[gwbonline]

I'm a Windows 10 Mobile user and I want to continue using it when Microsoft decides to stop development of the OS. Am I able to do this? I was wondering: do apps continue to work, for example a Microsoft app like Mail & Calendar? Or must I see this as a service that is also shut down eventually?

[Sedp23]

They should work as long as the developer supports them. The uwp apps run on pc and Xbox so I'm sure they will still be updated

Sent from Idol 4s

[camaroz1985]

It should be no different than WP8 or 8.1 apps or phones now.

[xandros9]

When the OS is truly dead, everything will work.

But the slow decay will begin almost immediately.

The Store may eventually be shut down. (like webOS and Windows Mobile 6.x)

Standards-based things like Mail, People and Calendar should function for years. (webOS still works six years later but it has age-related certificate issues)

Apps will continue to work until behind the scenes stuff are changed, like how Facebook dropped support for BB10, WP8.1...

[TgeekB]

Don't panic.
And always carry a towel.

Sent from mTalk on my SP4

[Guytronic]

I still enjoy WP 8.1 here.

How long has it been since it was left in the dust?

[Drael646464]

UWP is a platform with a future, regardless of smartphone marketshare.

I don't see updates to windows 10 mobile stopping yet either (for a start there are devices that are not EoL, but see below). We have two very clear announcements from MS, that do no depend on mobile profits -

+Cshell - MS wants its UI to scale automatically across devices. So win10m style on small devices, tablet style, console style. Every single OS with onecore (console, PC, tablet, IoT core, and mobile) will get this update, so its not remotely connected to the success of windows 10 mobile (And it sort of depends on it, seeing as they wish to merge all the UIs)

+Cortana skills api - The Cortana skills api is due soon, this brings in microsofts easier to program and popular Microsoft bot framework, as well as the ability to repurpose alexa skills code. Cortana is pretty cloud based, but Cortana runs on everything at the top, right down to IoT core (which as yet, makes MS no money).

It's very likely windows 10 mobile will be retired one day. But its useful as a platform for developing cshell, Cortana on mobile devices. MS wants to get into everything including smarthomes and smartwatches, so there is every reason to keep working on these form factors in some form, regardless of current profitability, as future investment.

I don't see them discontinuing updates on mobile this year at least. And if they do, it would only be to port those same features to WoA - but seeing they haven't prioritized mobile, and won't likely be releasing any phones with it any time soon (if at all), win10m seems like the better beta/testbed for those desired changes.

And as I said above, regarding UWP apps, people use them on tablets and notebooks, on xbox and on desktop. The windows store is actually growing despite what you'll hear from mobile users. At worst for mobile this may mean a slight dip in mobile centric apps, like gps, banking or messaging focused apps. But with windows on arm coming out, a platform that is also LTE and calling enabled, also includes GPS, the existence of tablets and notebooks with these capabilities will probably breath life back into those too.

For example, WhatsApp will probably want an app updated for LTE enabled notebooks. With 500 million users, and notebooks being the fastest growing catergory of PC, something 1 in 4 or 1 in 5 people own - there is commercial value in being in that space.

[Jcmg62]

My wife recently joined a massive, multi-national firm at senior management level and was handed a......blackberry! It's brand new but is a 6 year old model that's probably been lying in a store room at company HQ for years.

Point is, it works perfectly and actually makes me miss the Blackberry OS. It's still supported by the manufacturer even although they killed the platform 2 years ago.

On a similar note, I have two very large clients here in the UK (40,000+ employees) and they're all on windows phone 8. They have absolutely no plans to change this. The operating system and it's basic apps still work.

Heck, my Lumia 800 still works :)

W10M may wind down but your phone will still work a decade from now

[Drael646464]

My wife recently joined a massive, multi-national firm at senior management level and was handed a......blackberry! It's brand new but is a 6 year old model that's probably been lying in a store room at company HQ for years.

Point is, it works perfectly and actually makes me miss the Blackberry OS. It's still supported by the manufacturer even although they killed the platform 2 years ago.

On a similar note, I have two very large clients here in the UK (40,000+ employees) and they're all on windows phone 8. They have absolutely no plans to change this. The operating system and it's basic apps still work.

Heck, my Lumia 800 still works :)

W10M may wind down but your phone will still work a decade from now

I just read that the pentagon use windows 95 and 98 on some of their core systems. In telco and in banking they use a lot of terminal programs.

You can still buy original, unused nokia 3310s.

bb10 is a good OS. The q5-20, classic, passport all very useable. Maps (QNX has navigation in a car and traffic prediction locked down) and the HUB, as well as real time multi-tasking, are stand out features, as well as the intuitive side swipe gesture implementation that no one else has quite matched yet (although windows 10 has a touch of this).

bb os - well it gets the job done. Browser is a bit sad, and I think they'd all be pretty much 2g, lol.

[EliteMikes]

Supposedly gas buddy is dead. I don't think that app has been updated since it was built for wp7/8

Eventually developers will sunset any APIs they were using that have long changed and the usage is minimal on it. Most dev shops don't have unlimited resources to maintain legacy code or to ensure APIs stay backwards compatible. This includes MS, take the family rooms for example and the old windows 8 skype app, which often was better than the UWP early on.

Core features of the phone probably won't die. Email can always fall back to pop3, calendars have a simple standard, but you can forget about apps living a long time.

[Grant Taylor3]

UWP apps run on Mobile, tablet and desktop so there should be no worry there.



It will not be the sort of situation that happened with Symbian.



I am writing this on a Lumia 640 with the latest fast ring build. I am using Tapatalk Classic an app that has not been supported in years but it still works fine.