Windows 10 Mobile is No Longer a Priority: Microsoft's Joe Belfiore

[engine]

Microsoft's Joe Belfiore has said that Windows 10 Mobile is no longer a priority for the company.

Belfiore confirms what we have been reporting in the past; that from here on out, Microsoft will continue to service Windows 10 Mobile with bug fixes and security patches, mainly for the enterprise market who adopted Windows 10 Mobile for work. Microsoft is not planning to bring any new consumer-facing features to Windows 10 Mobile, nor is it planning to release any new hardware. Windows 10 Mobile is No Longer a Priority: Microsoft's Joe Belfiore [windowscentral.com]

I suspect most of us knew this was was going to be the case, especially with the hints dropped elsewhere, and support for iOS and Android.

[keyplyr]

Yup, iOS and Android have pulled waaaay out front. The Win10 mobile OS is going down along with the Windows phones and tablets.

What has always puzzled me is how bad Microsoft is at anything other than office software, server OS and Windows OS (and some would argue that Windows OS is pretty bad.)

They basically had control over most of the web with Windows on all the PCs, yet they seemingly sat idle and watched everyone else grab the various markets. Then after the other tech companies got a strong presence, MS tried to play catch-up. All they had to do was put Bing Search on everyone's desktop (Google gets away with it.)

[engine]

It's slightly odd that it's not yet hit the fan that Android it's pretty much locked down to Google, and it's an effort to change it to something else.

Absolutely, Microsoft lost it on mobile, and everything related, such as search on mobile, etc. Office is coming good on mobile, and that's good, but it's way behind. I remember the first iterations of Word on mobile and it was definitely not seamless.

In effect, Microsoft has given up on Windows 10 mobile.

[Shaddows]

Google has an Anti-Trust case pending with European Commission on the bundling of Google products on the android platform.

Microsoft includes relatively easy opt-outs of MS default apps on its OS, since MS lost its own anti-trust case on bundling its own software. I thought it was iexplorer (vs netscape), but rapid searching suggests it was WMP.

Bizarrely, Apple seems to get away with it by being a manufacturer, thereby not pressurising a 3rd-party hardware vendor into including its App suite, instead requiring it by internal processes.


ETA- The one MS lost was WMP, but the one that caused the app choice model was the browser. See for example here: [cnet.com...]

[RedBar]

Yup, iOS and Android have pulled waaaay out front.

In which respect, apps and apps alone?

IMHO Win 10 mobile is far superior to both IOS and Android, I find both of those horrible to use and especially so when not having dainty female hands. I know for a fact many people still have problems finding images on their Apples! I've lost count the number of Android phones that screw-up in the first year and especialy so with batteries.

Yes, there were initial problems with Win 10 mobile however today's OS, IME, is superb. I have 5 Lumias and if all I am going to be offered in the future is a crummy Android and an over-expensive IOS, then I'll be wringing the life out of these or going back to a very basic phone.

I am no fan of Google as it is and for no one to challenge this dominance is very disturbing.

Realistically the question has to be ... what is Andromeda?

MS's intention was to unify across the various platforms, Joe Public has shown that they don't want that, they're mostly more bothered about low prices, what's new, therefore I guess Andromeda may be MS introducing a new superior mobile OS, mind you it wouldn't be diffcult v the other two!

[keyplyr]

IMHO Win 10 mobile is far superior to both IOS and Android...

You seem to be in the minority.

[bwnbwn]

keyplyr there are many hip hop things very popular with the majority of the population. Does that make it better? maybe maybe not have you actually compared them? if you can't answer the question then when you have please report back. I am interested since I have neither.

[Jori]

I stick to my Nokia Lumia 930.
Windows Mobile is a very good OS, no doubt about it.
Wainting for an eventual Surface Phone with the Andromeda thing, maybe something where I can install Adobe Photoshop like in my desktop. Why not? That would be a killer mobile OS.

[keyplyr]

keyplyr there are many hip hop things very popular with the majority of the population. Does that make it better?

Never said it did.

...maybe maybe not have you actually compared them?

Compared what... all of the mobile phones, no. Have I used a Windows phone, yes. Do I like it better than an Android, certainly not.

However, the decision from Microsoft to dump Windows-mobile at EoL has nothing to do whether I like the Windows phone. As I said above, IMO the failure is with MS itself. They always get into the game too late, after the other companies have a strong market share.

Don't worry though, if you're a Windows-mobile user you will likely be able to continue using the OS until your device eventually bricks, just with no updates or security patches.

[MayankParmar]

Tbh, Windows Phone is dead since two years. Joe admitting it in 2017 or blaming the developers isn't going to change truth, they were late and too slow at the same time.

On a good note, Andromeda OS is the future of Windows 10 on Mobile - I'm looking forward to it! :D And in the meanwhile, I'm still going to use my Lumia 950 as the primary problem, because I still love and the so-called app gap isn't going to bother me anytime soon and if it does, I have Android for it.

[MayankParmar]

Lumia 950 as the primary phone*

What a bad typo lol.