They promise 2 years.. Why not die already with such a terrible message?

[chmun77]

Ok. stop ranting, start thinking.

We all know that technology sites will stick knives into whatever pig looks like it'll gain readers. Nothing smells like bacon more than declaring something is dead.

The actual situation is really simple, maybe too simple for people to really take in.

Microsoft is cutting back on the number of handsets it'll produce per year/two year cycle. There's going to be a "Value" handset, a "business" handset, and a "Flagship" handset. Having normal and XL versions of these will bring the number to 6. This will curtail the bewildering array of Lumias currently in the range. It'll also allow other manufacturers room to breathe in brining their handsets to market.

The job losses are mostly in Finland and are reactive to the smaller range of handsets.

This is a good thing. Tight, more focussed, better handsets.

I think you are missing the point here. We are not upset about Microsoft cutting down the numbers of phones releasing per year. In fact, I'm really very supportive about that. However, what we are worrying is what happen to the phone business after 2 years?? Is Sayta going to just give the OK to kill it from the surface of the Earth, should the sales is still not picking up? We have already bought into the ecosystem, is Microsoft going to throw in the towel just like that? Existing consumers are just getting upset. Is all nothing but sounds like a last attempt from Microsoft.

 

[chmun77]

To answer your question, very, very few developers are investing in windows phone. We already know this, unfortunately. This is bad for ALL platforms though, as android and ios can continue the daily grind, without worry of loosing 25% of their markets by a third place competitor. It simply isn't going to happen. There will be no innovate fires lit under them, and they can relax. This is bad for ALL of us, not just windows users.


I wouldn't pin this on balmer, nadelia, or anyone in the developmental stack. This is a _too_late_to_market_ problem, that never cured itself. Sometimes companies relax (as google and apple can now) with their marketshares (like microsoft did with office and it's desktop OS's five years ago) and think the next 'big' thing isn't much to worry about. They are wrong, and pay a hefty cost.

More importantly, the overall gist of the FAN websites like wpcentral are CHOCK FULL of arguing and doom/gloom posts, INSTEAD OF POSITIVE DEVELOPMENTS. This is a telling sign for what is really going to happen in the future. No matter how positive and upbeat a spin the moderators and link-grabbers put on the situation, the developers can see straight through the spin, and credibility is hurt in the process.


One more time, I'd love to see a real third place COMPETITOR to prevent ios and google from resting. I don't care if it's symbian, ms, nokia, jola, sailfish, linux, bsd, or whatever running under the screen. I don't care where it comes from. China is fine. Just something to keep a fire burning under ios and android. Right now, there is nothing.

"More importantly, the overall gist of the FAN websites like wpcentral are CHOCK FULL of arguing and doom/gloom posts, INSTEAD OF POSITIVE DEVELOPMENTS."

How do you expect us to be positive, when the bad news are coming everyday and even from the mouth of MS CEO himself?! I think is time we should be leaving the ivory tower up there and take a good at the facts that WP is really really not just going to do well - even since after so many years of attempts by MS. Will Windows 10 and Universal apps really going to save the day??? Skeptical I remain.

 

[FinancialP]

I think you are missing the point here. We are not upset about Microsoft cutting down the numbers of phones releasing per year. In fact, I'm really very supportive about that. However, what we are worrying is what happen to the phone business after 2 years?? Is Sayta going to just give the OK to kill it from the surface of the Earth, should the sales is still not picking up? We have already bought into the ecosystem, is Microsoft going to throw in the towel just like that? Existing consumers are just getting upset. Is all nothing but sounds like a last attempt from Microsoft.

Nah. People are worrying too much.

Windows phone will just be where it has always been, not successful. Nothing has changed. It wasn't a success yesterday or the day before.

Development will slow down to Windows Mobile 6 pace, and continue on from there. The market will shrink up to Blackberry size, and us fans will continue to support it and complain about the lack of apps and new devices.

It's been this way for the past 15 years. We just had fanboys come and make us all think Windows Phone 7 was going to really takeoff and be a roaring success.

 

[ntice_521]

The future of Windows Phone is the same as Windows RT. Microsoft won't continue with Windows Phone, but they will make a Phone variant of full Windows, and make high end Wintel phones.

