Windows Phone dead?

[Skeeter]

The poor and declining Windows Phone market share, the lack of any improvement over the last 5 years (a period in iOS and Androids life where they went from nothing to market dominance), and the persistent lack of apps or support from 3rd parties is not "rumors and gossip" at all.

There is plenty of hard evidence to suggest Windows Phone does not have promising future.

 

[AndyCr15]

I would agree, on the subject there are two sides, those that think it's dying and those that don't.

You are correct we don't know what will happen, but the discussion is simply what we think will happen... hence the two sides.

 

[chrislusty]

I am using Windows 10 now on my 830, and it has removed a lot of little issues that were in 8.1 However, the main issues are still lack of apps, whilst some dont see this as an issue, it is for me. There are few good apps, bank apps are not there, the twitter app is useless, facebook is much better on WP10, but still lacking features.
Everywhere you go, there are apps for iOS or Android, nothing for Windows Phone.

 

[Silly Goose On The Loose]

But my point is that Windows Phone isn't providing any competition. It does not have a large enough share of the market to do anything IMO constructive.

 

[r22snapper]

Well, I hope it isn't dead. I prefer it to the alternatives and I don't suffer too much from the app gap as fortunately my bank has a decent app available. I realise that I would probably think differently if this weren't the case.

 

[Mattus]

I am using Windows 10 now on my 830, and it has removed a lot of little issues that were in 8.1 However, the main issues are still lack of apps, whilst some dont see this as an issue, it is for me.

I don't really see how it can not be an issue. It's an operating system... its reason for existing is to run apps!

An OS is just a tool. If the app selection is substandard, then from a user perspective, the OS is a substandard tool.

 

[chrislusty]

I don't really see how it can not be an issue. It's an operating system... its reason for existing is to run apps!

An OS is just a tool. If the app selection is substandard, then from a user perspective, the OS is a substandard tool.

I agree, I actually think the OS is on par with android and iOS, and really like the live tiles, better than a widget, and a lot better than a flat icon, all in my opinion, but it's the lack of apps that will kill windows phone.

 

[kitfit1]

My first Windows phone was a Nokia 710, which i liked a lot. My current phone is a Nokia 925 which i like even more. The only upgrade option on a windows phone at the moment is a 950. Having read the reviews and looked and handled one, i can honestly say i'm not impressed at all. Personally i don't use a lot of apps just whatsapp, weather, barclays banking and the browser. However, one app i use a lot is the satnav and Here Drive on my 925 is very very good. The MS satnav on the 950 is a pile of rubbish that could have been written by a bunch of 3 year olds. I'm also not at all impressed by the battery life or the build quality compared to my 925. My point here is as an already happy user of Nokia/Windows, MS have not provided me with any sort of worthwhile upgrade path. So for now, i will stick with my 925 but it will probably be my last Nokia/Windows phone. As i see it, Windows phone isn't dead.........................but it is certainly dying.

 

[Shoei]

You can have "Here drive" on the 950. Its run under Windows 10 no problem. Have it on my 640 running W10

 

[kitfit1]

You can have "Here drive" on the 950. Its run under Windows 10 no problem. Have it on my 640 running W10

I know that Here Drive can be installed. That on it's own isn't really an issue. But one has to ask the question, why did MS release the phone with what is patently a rubbish satnav app when they could have released it with Here Drive. It also dosn't alter the fact that the 950 is no where near a proper upgrade from a 925. Perhaps they just want us to look elsewhere ?

 

[Destination]

At the cheap end of the spectrum, I have a MS Lumia 550, it cost £50 and does all I need for messaging, phone, apps etc. I have my integrated outlook, my email, the Hotmail access, my google access, and WhatsApp as well as skype.

It doesn't do snapchat apparently, but I never had that, so it doesn't bother me. It feels like windows, as it is windows, so I was swiftly happy with the settings and navigation.
Quite pleased with it.

It certainly isn't an iPhone, which my wife has, but it does all I need it to

 

[Caged]

If I had to use a budget phone it would be a Windows Phone, no doubt about it.

