RIP Windows Phone

[Skeeter]

Really? The same Microsoft who have stated the Phone branch of Windows 10 is not a high priority for them, and who are considering selling their phone Hardware business?

The problem with Windows Phone is not just that it has little to no support from 3rd party App developers. It has little to no support from 3rd party hardware vendors, 1st party hardware or software developers, or its own parent company either!

Edit: They have actually already sold the phone arm to Foxconn, along with transferring 4,500 staff. Microsofts current stance is that it will continue to support Windows Phone 10 and its current range of Lumia phones, plus the OS installed on any deviced produced by OEM partners. It specifically omits any mention of new Lumias in the future.

Lumia phones account for 95% of all WP sales, and Lumia devices currently have no confirmed future.

 

[AndyCr15]

Android users are being told we're off topic in this thread, if anything it's the WP users posting 'I'm okay on WP thanks' that is off topic. How is that relevant to the OS dying? One person using WP into 2040 doesn't mean it's not dying/dead.

There's no problem with you being happy with it. Big an Android fan as I am, I don't try and change people's mind. I will state my opinions, sure, but if someone is happy on WP, fine. It is, as said, kind of irrelevant to this discussion about the OS dying.

 

[paradigm]

There's no problem with you being happy with it. Big an Android fan as I am, I don't try and change people's mind. I will state my opinions, sure, but if someone is happy on WP, fine. It is, as said, kind of irrelevant to this discussion about the OS dying.

This.

Had Windows 10 Mobile not been utterly riddled with bugs, random reboots, bluetooth stack problems, duplicate apps that I can't fully install or remove (just greyed out "pending"), and had the current crop of hardware not been plastic fantastic monstrosities, I'd still be on Windows Mobile/Phone. I was happy with CE, I was happy with WinMo5/6, I was sort of OK with WinPho7 (after we got smaller tiles), and 8/8.1 was actually a quite stable platform (it ran lovely on my 925 and 930).

Win 10 just feels half baked, unfinished, unpolished, and quite frankly like it was pretty much left to rot, regardless of how many updates it got. And I'd have put up with all of the "problems" if the bluetooth stack had been fixed, but simply put I couldn't survive day to day without being able to answer the phone whilst on the road.

I've never been a massive fan of Android, there are far too many disparities between flavours (worse in 2.x-4.x days I'll admit), incompatibilities with both hardware and software, google play service instabilities, and IMO too much customization needed to get something that felt "finished" (Android to me still feels far too much like a project in need of work). Yet here I am, back on (almost) stock Android. Time will tell if this is a honeymoon period, or if I'm genuinely happier on Android than I was on Windows (at least bluetooth works).

At the end of the day, the more locked down hardware sets and software platforms are what made iOS so usable, it helped Windows Phone/Mobile to ensure it was secure and stable (until 10). Personally I'd be happier if Android was more strictly controlled, but c'est la vie, you can't have it all.

I can see merits in almost all of the recent smartphone platforms (with the exception of Firefox OS as I've not used it). I think out of all of them, WebOS on my HP Touchpad was actually the most usable, the most productive, and the most stable. Shame Palm died a death WebOS with Android apps would have been the ultimate platform IMO.

 

[Martini1991]

Microsoft will beg to differ. They cannot afford to lose control of the base OS. We're already starting to see phones replace PCs - Microsoft's core business. Sure they've not got it right yet but they have the funds and the talent to get it right. And really, the only big issue is the perceived lack of apps.

Perceived lack of apps? There's no perception about it.
I'd argue they don't have the talent as well.

 

[Abooie]

Edit: They have actually already sold the phone arm to Foxconn, along with transferring 4,500 staff. Microsofts current stance is that it will continue to support Windows Phone 10 and its current range of Lumia phones, plus the OS installed on any deviced produced by OEM partners. It specifically omits any mention of new Lumias in the future.

Lumia phones account for 95% of all WP sales, and Lumia devices currently have no confirmed future.

I didn't actually know this but it cements feelings I've had for a year or so now.

