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Microsoft gives up on Windows 10 Mobile

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Microsoft gives up on Windows 10 Mobile

#101

Post by wodenokoto »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #84
michaelbuckbee wrote: post #72

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.

A wechat phone would be obvious and I don't know why they don't do it. Remember that Google play and all the other play services are not available in China.

Re: Microsoft gives up on Windows 10 Mobile

#102

Post by marindez »

itsmenotyou wrote: post #30

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…

>For more niche apps they ran promotions for students and independent developers giving away free phones etc.

I remember they were giving Lumia 925's to computer engineering students here years ago if they made and uploaded an app. You can imagine the quality of the apps they were uploading. Most of them were slideshows or just a wall of text.

That's not how you incentivise app developers, that's how you inflate your numbers.

Re: Microsoft gives up on Windows 10 Mobile

#103

Post by arkades »

ransom1538 wrote: post #77
itsmenotyou wrote: post #30

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...

Your post and his comment do not contradict one another. Or rather, your interpretation of the data in that post is shaky.

Consistent with the data presented in that post:

-I download lots of one-time-use apps. They're useful, and I won't use a phone without them, and then uninstall them in a week (eg, city specific apps when traveling)

- I download lots of special use apps that contribute few app-hours most of the time, but are super critical when I need them (hiking apps when hiking, service-specific references when I'm working in the relevant department, etc)

-I download games (lots of them), play with them for a while, and then uninstall for a new game. Yeah, most are gone in a week or a month, but the ongoing process is valuable to me.

(Edit addendum:

-I have apps I use quasi-frequently and that contribute very few app-hours of interaction, but are still valuable. Eg, the couple minutes a day I use a task list, the five minutes a week I use FreshDirect, etc.)

And then, yes, there are a handful of core apps that get most of my usage (outlook, kindle, Netflix, messages, safari).

This is entirely consistent with those stats, and still places enormous value on the app ecosystem.

Re: Microsoft gives up on Windows 10 Mobile

#104

Post by herbst »

blackoil wrote: post #24

I was using WP since times of WP 7 and Lumia 710. At that time other options were either super costly iPhone or crappy lagging Android. WP had a fresh look, smooth OS and range of hardware from Nokia. Unfortunately, MS fumbled couple of times with internals while moving to WP 8 and WM 10. In the meanwhile Android fixed the kinks and improved UI. Motorola and Xiaomi improved value for money of Android.

Pretty sure we talk about the same time nexus 3 and 4 were a thing. In that case Android was far from Laggy already. Hardware producers just still fucked everything in their software up

Re: Microsoft gives up on Windows 10 Mobile

#105

Post by shanev »

oneeyedpigeon wrote: post #75
shanev wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Drum Kit? I'm guessing $10k just wasn't worth it for such a hugely-popular iOS app?

Yup. It wasn't worth it at that time.

Re: Microsoft gives up on Windows 10 Mobile

#106

Post by ep103 »

shadowmint wrote: post #78
jmkni wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It looks like WPF will be supported for the forseeable future, but I get your overall point

We'll see. I think the netstandard -> all platforms approach, combined with the aggressive depreciation of old .Net 4.6.x versions is a road map for the future. Maintaining two entire release chains, the 4.x and the .Net core 2.x, is an impossible long term strategy. I would be absolutely astonished if the 4.x line is quietly folded away and depreciated ('unsupported') once the netstandard surface area means the code…

What the heck can replace winforms and wpf apps though?

I've seen them promote at least 2 different technologies since the first time I heard WPF was dying, and both of them are dead already, so far as I can tell.

Re: Microsoft gives up on Windows 10 Mobile

#107

Post by johnvega »

pritambarhate wrote: post #33

One cool move on Microsoft's part can be releasing Microsoft's version of Android. The main problem is Google Play Services. But since MS almost has parallel offerings for all Google Services they can create an "API" compatible version of Google Play services. This way users will be able to install all the current Android applications which are available on Play Store. This can convert Android into an Oligopoly inste…

The best combination for me is to have high quality hardware Surface Phone, just like Surface Laptop, using stock Android and high quality, stability and usability, Microsoft apps and Microsoft microservices. Two most important hardware optimizations are security and data connectivity.

Re: Microsoft gives up on Windows 10 Mobile

#108

Post by dhimes »

cm2187 wrote: post #35
itsmenotyou wrote: post #30

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…

I remember they started by introducing the same sort of toll than Apple. That was them shooting themselves in the foot.

This is what I thought too. If they're also going to charge in the ballpark of 30%, then they're not serious. They're not giving the proper incentive.

Re: Microsoft gives up on Windows 10 Mobile

#109

Post by chrisper »

herbst wrote: post #91
EpicEng wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Usually Mac in my experience because nobody on their right mind would bother with Windows in a working environment.

Except people who do .NET development, no? I wish I could use Linux, but I can't since I am working on WPF stuff.

Re: Microsoft gives up on Windows 10 Mobile

#110

Post by ransom1538 »

arkades wrote: post #103
ransom1538 wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"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...

Your post and his comment do not contradict one another. Or rather, your interpretation of the data in that post is shaky. Consistent with the data presented in that post: -I download lots of one-time-use apps. They're useful, and I won't use a phone without them, and then uninstall them in a week (eg, city specific apps when traveling) - I download lots of special use apps that contribute few app-hours most of the t…

In your comment there are many uses of I. But that isn't how other people generally use their phones - if you can be bothered to look at any data.
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