But I am not limited in that way and having compared different options I still don't think you can beat iOS from an enterprise management perspective. Microsoft only launched a VPP competitor towards the tail end of last year and I still don't think anything like DEP exists on the other platforms yet.

I also am firmly of the opinion that the Continuum / display dock thing that MS are keen to show off where possible is an idea that will go nowhere. Phones are now a "here's some money, go and pick a phone" type of device, which means people are unlikely to end up with one running Windows. Even if you decide to issue staff with phones, where are the job roles that involve a high-end phone being handed out but only have incredibly basic computing requirements that could be fulfilled by a UWP app? Even MS push the possibility of the phone being used to launch a Citrix/RDS/Horizon client as a way of making up for these shortcomings, but by the time you've built up a VDI infrastructure, licensed the software and have the staff on-board who can run the thing then the incremental cost of actual thin clients is negligible. It's a solution to a problem that nobody has needed solving.

Continuum is a nice tech demo but I can't help thinking the time could have been more productively spent.

 

[Skeeter]

If I had to use a budget phone it would be a Windows Phone, no doubt about it.

I wouldn't wish a £50 Android phone on anyone. The bottom of the Android market is truly terrible, and there isn't a cheap iPhone.

And Continuum isn't a new idea. Lots of people have toyed with plugging PDAs or micro handheld PCs into larger screens for ages. Its never taken off. I remember there being a Sony thing a while back that had a dock to turn it into a 'full' desktop PC. As you say, the issue is you end up with an expensive phone that's a pants computer, whereas the same money could get a decent laptop and mid range phone.

Tablets to PCs however, may be on to something, especially with Thunderbolt 3. Something like a Surface Book that can also connect to a docking station through TB3 to become a full, external graphics powered PC is something I think would take off. The users get a multi monitor PC, a laptop with excellent battery life, and a tablet, all in one.

 

[Caged]

Thunderbolt 3 is hopefully something that will define 'docking' for a good while to come. The idea of taking a laptop/tablet/whatever and using one cable to connect it to multiple displays, power, wired LAN, other stuff, potentially even a better video card has been very close to working for many years. It just seems like now it has enough cross-vendor support to be a thing that happens.

Maybe once every office desk in the land has a Thunderbolt 3 cable ready to accept whatever device you're carrying then a phone that can be a desktop will make more sense. Until that happens and the app situation matures a bit then it's probably going to be obsolete before it gets a chance to do well in the market.

With all this talk of Microsoft acquiring tooling to enable cross-platform development and the (I think now canned) idea of running Android apps on Windows, I do have to wonder why the transition from WP7 to WP8 had to involve alienating the few developers that had actually bothered with the WP7 platform. Was it a rush job done purely because no other ideas were being presented and the market share wasn't budging?

 

[AndyCr15]

I wouldn't wish a £50 Android phone on anyone. The bottom of the Android market is truly terrible, and there isn't a cheap iPhone.

I can't argue with that, but stretch to £100 and the original Moto G probably couldn't be beaten by a Win Phone at that price.

 

[chrislusty]

I can't argue with that, but stretch to £100 and the original Moto G probably couldn't be beaten by a Win Phone at that price.

It would be beaten, at just about everything. I have a Moto G 2nd gen, and its so slow at doing just about everything. It wasnt even running much, Facebook, twitter, whatsapp, email. Trying to go from one app to another was painful.

 

[Skeeter]

...original Moto G...

...Moto G 2nd gen...

Apples and Oranges.

 

[koolpc]

When is the official release for Win 10 on mobile coming out? 640 phone.

 

[chrislusty]

Apples and Oranges.

Quite, but as the 2nd gen is similar spec, I cant see it being any better.

 

[OspreyO]

It would be beaten, at just about everything. I have a Moto G 2nd gen, and its so slow at doing just about everything. It wasnt even running much, Facebook, twitter, whatsapp, email. Trying to go from one app to another was painful.

Android seems to need 2GB of RAM these days.