WP was almost there & that's how the story ended..

[anon(10409867)]

Windows phone always remained a dark horse. Unfortunately, it's story ended very much like most of Microsoft's recent foray into the uncharted territory of innovation.

I have been using Windows phone for the last 6 years and there has been many instances when I expected WP to cross the threshold. Unfortunately, every one of those times, Microsoft did something to kill the momentum. Through this table, I have tried to summarize this trend.



While it's true that this table is very subjective, it does shows a trend:

1. Hardware of Windows Phones before Lumia 930 were of very high quality. The problem was the OS. Many useful features were lacking or was half baked into the OS. I was expecting that with future OS updates, WP would become a worthy competitor.
2. W10M tried to plug those gap by introducing many new feature in the OS. However, it did that by compromising the stability and build quality.

Due to these reasons, I think WP always remained a dark horse. The year 2016 was a crucial one for it. And then Nadella came.

 

[Ryujingt3]

Windows phone always remained a dark horse. Unfortunately, it's story ended very much like most of Microsoft's recent foray into the uncharted territory of innovation.

I have been using Windows phone for the last 6 years and there has been many instances when I expected WP to cross the threshold. Unfortunately, every one of those times, Microsoft did something to kill the momentum. Through this table, I have tried to summarize this trend.

View attachment 139671

While it's true that this table is very subjective, it does shows a trend:

1. Hardware of Windows Phones before Lumia 930 were of very high quality. The problem was the OS. Many useful features were lacking or was half baked into the OS. I was expecting that with future OS updates, WP would become a worthy competitor.
2. W10M tried to plug those gap by introducing many new feature in the OS. However, it did that by compromising the stability and build quality.

Due to these reasons, I think WP always remained a dark horse. The year 2016 was a crucial one for it. And then Nadella came.

This is interesting. What's your ranking criteria? By that I meant how do you quantify that you give a maximum of 5 to File Explorer, but 10 for stability? It is sad though to see that the quality does sadly decrease.

 

[firdausikal]

Windows 10 Mobile needs more apps support.

 

[saqib qureshi]

8.1 it was nearly perfect. The apex of the WP story was then, smooth and crisp with some high end hardware. 10 was a complete sign of giving up; lots of unique features from the past were dropped: Social integration with People Hub, Pivot screens, kids then apps corner, Hubs in general, one handed usability (there was an article on WPCentral once about how you only needed the bottom third of the screen to do just about everything), even cortana on 8.1 was more feature rich with a live tile... build quality of phones - the 950's were made with cheap material and stale design that made Lumias look "blah" and they were shipped with buggy software. Basically, Nadella was trying every way to get rid of the mobile burden.

 

[Dwarf_King]

Support ends December 2019. If nothing else is released from Microsoft by then... Well that is the end of story. Android will rule the world for a while and so be it.

 

[anon(10409867)]

Microsoft lied when they said that they tried everything but WP failed to gain traction. They put the entire blame on WP when the main culprit was the team that designed Lumia 950, both hardware and software. Had they put their act together, WP could have become what mac is in desktop market.

If Nadella believed that WP did not fit into Microsoft's long term goals, he should have stated that as the reason for putting an end to WP. That way WP could have gone with it's head held high. Instead he played politics and branded the efforts of last 9 years as useless & a joke. That's not acceptable.

 

[Packolypse]

Windows phone always remained a dark horse. Unfortunately, it's story ended very much like most of Microsoft's recent foray into the uncharted territory of innovation.

I have been using Windows phone for the last 6 years and there has been many instances when I expected WP to cross the threshold. Unfortunately, every one of those times, Microsoft did something to kill the momentum. Through this table, I have tried to summarize this trend.

View attachment 139671

While it's true that this table is very subjective, it does shows a trend:

1. Hardware of Windows Phones before Lumia 930 were of very high quality. The problem was the OS. Many useful features were lacking or was half baked into the OS. I was expecting that with future OS updates, WP would become a worthy competitor.
2. W10M tried to plug those gap by introducing many new feature in the OS. However, it did that by compromising the stability and build quality.

