I don't have the insights to tell what the real reason for the WM problems are.
But I want to share my "problems" with WM.
I'm a MS developer for more than 20 years and you can call me a fan boy.
Also I'm technical addicted. I run an automated home, have some HUE and LIFX bulbs run RaspBerry PIs...
Going from Windows Mobile (those old "CE devices") to iPhone I learned two thing.
With WP it was horrible to set up a network, and almost impossible to get a connection to my Exchange Server.
On my iPhone it was just a few taps and I had push mail running - still with my Exchange.
My thoughts were - why can a "third party" OS connect with MS products and MS to MS makes so much problems?
Anyhow - I left my iPhone and changed back to MS.
Things worked as expected - but from a developers perspective I was disappointed.
Well knowing (from iPhone) that those mobile OSes have a lot of restrictions for a developer I was shocked how much more restrictions existed on WM.
I had a "transportation goods tracking" application. First on WM (almost no restrictions at all) an later on iPhone - although nit took some time till Apple allowed background tasks.
At WM - "no background due to battery concerns"...
So I was not able to run this solution on WM...
Next step was WP8.x.
First to notice - my 500 Euro plus devices, about a year old will never get the update.
So bad luck - while my iPhone 3GS still was on the most current iOS version.
Meanwhile I got an Android Phone to run my smartwatch.
And I needed it to access my VPN since WP8.0 couldn't do this.
Another big problem - having a device which is advertised as "business device" not able to open a VPN connection.
There were a lot of updates to WP8.0 - and I was always waiting for VPN - what they brought was "better X Box", "new Color schemas" and stuff like this...
But with WP8.1 the things changed - VPN was introduced...
And I felt like in the early days with my first iPhone - I could connect to my Windows 2xxx servers VPN with android - but not with the MS device.
Oh yes - VPN on WP8.1 had a "plugin model" so third party vendors could write the "provider"...
But - first (almost) nobody did it and second (more worse) MS didn't do it for it's own OSes.
So I got (in theory) VPN - but couldn't use it - YES still talking about a business device.
I wrote a lot about VPN - but this was one of the mostly asked questions from my customers.
...you run Windows Phone...can we securely connect to our infrastructure????
Window 10 Mobile changed this behavior - years later...
Currently I got another problem - related to BT-LE. Those little guys (BLE devices) are able to talk to "unpaired" devices.
Which offers a punch of possibilities. For an example (I now that's not a perfect scenario - just an example) such a device could talk to my phone and an app there could say "hi I'm Manfred, please...". But not with MS - pairing is needed.
And the same matters (again / still) to missing functionality (possibilities) of the API (developer access to the device).
Which brings me to the current situation.
A lot of writing is around about "missing apps".
One fact is that developers want (need) to make money - so they (have to) choose a platform with a big number of potential customers.
But (I think) this could be solved (like other wrote above) just by MS throwing in money (we pay XXXX for the best ZZZ client, the first porting XXX to WM gets...).
The much bigger problem is what is (not) possible to make.
Here I think about the (currently) "big thing" IOT.
Microsoft "somehow" heard about it and is also part of the game (Windows 10 for IOT), but not with their Phones.
Buy a HUE - and find that there are apps - for iOS and Android.
Buy a LIFX - iOS / Android.
Buy a smart fridge - apps for iOS / Android.
Buy a home-control (home automation system) - plenty of solutions for iOS / Android.
Remote control you smart TV - no problem - with iOS / Android.
You want to impress your friends?
Invite them home and show how cool the things work...
Enter the door - lights go on, Say "Siri music please" and your sound system starts to work, "OK Google, I need coffee" - the coffee machine starts up (of course you have to place cups
), and a tap on your phone send the cleaning bot to it's corner...
"Google, Siri" - not Cortana.
You are right - this is some kind of "the extra cool guy" - but it was an example.
Last not least a mobile phone has (beside other things) two roles - it must make your life easier (fulfill your "needs") and it should be impressive.
And even if you are the "understatement guy" - never telling about what your cool things can do...
The same thing work with store / customer.
I need a phone...
Here you have Andy 17... it works with your fridge, TV, home automation,...
Ah and that is WM 10 - cool look..sorry no chance that it works with...
Giving you the choice of a well designed OS (Live tiles and so forth) or on the other hand a "not so polished" thing which interacts with the rest of your "technical environment" - what would you choose?
Or if you already got a WM device.
You go to your power provider and they tell you - good news, you can now see what consumes most energy in your household...
Just got to Android Store and download...
I have no Android..
Ah, no problem, we have a download for iOS too...
Window Phone???????
Last not least a simple scene.
You are a sales person.
And you have to sell a mobile phone doing an on stage presentation (a TV commercial)
Your goal (of course) is to sell as much as possible.
Two choices
- show how cool it is to work with Excel sheets on a big screen (Continuum), show how cool office in general works on the device, show how cool it is to stare (for a too long time) at your phone to unlock...
OR
- show you walking through your house while lights turn on and off, take of your shirt while the heating is raised to a higher temperature, and last not least when it rings at the door have a peek via your phone who's coming...
Ah, I forgot - if your second presentation is for "business guys" you still can show them Office running on your iPhone / Android.
And this is a thing I'm also curious... Why the hell does MS provide office (in a fully polished version) for competitor OSes?
This could be a "real difference" - yes on iPhone / Android you can... but on Windows Mobile you have full office integration, can work with your Documents like in the office...
YES you can - but you can do this also with an iPhone...
Does MS want to sell office - or to make WM a real competitor in the mobile OS market?
If second - why don't they throttle (at least) office and other MS apps on competitor devices?
Instead they make product which are as good as like those on the "in house OS" - if not even better.
I'm from Europe (Austria) - here WM runs a bit better than in US - but last not least we have the same problems.
And just now the weather becomes a bit worse (cloudy) - I'll take my Android phone switch on my HUEs...