 

[ohgood]

Some of you are stuck in this "phone only" mentality. Nadella is all about the entire Windows ecosystem - just like Apple. MS wants Win10 at the root of everything being sold - not just silly cell phones. He said as much.

Give me an OS that runs on everything and seamlessly melds my tablet, laptop, desktop and toaster together and I really don't care who makes the hardware. It's all about what's under the hood folks. Get the engine purring and let everyone else supply the chassis after 2 years if they want.

This Nokia crap needed to happen. If Ballmer wouldn't have bought the stupid company then Apple or Google would have. Steve-o had his testicles in a vise and did the right thing.

So get this doom and gloom out of your system people.

let me see if i got this right. you're saying phone sales are silly, and what people really need is a refrigerator running Windows 10 ?

i know you weren't talking about Surface sales, or laptops, or desktops, cause those have tanked.

the future is STILL phones. just like it was when apple realized it, Google woke up and scrambled for second, and Microsoft flippantly dismissed it all, claiming that anything that can't run office was a toy.

hmm

 

[JamesDax]

smmfh

 

[StevoPhilo]

What a mess. Timing wasn't great, lack of clarity is awful as usual, and they refuse to ever set the record straight which allows the media to create the reality. MS is awful and incompetent she its comes to communicating their vision, their message and their products. How hard would it be for Nadella to just clear things up with a 1 sentence statement? He simply won't do it. I truly believe he would drop WP today if he thought he could get away with it.

In addition, I mentioned the other day, I went into an AT@T store on Monday and was told WP was awful. Why is it awful, because there is too many things going on, "too many windows" as the rep said. I then went to Verizon with my Uncle who is looking to upgrade, the Verizon rep told us MS was cancelling WP, adopting android and just putting their services on it. So in a matter of 15 minutes, from the 2 biggest carriers, that's the message being sent. Oh, and neither store carries any WP's.

This is an ongoing issue that MS simply refuses to address. I even sent a tip to Windows Central to see if the would write an article about this issue sp we could all share our experiences with the obstacles at retail. Nothing, nada.

MS has been like an absentee parent with WP, terrible marketing, mismanagement on every level and no desire of effort given to improving the retail situation. They are the reason it has not been successful and instead of doing anything right, they would rather pull the plug. It's pathetic. If WP ever finds any success it will be in spite of MS and Nadella, not because of them.

This is ultimately their problem. These people need to be trained and mystery shopped. Why hasn't this situation changed? NO ONE KNOWS anything about WP. So their easiest answer is get an iPhone or this Samsung! Give these people training, and stay on top of them. If people feel like WP has some relevant features then they can be sold.

 

[Laura Knotek]

This is ultimately their problem. These people need to be trained and mystery shopped. Why hasn't this situation changed? NO ONE KNOWS anything about WP. So their easiest answer is get an iPhone or this Samsung! Give these people training, and stay on top of them. If people feel like WP has some relevant features then they can be sold.

That would be Microsoft's job. If Microsoft isn't interested in sending reps to educate the carrier employees, then one cannot blame the carriers.

 

[Nogitsune Micah]

That would be Microsoft's job. If Microsoft isn't interested in sending reps to educate the carrier employees, then one cannot blame the carriers.

Except even with proper training, publicly badmouthing a product is not good. Instead of telling me a product is awful, tell me why it is good or else why do you even have the product on display in the first place?

 

[DalekSnare]

He's committed to two more years. In that time we will see if Win10 is doing well enough to justify its existence to MS. We will also see if the universal and easy-to-port app strategies worked. They should have improved market share by then, so if the new strategies are going to work, they'll definitely keep at it. In the meantime they will stop flooding us with boring phones and start making interesting Lumias again. It looks like MS is learning the lesson Android manufacturers learned in 2011: even if low end phones sell well, don't dilute the market into a mess of confusing indistinguishable almost-identical phones with non-helpful names.

I just hope they correct the doom message that the media is putting out, that will deter buyers.

 

[jefbeard911]

Some of you are stuck in this "phone only" mentality. Nadella is all about the entire Windows ecosystem - just like Apple. MS wants Win10 at the root of everything being sold - not just silly cell phones. He said as much.