I'm been quite the Microsoft supporter, getting their vision and believing that they'd deliver on the promises. I had a Zune, HTC 8X, Lumia 800 and now a 930 and quite frankly I've had enough.

Lack of any kind of coherent vision; awful communication, buggy software, total lack of any investment in third party apps and an ecosystem that seems to be going backwards.

I'm up for renewal in three weeks and I've already decided I'm getting a Galaxy S7 Edge.

Ok, I still think Android is a bit of a mess of an OS but I'll get decent mapping, a Sonos app, HSBC app, a Geocaching app (Geocaching.com have abandoned wp), hell even Pokémon Go and get into an ecosystem that appears to have a future.

Only questions are how easy is using an MS account as the primary on android. Will contacts / calendars etc all appear easily?

 

[paradigm]

Only questions are how easy is using an MS account as the primary on android. Will contacts / calendars etc all appear easily?

Yes, without issue.

Sure you'll still need a google account for Play Store usage, but I use an Exchange account (that's also my Microsoft Account) as my primary on my OnePlus One.

 

[Skeeter]

You can't use a Microsoft account as a primary account on Android. You must use a Google account and then add the MS account as a secondary.

However, they integrate pretty seemlessly and most apps will use multiple accounts without any issue. Even things like the GMail app now handle non GMail email accounts without any faff. Outlook on Android is pretty good though, I use that to separate out personal from work email.

My Office 365 account integrates better on my Android phone than it ever did on my Lumia, which was always a point I never understood. I couldn't sign into a Microsoft OS using a Microsoft O365 account. Instead I had to create a personal Microsoft account as the primary and then add O365 as a secondary and then turn off email and calendar for the MS account. Same story on my W8 and W10 work laptops too, except they needed three accounts to work as it uses our domain accounts for primary login.

Says a lot when competitors can use Microsoft's services better than other parts of Microsoft themselves.

 

[Helios1234]

That's a point that annoys me about Microsoft, they make better apps and services for other platforms than their own. One of the reasons I have little faith in WP going forward.

 

[OspreyO]

I dislike the way Android/Google try to merge all my accounts on Android. I prefer to keep them seperate. Anyway to have seperate inboxes and even folders on Android.

Also why on Android is YouTube destroyed with ads? On WP I get no ads.

 

[CaptainRAVE]

The only reason I like my windows phone is because it links all of my other Windows software. There is a pathetic selection of apps though and doubt I will get a windows phone next time. Fewer and fewer apps seem to be supporting it.

 

[paradigm]

I dislike the way Android/Google try to merge all my accounts on Android. I prefer to keep them seperate. Anyway to have seperate inboxes and even folders on Android.

Yes, don't use the gMail app, and then disable it in settings.

I use Boxer - Free Email Inbox App (because that's what came pre-installed on my Oneplus One). It's spot on.

 

[OspreyO]

Yes, don't use the gMail app, and then disable it in settings.

I use Boxer - Free Email Inbox App (because that's what came pre-installed on my Oneplus One). It's spot on.

Ta.

 

[Skeeter]

I dislike the way Android/Google try to merge all my accounts on Android. I prefer to keep them seperate. Anyway to have seperate inboxes and even folders on Android.

Depends entirely in the app and the settings in the app. You can seperate out accounts in the GMail app, or use different Email apps per account entirely.

I use GMail for my personal email and Outlook for work. Outlook does my address book and Calendar too.

Also why on Android is YouTube destroyed with ads? On WP I get no ads.

There isn't an official YouTube app on WP. Google refused to allow it due to (among other reasons) Microsoft not adhering to Google advertising policies.

 

[Tuvoc]

It's posts like these that are annoying. We understand the numbers but if some of us are fine with WP and have no need to change to Android, why try to force on us.
Based on my needs, Android is probably my next step. For cu3ed, he's happy with what he's got, so why try to convince him otherwise. Let the people make their own minds up. Maybe he likes the intuitiveness of the WP interface and doesn't want to waste time customising android.

