RIP Windows Phone

[Tuvoc]

Don't Apple charge exorbitant rates for iCloud storage ? I get plenty of free space on OneDrive, but my colleague's iPhone comes up with am message that his phone can't be backed up on iCloud because space is used up. No doubt Apple want to charge an arm and a leg for more space.

Apple have an army of lawyers for sure, but in the EU I wonder if what they are doing is illegal.

 

[Skeeter]

No idea on iCloud. Don't use it. But I'd hope that the basics of apps, settings and synced photos (maybe low res) would come for free, like it does on Android.

Illegal? Doubt it. They are disabling devices for unauthorised repairs (that you agreed you wouldn't do when you bought the phone) in order to ensure the security of the data on them, which they will be required to do (secure the data that is, not specifically brick the phone, but it does do what's required ).

If my work laptop gets some unauthorised fiddling my IT guy can nuke it.

 

[r22snapper]

Wheres the Windows Phone NFC payment system and fingerprint reader technology got to? Do they have one?

God alone knows. They have had Microsoft Wallet since God was a kid and seemingly deprecated it just as they came up with biometrics in the form of Windows Hello. It just makes me wonder if they actually give a monkeys about the platform at all tbh.

 

[Glaucus]

God alone knows. They have had Microsoft Wallet since God was a kid and seemingly deprecated it just as they came up with biometrics in the form of Windows Hello. It just makes me wonder if they actually give a monkeys about the platform at all tbh.

Google brought the rights to the technology MS were using and so that went in the bin. They've now hired some new staff headed by ex head of amazon payments and are working on a new system. Won't be out anytime soon. Probably Redstone in late summer.

 

[r22snapper]

Google brought the rights to the technology MS were using and so that went in the bin. They've now hired some new staff headed by ex head of amazon payments and are working on a new system. Won't be out anytime soon. Probably Redstone in late summer.

Interesting, thanks.

 

[Jamesyboyjim]

Don't Apple charge exorbitant rates for iCloud storage ? I get plenty of free space on OneDrive, but my colleague's iPhone comes up with am message that his phone can't be backed up on iCloud because space is used up. No doubt Apple want to charge an arm and a leg for more space.

Apple have an army of lawyers for sure, but in the EU I wonder if what they are doing is illegal.

You get a few gb for free, which is more than enough for backing up numbers, settings etc (all the important stuff) I have a 128gb iphone with less than 40gb free, I have a free icloud account which I back up to and I'm not even close to reaching the limit.

No doubt your colleague is backing his camera roll up to icloud which will devour space. In his defence I believe its easy to not realise this is happening, but I'm sure if he played with the settings he'd realise this is the case.

 

[Tuvoc]

No doubt your colleague is backing his camera roll up to icloud which will devour space. In his defence I believe its easy to not realise this is happening, but I'm sure if he played with the settings he'd realise this is the case.

Yes - but why wouldn't you do that ? It is what I do with my Windows phone. Other option is to connect to your PC and backup to that I guess,

 

[Skeeter]

Android has the option to backup full res photos or lower res versions to Google Photos. The former will nom through your allocated free storage in no time.

 

[Tunney]

Down to 2.3mil phones sold in the last quarter.

Can Windows 10 Mobile and a potential Surface Phone reverse the trend? It seems unlikely. I really hope that someone can keep Apple and Google honest though.

 

[Skeeter]

Oh dear.

 

[Antar Bolaeisk]

I don't think that Windows 10 mobile is dead, it's just too big a thing and too great an idea. Continuum for instance has to be tried to be believed, it's pretty good as is but has so much potential for the future. That probably describes a lot of Windows 10 at the moment, it's all pretty much bottled potential and unfortunately that's it's greatest problem.

I do think the Lumia brand is dead, any good will towards it from being ex-Nokia and all the great strides forward from Windows Phone 7 through to Windows Phone 8.1 have been destroyed by the extended beta test which is Windows 10 Mobile. Microsoft's best plan at now would be to continue to develop the platform on the existing hardware for the existing userbase and roll out something new nearer the end of this year when Redstone is a lot more stable; Perhaps the oft rumoured Surface Phone.

Whatever it will be anyway they can't call it Lumia as I think that name is now toxic.

 

[Quartz]

I've got a Lumia 650 and it's really quite the thing.

 

[OspreyO]

We were playing with continuum at work on big wall displays. Got a lot of attention. Personally I think there's too few phones in the market with it to have any impact at all.

I still like my WP, though I've been close to ditching it many times lately. WP10 has been very buggy for me.

 

[konicky]

Don't Apple charge exorbitant rates for iCloud storage ? I get plenty of free space on OneDrive, but my colleague's iPhone comes up with am message that his phone can't be backed up on iCloud because space is used up. No doubt Apple want to charge an arm and a leg for more space.

Apple have an army of lawyers for sure, but in the EU I wonder if what they are doing is illegal.

79p a month for 50GB so not too bad really!

 

[silvagti]

Windows phone is feeling pretty dead at this point in time especially with the Nokia deal about to end after which presumably MS will lose their main partner who will likely start releasing Android handsets.

Continuum sounds like a novel idea but given that the phone only runs windows store apps and still isn't backwards compatible with x86 software I can't see it being of much practical use in its current state? You'd need the devs to recode all of the apps to work in a large TV mode for it to be worthwhile and most devs can't even be bothered to make apps for Windows phone in the first place so other than MS it doesn't seem likely many others will take the time to do that for a dwindling platform.

 

[Adrianr]

Something I take for granted these days is just how well my 1520 still runs. After the same period my Note 2 was an absolute mess, all kinds of crashing, poor performance, etc, and my missus iPhone's have been even worse. This thing still flies. Battery life marginally poorer but nothing huge. Not been much in the loop with phones since getting this so hopefully Android has sorted itself out in this regard. God knows what I'm going to replace it with.

 

[niko]

i hope it gos from strength to strength, as i really don't want to go back to android or apple for that matter. it does seem that one of the big problems is it just not trendy, in fact its trendy to detract from it! i find it a great day to day, very useable platform. but i dont really use many apps

 

[silvagti]

Lack of popularity is certainly an issue. It doesn't matter how good a phone OS you develop if nobody is making apps for it then it's going to fail. I just don't see at this point how Microsoft can make a dent in the IOS/Android doupoly that's now in place.

MS have had so many chances and dropped the ball on so many occasions with their phone OS it's hard to have any faith. And I say this as someone who had a Windows 5 mobile device back in the day and used/support MS platforms/services in both my home and work lives but the competition was simply so far ahead of what they offered it was impossible to stick with them.

I don't think there's space in the market for a third player to be honest. Especially not one that's bleeding market share as quickly as MS. Sorry, bit of a rant but I'm ****ed off at how MS failed to deliver me the phone platform I needed as it would have saved me the hassle of having to jump ship to IOS/Android.

 

[Skeeter]

Contiunuum is one of those things that is cool and pretty clever, but I struggle to see how it would be of any use in the real world.

Who has a desk setup that comprises a large monitor, keyboard, mouse, and a dock, but has no access to a laptop or a PC?
What kind of mobile user forgoes a full size physical keyboard on a laptop or something like a Surface and instead takes just their phone with them?

Small mobile devices that can produce a full desktop OS when plugged into a screen have been around for ages, and never taken off.

Continuum is a technical demo and something that looks cool on a stand, but its just a gimmick and isn't a killer feature that's going to save WP.

 

[Quartz]

Contiunuum is one of those things that is cool and pretty clever, but I struggle to see how it would be of any use in the real world.

It's Microsoft's first step to replacing the PC.