thrown out there because they were so far in production, so they might as well had released them. The earlier vision footage shows that they had better ideas, but in hindsight, the platform was more or less doomed already. Along came UWP, which, if anything should have come with launch, but oh well, didn't matter. I don't know where UWP stands currently, no one cares, since there's no mobile platform, and I doubt many developers cared, since there was no market of W10M users.

I just know that I will definitely not be jumping on board andromeda until the waters are well and truly tested by others. MS doesn't foster this nice environment for early adopters at all; they just happily take their money and then throw them under a bus when they quickly decide to abandon something.

I think there's going to be a lot of people out there who remember how the WP7 users and developers whose software became immediately obsolete when MS went all in on WP8. Even WP8 users, they initially said all WP8 devices could upgrade to W10M. That didn't work out too well.

We know that the andromeda device will not be cheap. I think that there's a good chance that it will become vapourware. I for one will not be buying one until it has been well and truly tested by others and can see that it works well for me, meaning that there's some evidence of growth in the platform. I won't be a beta tester for MS, while they ask huge prices for a 'premium' device, and then be stuck with it when it's made obsolete because MS abandon it, meanwhile other platforms will probably reverse engineer, or copy most of the features, and then still have third party developer support as well.

 

[anthonyng]

They were probably waiting for what's in this thread.

So they go focus on working other areas they can control and win. Build out the portfolio, get people liking the other stuff, wanting different pieces for different parts of their life then the light bulb might kick in where people wake up and say, hey where's the ultra mobile device that can make phone calls?

Working on the bigger stuff allows them to work on neat features for the OS. When big gets to a point they like, they can start iterating smaller. Scaling smaller is hard.

All I remember hearing is that mobile is not the focus back when they announced it. Sure a bunch of other stuff was said after but I kept holding on that mobile will come back when they are ready. They quit on w10m as it is sure, but I didn't feel that meant they weren't ever coming back to mobile.

 

[nate0]

They were probably waiting for what's in this thread.

So they go focus on working other areas they can control and win. Build out the portfolio, get people liking the other stuff, wanting different pieces for different parts of their life then the light bulb might kick in where people wake up and say, hey where's the ultra mobile device that can make phone calls?

Working on the bigger stuff allows them to work on neat features for the OS. When big gets to a point they like, they can start iterating smaller. Scaling smaller is hard.

All I remember hearing is that mobile is not the focus back when they announced it. Sure a bunch of other stuff was said after but I kept holding on that mobile will come back when they are ready. They quit on w10m as it is sure, but I didn't feel that meant they weren't ever coming back to mobile.

Yep, I agree here. Mobile was not the focus, and specifically W10M was put on maintenance mode. They never threw in the towel forever in my opinion as well. Much of this or what we are saying was not totally official, and that makes all this news about W10M dying, and WP dead these trigger headlines yet the platform still exists still gets updates and Microsoft still hits the news with mobile everyday. On top of all that stuff is leaked that would be or could be to come.
Though it can seem like the sky is falling that a Windows phone is not on the horizon, but honestly should we put that type of heat or emphasis about it out there? It seems it is the amount of patience and or fear of inevitability that makes critics nuts over it all. What-ifs and the idea of missing out maybe?!...being child-like has its own wisdom in a way, but in this era of tech and consumers many (me included) have been caught up in temper tantrums because we are not getting something we want. It is pretty embarrassing honestly if we go back and look at it all lol.

 

[fatclue_98]

being child-like has its own wisdom in a way, but in this era of tech and consumers many (me included) have been caught up in temper tantrums because we are not getting something we want. It is pretty embarrassing honestly if we go back and look at it all lol.

Are you talking about Windows or Trump? Anyhoo, I agree with your point about impatience, this feels a lot like the WinMo 6,5 days when very few changes were coming, very few new devices and then 6.5.3 comes out with some eye candy and only 2 last gasp phones shortly before the news of its demise. The Elite x3 reminds me of the HD2 in that it was a hero phone and swan song in one fell swoop.

 

[naddy6969]

"After spending the last 2 Years with an iPhone 7plus I must say both android and ios are **** OSes if you remove apps I must say WINDOWS MOBILE is by far superior. "

This comment speaks volumes about how the Windows phone faithful just don't get it.

No one - I mean no one - except OS geeks cares about Operating Systems. Saying "if you remove the apps Windows was much better" is like saying "if you remove the TV shows ABC is a much better TV network".

Huh? TV shows are why TV networks exist. Applications are why Operating Systems exist. Just as no one buys a TV to stare at a blank screen, no one buys any computer - mainframe, desktop, laptop, tablet, watch, ANYTHING - to run an OS.

Computers exist to DO something for the user/owner/whoever. The OS is just a means to that end. That end being ................wait for it ...............APPLICATIONS.

With no applications, there is no point to an Operating System. Indeed, there is no point to the computer running the Operating System.

I remember back in the mid 90s, how the Linux geeks would say the same thing. "Windows is a toy OS, Linux is so much better". Yeah, right. Unfortunately for your "great OS", the apps I want/need to run did not exist on Linux. Therefore Windows was the better OS for me - and 98% of PC users.

It is all about the applications. Always. No exceptions.

Forget about Operating Systems. Windows phones (and Linux) did not get the apps that people wanted. So iOS and Android (and Windows) won and Windows phones (and Linux) lost. It really is as simple as that.

If today's phones were running on CP/M or TRS-DOS, no one would care as long as all of the apps were there. Well, some folks here would probably still care. You would STILL be making absurd comments like "apart from the apps, Windows is a better OS".

How about "If you remove the food, McDonalds is the best restaurant". Does that make ANY friggin sense?

 

[fatclue_98]

This comment speaks volumes about how the Windows phone faithful just don't get it.

I think you took that comment out of context. Even the most ardent anti-Microsoft writers have praised the Windows UI and feature set as compared to iOS and Android. If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery then the global dark theme Windows uses must be blushing because the others sure are making it a point to make it seem as if it was their creation. That's just one example, there are other points but it's an exercise in futility to discuss it. Those of us who still enjoy Windows phones and its "superior OS" will continue to live in denial and bask in our ignorance while the Illuminati blaze a path forward with their iPhones and Androids.

 

[anthonyng]

I don't like how SwiftKey doesn't work on all the apps on my iPhone, or that I have to often switch it back to SwiftKey from default keyboard

 

[MrockNroll]

I guess I will continue to bask in my ignorance and enjoy the heck out of the limited apps I still have, using dark mode and loving the hands free and great keyboard that is baked in to windows 10 mobile.:amaze:AL

 

[nate0]

I think you took that comment out of context.

Ya, I agree. Although I see naddy6969's point you cannot have one without the other. To me it did not seem like that was the jist of that one post though.

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery then the global dark theme Windows uses must be blushing because the others sure are making it a point to make it seem as if it was their creation.

...and still trying to work at it too...Same for Gesture based UI/UX. It has been reinvented by iOS and Google and it's as if this new creation of sorts has just hit the scene.

Those of us who still enjoy Windows phones and its "superior OS" will continue to live in denial and bask in our ignorance while the Illuminati blaze a path forward with their iPhones and Androids.

...and that's ok. kinda