I'm with cu3ed - I'm perfectly happy with Windows phone, or more correctly, Windows 10 mobile. I love it. I have all the apps that I need, and I prefer the interface over Android and iOS. I'll review my position when I next buy my phone, but if I was buying again today it would still be Windows phone.

At any point in the future, if it becomes unsupported or it can no longer do what I need because of app support for example, then I'll switch to Android. Nothing wrong with Android at all, just at the moment it would be my second choice, but that could change in future. I do have Moto-G which is over 2 yrs old now so I do know Android up to 5.1 or whatever it is anyway. Back then I switched from Windows phone to Android Moto-G, ran with it for a couple of months, and then went out and bought another Windows phone and switched back because I preferred it. The Moto-G has a SIM card in it for low-cost international calls to people who don't have what a smartphone, and that is pretty much what it is used for these days.

 

[visibleman]

This is like saying you hate food.

Not even close. A better analogy would be to say that's 'like saying you hate steak' - there's a good handful of varieties and different ways it can be 'cooked' but essentially it's all (and works) the same.

Either way, there's nothing wrong with someone saying they hate Android - i can certainly see why someone wouldn't like to use it, especially for business use.

So what were discussing then is your definition of an OS "being dead" as being completely different to pretty much everyone else.

I think you'll find the majority of the 'bashers' are struggling with the definition; the OS is being actively developed and hardware is being produced, regardless of statistics, it's far from the definition of 'dead'

....because when we do discuss where WP is in the market, the WP fans get offended and say were wrong.

But that's not what is happening in this thread.
Rather, someone posts an article on the market share or Microsoft's placement in market and then throws in a jab-comment of "It's dead". A past/present WP user will correct that person by saying that it's technically not dead due to X, Y and Z and that they find it perfectly usable for their needs which is then met with continuous replies of - "Yeah....but it's dead".
There's no real discussion in this thread unfortunately.

Whatever way you look at it, there's still a market for OS's like WP, perhaps not with consumers but certainly in business markets where they want the integration.

...it's highly unlikely you can't get it into a state in which you like.

No it's quite likely otherwise Blackberry's Android version of their 'hub' would work the same as on BB10, which it doesn't because of limitations of the OS.
How ever you skin Android, it has the same underlying workflow ('quirks') and fundamentals which you can't remove.

 

[paradigm]

Whatever way you look at it, there's still a market for OS's like WP, perhaps not with consumers but certainly in business markets where they want the integration.

Whilst this is true, they would have to drastically improve the stability of the OS before I'd go back to recommending it (and I used to, heavily).

The problem is that the more people who get driven away, the less likely it is for people to even notice that it gets fixed (if it ever does). Now I'm no longer using it day to day, I'll likely never know if they fix the bluetooth problems and make the platform more stable.

 

[Silly Goose On The Loose]

The long list of bugs in WP10 and seemingly growing, would seem to imply that Microsoft have given up.

 

[OspreyO]

I've been using Android for years. I still prefer my Windows Phone in many ways though. But it's becoming too buggy to use as my main phone..

 

[OspreyO]

The long list of bugs in WP10 and seemingly growing, would seem to imply that Microsoft have given up.

Feels to me like they've pulled all the resources except for the redstone fast ring. IMO.

 

[Skeeter]

Theres a lot to pick up on in your post, but I'm just going to pick this bit as its a common thing people say...

i can certainly see why someone wouldn't like to use it, especially for business use.

Can you expand on why you think this is? My Windows Phone was my work phone. Litterally everything it did that was 'businessy' my Android phone does better.

There appears to be a deep seeded perception that Microsoft Phones are great for business, but in reality I've found that to be completely not the case at all. I'd be interested to hear why you think they are?

For example, we have on site Microsoft AD, Azure AD, and a corporate Office 365 subscription. I cannot use any of those 3 accounts as the primary account to log into a Windows Phone. I must instead create a Personal Microsoft Account, sign in with that, and then add the rest as secondary accounts. That isn't seemless business integration.