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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

#111

Post by criddell »

jk2323 wrote: post #90
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…

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.

> Sooner or later there will be x86 based phones

Sure, but right now Apple and their ARM designs are running away from everybody else. Plus Windows is terrible from a security and power consumption point of view. Can Microsoft fix that without breaking everything?

I think MS is conceding the entire phone space. Full screen form factors (like laptops is and large tablets) are very important but for small devices I don't think they can compete.

Re: Microsoft gives up on Windows 10 Mobile

#112

Post by giancarlostoro »

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 really would love to see a Microsoft mobile device. My issue was lack of available devices on my carrier, and when I did find them they hardly were competitive with the available Android alternatives. I hope Microsoft does return to the Mobile OS market, but I hope they pull all the right moves off to get real traction going. I still remember having a code to be a Windows developer for free as a student but never had the time to build any apps so I never took advantage of my developer code.

I do hope Microsoft returns back at it someday. I hope they bring out "Super Phones" on every major carrier that truly compete. Also hope they don't bring some of the pain points of Windows 10 (forced updates, forced telemetry and what not). Google and Apple need a serious competitor. Ubuntu bailed and I wish they had not. It seems like a very specialized OS needs to be built and it needs to hit market on all major carriers with new things to offer that are worthwhile. Privacy would be a strong selling point if anyone else attempts it. I want a privacy focused and open source mobile alternative, feels like I'll wait a long time for it though. Microsoft has the resources to provide such an alternative though... Would be definitely different if they went that route.

Re: Microsoft gives up on Windows 10 Mobile

#113

Post by pm90 »

rqs wrote: post #83
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…

> 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…

Its a free market, and the market has spoken. I think its the right strategy for MS to accept that the market is just not going to accommodate yet another mobile ecosystem. And its not for lack of trying: they've been trying for over a decade now to break into the mobile OS market. They had tablets running a version of Windows much before iPad; they had "Smartphones" running windows much before 2007. There's gotta be something that they just can't get right about mobile OS (or probably its simply the fact that the market doesn't have space enough for yet another proprietary OS).

MS will do a lot better if it focuses on making android betters, supporting .NET apps in android (yay Mono!). Maybe in the future they could revisit the mobile OS thing and have better luck then but for the near future it looks very unlikely.

The mark of a good company is adaptability. Intel went from RAM chip maker to creating microprocessors, MS itself went from creating BASIC compilers to making OS's. With Azure, .NET, Office, Windows etc. I think they have enough areas to make money off. Its just their strategy of adapting windows to mobile devices didn't work.

Re: Microsoft gives up on Windows 10 Mobile

#114

Post by chrisper »

bluedino wrote: post #85
ryl00 wrote: 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?

You should if you have Android and install apps from third party stores / websites. But sometimes even Google Play Store has malware.

Re: Microsoft gives up on Windows 10 Mobile

#115

Post by criddell »

spoiledtechie wrote: post #71
shanev wrote: 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?

That might cover the initial development costs, but then you are signing up for a lifetime of support. $10k doesn't help much if there aren't enough recurring revenues. It sucks to launch an app then let it languish and have to kill it a year or two later.

Re: Microsoft gives up on Windows 10 Mobile

#116

Post by golfer »

godzillabrennus wrote: post #88
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…

They even held a funeral for their competitors devices: https://www.engadget.com/2010/09/10/microsoft-celebrates-win... This didn't age well.

Microsoft has been tone deaf about a lot of things... This is a prime example. Not a lot of self awareness on their part. This was cringe worthy.

Re: Microsoft gives up on Windows 10 Mobile

#117

Post by AnthonyMouse »

camus2 wrote: post #45
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…

Why would anyone bother with a copy of android when the original just works? it makes no sense. Microsoft strategy was just bad. It tried to copy the iPhone when it should have tried to copy its own strategy on PC, which is creating a OS and letting other companies build Windows Phones. The only person who got something out of the Nokia deal is Elop, which is curiously similar to how bad Macromedia/Adobe deal was. Wh…

> Microsoft strategy was just bad. It tried to copy the iPhone when it should have tried to copy its own strategy on PC, which is creating a OS and letting other companies build Windows Phones.

That wouldn't have worked either. Microsoft has the desktop market today because they had it in 1981 when the IBM PC was released. Operating systems have huge network effects.

There is very little they can do today that will cause them to lose that. People hate that there is no simple off switch for all the Windows 10 telemetry, but is it causing all those people to switch to Ubuntu? No. They're mostly sticking with Windows 7, and when support runs out on that, they'll grit their teeth and use Windows 10. Because they have no choice. They need Office and Photoshop and Active Directory and some weird printer thing from their weird printer support company and a dozen other things like that. Which kind of maybe have Linux equivalents but some of them aren't as good and all of them have some initial switching cost which would all have to be taken on at the same time. So when the choice comes to either let Microsoft punch you in the face or walk away, most people still aren't willing to walk away.

But with Android the shoe is on the other foot. Microsoft can't dislodge Android for the same reasons that Canonical can't dislodge Windows.

Re: Microsoft gives up on Windows 10 Mobile

#118

Post by distances »

camus2 wrote: post #45
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…

Why would anyone bother with a copy of android when the original just works? it makes no sense. Microsoft strategy was just bad. It tried to copy the iPhone when it should have tried to copy its own strategy on PC, which is creating a OS and letting other companies build Windows Phones. The only person who got something out of the Nokia deal is Elop, which is curiously similar to how bad Macromedia/Adobe deal was. Wh…

> The only person who got something out of the Nokia deal is Elop

I think this wasn't a bad outcome for Nokia. Android was quickly killing Symbian, and I doubt Nokia would've been too successful using Android.

They kept all the patents, maps, and $7.2B that allowed them to considerable strengthen their other business.

Re: Microsoft gives up on Windows 10 Mobile

#119

Post by scarface74 »

spoiledtechie wrote: post #71
shanev wrote: 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?

10K is nothing for a decent mobile developer in the U.S. Even at a very low salary of $120K in a major metropolitan city. That's a month's salary. Could he have ported the app in a month working 160 hours?

Re: Microsoft gives up on Windows 10 Mobile

#120

Post by [deleted] »

mtgx wrote: post #63
shadowmint wrote: post #55

This surprises no one. I'm more interested in: what's the future for UWP apps now? Another dead end like silverlight? A cross platform UI library that runs on .Net core (ie. windows, mac, linux, android, ios), some kind of hybrid of ??? and Xamarin forms could potentially be quite a nice tool... but its pretty hard to be excited about the prospect with their track record of killed off UI frameworks so far.

UWP apps wouldn't be so bad for Windows if maybe Microsoft extended their functionality a little and kept improving their performance. However, what scares me to death as a user is that if UWP is let's say super-popular with developers 5-10 years from now, and everyone builds their apps as UWP apps for Windows, then Microsoft will eventually restrict "normal" users (read: most "consumer" Windows machines) from even s…

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