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Microsoft gives up on Windows 10 Mobile

bbc.co.uk

81–90 of 724 posts

Re: Microsoft gives up on Windows 10 Mobile

#81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Windows is extremely well sunk into the enterprise market, and neither Linux nor Mac are at all focusing sufficiently on it to displace them. Linux isn't user friendly enough, and Mac's support policy is a complete no go for enterprise.

Every enterprise I have worked at had both linux and mac available to developers. Is this not your experience? You seem to present as truth the opposite of what I have lived.

What OS were the other 98% (i.e. non-devs) of employees using?

Re: Microsoft gives up on Windows 10 Mobile

#82
post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can confirm. Microsoft offered me $10k and free help with development to port my app.

10k seems reasonable enough to port it. Why didn't you?

For everything else than a small local app that is not exactly a very eye opening offer IMO.

Think about the learning time for the completely new eco system. The new hardware and software that is needed costs money as well.

Re: Microsoft gives up on Windows 10 Mobile

#83

I was working in Microsoft about 5 years ago and Satya's not lying when they say they tried everything to incentivise app developers. It was a big focus of the company at the time. For keystone apps they tried to partner with developers doing most of the work for them. For more niche apps they ran promotions for students and independent developers giving away free phones etc. But nothing was enough to get over the pr…

> Most Windows phone owners I know (myself included) loved the design (hardware and software)

I don't love the design, but I like it.

Maybe some people believe the tile home screen is ugly, but they are more informative compare to icon based home screen.

Yes, there are some bad designs in the Windows 10 Mobile, but all of them are fixable. And once those problems get fixed, it will be gorgeous.

I feel very sad about their current failure, and I don't think simply give up is a good choose.

Re: Microsoft gives up on Windows 10 Mobile

#84

Windows Mobile is my favorite example of ecosystems being more valuable than individual user experiences. They came out later and really managed to hit a bright spot in between the customizability of Android and the sleekness of iOS. But without the deep app ecosystem backing them up, I'm not sure we're going to see any new players emerge in this current form factor of mobile computing. So far we've seen: - Amazon fa…

WeChat has done that to some degree. Given that WeChat is basically a platform at this point, one could imagine a WeChat phone coming out in china, bypassing Android completely. Not sure what would be the point though.

Re: Microsoft gives up on Windows 10 Mobile

#85
post #32

Back when Microsoft started started throwing in the towel and put their phones on fire sale I loaded up on $30 Lumia 640's (how could you not at that price for a 5" LTE in 2015?) They've served me and my family well since. The lack of apps has a flip side... I'm not terrible worried about malware. ;) And I'm not worried about my kids getting too distracted by all the games, etc available on iOS/Android.

>> The lack of apps has a flip side... I'm not terrible worried about malware. ;)

Is this something people should be worried about on a phone?

Re: Microsoft gives up on Windows 10 Mobile

#86
post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can confirm. Microsoft offered me $10k and free help with development to port my app.

10k seems reasonable enough to port it. Why didn't you?

How can you say that without knowing 1) what the app is and 2) what tools it was built with?

There's also the problem of ongoing maintenance on multiple platforms. In the best case, it was written with a dual platform toolkit (iOS and Android) and MS adds a 3rd platform to that toolkit to make it easy to port and maintain all three. Even if that were all true, it's won't be for every developer and you'll still have problems bringing people to the platform.

Re: Microsoft gives up on Windows 10 Mobile

#87

I was working in Microsoft about 5 years ago and Satya's not lying when they say they tried everything to incentivise app developers. It was a big focus of the company at the time. For keystone apps they tried to partner with developers doing most of the work for them. For more niche apps they ran promotions for students and independent developers giving away free phones etc. But nothing was enough to get over the pr…

"but the lack of apps ultimately made us move to another ecosystem" Nuts. People don't even use apps [i]. They may have facebook or netflix installed - but then it gets real thin. https://www.apptentive.com/blog/2017/06/22/how-many-mobile-a...

Whatsapp? WeChat? Ueber? Ofo? Tinder?

I hardly use my phone for calls. In fact, I prefer Whatsapp or Wechat. And nope, I don't have netflix on my phone.

Re: Microsoft gives up on Windows 10 Mobile

#88

I was working in Microsoft about 5 years ago and Satya's not lying when they say they tried everything to incentivise app developers. It was a big focus of the company at the time. For keystone apps they tried to partner with developers doing most of the work for them. For more niche apps they ran promotions for students and independent developers giving away free phones etc. But nothing was enough to get over the pr…

They even held a funeral for their competitors devices: https://www.engadget.com/2010/09/10/microsoft-celebrates-win...

This didn't age well.

Re: Microsoft gives up on Windows 10 Mobile

#89

Windows Mobile is my favorite example of ecosystems being more valuable than individual user experiences. They came out later and really managed to hit a bright spot in between the customizability of Android and the sleekness of iOS. But without the deep app ecosystem backing them up, I'm not sure we're going to see any new players emerge in this current form factor of mobile computing. So far we've seen: - Amazon fa…

Don’t forget Mozilla, Ubuntu, Nokia and Blackberry.

Re: Microsoft gives up on Windows 10 Mobile

#90

I was working in Microsoft about 5 years ago and Satya's not lying when they say they tried everything to incentivise app developers. It was a big focus of the company at the time. For keystone apps they tried to partner with developers doing most of the work for them. For more niche apps they ran promotions for students and independent developers giving away free phones etc. But nothing was enough to get over the pr…

It is my understanding that MS has given up on ARM. Sooner or later there will be x86 based phones, which partly solves the "app" problem. They just run a regular windows on the phone.
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