Due to these reasons, I think WP always remained a dark horse. The year 2016 was a crucial one for it. And then Nadella came.

Pick any number of reasons.
1.late to the smart phone. Win6.5 doesn't count
2. Screwing developers over with the transitions from 7 to 7.5 and then to 8.x and then again with 10
3. Lack of marketing
4. Lack of a roadmap
5. Lack of a compelling reason to switch
6. Quality control.

 

[naddy6969]

While it is unclear exactly what this table is supposed to prove, what is very clear is that windows phones did not sell very well. Period.

Windows phones sold about 120 million units over about 6 years. Apple sells that many phones in 6 months, and Apple is #2 . Android sells 10 times that amount.

This is why Microsoft abandoned phones. No one was buying, and no one cared.

 

[Pacus1x]

In 2013, MS had the chance to do something interesting with WP... But then in 2014 they totally lost interest and missed the chance and finally came Nadella to seal the fate of mobile OS from MS. The Lumia 950 was a half baked goodbye for a half baked mobile OS.

 

[beman39]

Pick any number of reasons.
1.late to the smart phone. Win6.5 doesn't count
2. Screwing developers over with the transitions from 7 to 7.5 and then to 8.x and then again with 10
3. Lack of marketing
4. Lack of a roadmap
5. Lack of a compelling reason to switch
6. Quality control.

I totally agree with numbers 1-2-3- possibly 4, but you have to look at the big picture here, you have to see the "cause and effect"... doesn't anyone realize that devs stoppped making apps/games for Windows Mobile when MSFT started changing Windows 7 to 7.1 to 8 which by then the devs gave up and then MSFT AGAIN changed to W10? does anyone besides me NOT see that this was the nail in the coffin?
I remember vividly when I had my HTC HD7 then titan with WM7 on the devices there was a plethora of app/games and I'm talking about major tittles and new ones coming out all the time... then windows changed to 7.1 which was not backwards compatible and not up-gradable so we had to get new phones! and then the same thing happened with WM 8... one of the main reasons iPhones and Android phones are more popular is because they all had CONSISTENCY and worked to move forward and get more polished as they upgraded... also reason I agree with #4 is because MSFT never told anyone what direction they were heading for and what end game they had in mind. Devs and end users were always kept in the dark. not a good way to treat people. then Devs lose confidence and then stop making apps... I whole heartily believe MSFT COULD have been the #2 or even 3 contender for the mobile market... they have the money and the tech and the talented people behind them, just a really sad poor execution and planning and marketing and ect ect ect... but that's just my humble opinion.

 

[Elky64]

In 2013, MS had the chance to do something interesting with WP... But then in 2014 they totally lost interest and missed the chance and finally came Nadella to seal the fate of mobile OS from MS. The Lumia 950 was a half baked goodbye for a half baked mobile OS.

Yeah that's how I feel, 2014 was the beginning of another end. W10M and all that went with it just sealed the OS's fate as it became very apparent there was too much indecisiveness on MS part as to the direction they wanted to go. Over the course Dev's and such lost interest and began to abandon the platform, as did MS.

 

[Elky64]

doesn't anyone realize that devs stopped making apps/games for Windows Mobile when MSFT started changing Windows 7 to 7.1 to 8 which by then the devs gave up and then MSFT AGAIN changed to W10?

Oh I'm sure things were faltering back then too yet in my opinion W10M was the final nail that caused the mass exodus for many including Dev's. Can't announce something such as this then take several months to introduce a device specifically made for the OS w/o having some negative impact, add to that mix was the false positives in regards to what previous devices were eligible for the ten upgrade. Looking back, Microsoft's whole implementation here was pretty bad so it's no wonder things fell apart and there's a good chance they were already counting down the days if their actions were any indication.