Give me an OS that runs on everything and seamlessly melds my tablet, laptop, desktop and toaster together and I really don't care who makes the hardware. It's all about what's under the hood folks. Get the engine purring and let everyone else supply the chassis after 2 years if they want.

This Nokia crap needed to happen. If Ballmer wouldn't have bought the stupid company then Apple or Google would have. Steve-o had his testicles in a vise and did the right thing.

So get this doom and gloom out of your system people.

Tell that to the 7800 or so that have or will loose their jobs because of Ballmers stupid idea to acquire Nokia. He took a great, albeit struggling company, and set it up for failure. Now its being dismantled. Buy it for 7 Billion, write off 7.6B and fire everyone. Nice move!

At least if someone else with brains like Samsung, HTC, or LG would have bought them they may have given them the resources to thrive again.

 

[jefbeard911]

I've heard all of this misplaced optimism before. First with WebOS, then Blackberry.

Yeah, Windows Phone / Mobile may carry on with a new phone or two a year, no real marketing , and a dyjng app catalog but you'll still be able to buy one I guess if this is the universe you want to live in.

Don't forget, you can still buy a brand new Blackberry too.

 

[jefbeard911]

I think you are missing the point here. We are not upset about Microsoft cutting down the numbers of phones releasing per year. In fact, I'm really very supportive about that. However, what we are worrying is what happen to the phone business after 2 years?? Is Sayta going to just give the OK to kill it from the surface of the Earth, should the sales is still not picking up? We have already bought into the ecosystem, is Microsoft going to throw in the towel just like that? Existing consumers are just getting upset. Is all nothing but sounds like a last attempt from Microsoft.

In a word, Yes...

Do you remember Windows 7.x?

 

[Blacklac]

I understood they were gonna make less of them (for the next two years) THEN stop.

Well that's even better, actually

They never mentioned stopping. They just unofficially said we can expect two more years, minimum.

Posted via the Windows Central App for Android

 

[Kris Simundson]

Tell that to the 7800 or so that have or will loose their jobs because of Ballmers stupid idea to acquire Nokia. He took a great, albeit struggling company, and set it up for failure. Now its being dismantled. Buy it for 7 Billion, write off 7.6B and fire everyone. Nice move!

At least if someone else with brains like Samsung, HTC, or LG would have bought them they may have given them the resources to thrive again.

No if someone else bought them, they would've gone after the patents and destroyed the rest of the company.

 

[TaichiSurface]

I have to agree with the op, regardless of Nadella's true intent (which is unclear to me or even to most people, we can only speculate). The fact that it has generated so much bad publicity, it's a bad business move. It's not making anyone more reassured by making this announcement, it's making everyone panicking.

 

[Blacklac]

I've heard all of this misplaced optimism before. First with WebOS, then Blackberry.

Yeah, Windows Phone / Mobile may carry on with a new phone or two a year, no real marketing , and a dyjng app catalog but you'll still be able to buy one I guess if this is the universe you want to live in.

Don't forget, you can still buy a brand new Blackberry too.

As long as Windows is king in Desktop, Windows Phone/Mobile will always be in a better position than BlackBerry or WebOS was when they were tailing off. Especially once Win10 rolls out.

Posted via the Windows Central App for Android

 

[MysticForce]

I was considering to swich from WP to android because I don't like black/white background behind the tiles. But then I inslalled W10M and I like it so much, it is awesome !
Windows 10 mobile will be great, I expect that other producers will make w10m also.

I like MCSFT move to stop forcing low end phones.
In my opinion they should have premium line with metal flagship phones with modern design. They should not call it LUMIA !

 

[anon(8141431)]

Recommending a Windows Phone now is like recommending Symbian after the burning platform speech from Elop "leaked"

 

[Awhispersecho]

It doesn't help that we can't even get a site like Windows Central, a dedicated Windows site, to write an article talking about the issues and experiences at retail and getting this issue in from of MS. If a dedicated Windows site doesn't care enough to address the issue and try to attract some attention to it, then that says all you need to know about how this will all end up.