Windows Phone is dead: reports

As an owner of a Lumia 950 XL, running Win 10 Mobile, i am not exactly surprised.

The hardware is great, i also think Win 10 Mobile OS is pretty solid, but the apps are freaking terrible. I've had the phone now for a few months and are still in shock that i can't even use anything "Google" related without feeling i'm now actually back in 2003 with half-baked work-arounds or buggy community hacks on that old HTC Win Mobile 2003 "pocket pc" phones . Seriously, i'm walking around with my old android phone just to talk to friends on google hangouts because on Win Mobile 10 the only way you can do that is via the browser ...no , just no.

The big promise from MS , and why i went for this, was Project Astoria and Project Islandwood . They were suppose to bridge the app-gap by making it instantly easy to "port" across apps from Android and IOS. So now it's already said Astoria (android bridge) is dead, and news on Islandwood (ios bridge) is so thin that it sounds like it might not even come out before people abandoned the OS.

Either way, i actually prefer the Win 10 OS in terms of navigation,look and feel over Android and it's even better than the pretty stale IOS . Unfortunately, it's really coming down to apps apps and apps.

I know people that has always stuck with Nokia and then the Lumia, of course, they have no idea what they are missing. The critical apps are there, but once you been on android, it's glaringly painful what is missing on WM10.

So i already saw guides on how to flash the Lumia with Android, so if all else fails, that is what i will do....but i hope MS gets some direction with the apps...seriously, i can NOT emphasize enough how terrible the app situation is. Nevermind the missing apps, the ones that are there does not even have all the features the equivalent apps on android/ios have...nor do they get updated as often. Even simple apps like IMDB, the WM10 version looks fancy, but it's terrible to use. Facebook, same story, i've now just uninstalled it and using my browser because i can't do half the stuff that you do on the web.

I'm so tired of seeing desperate/last ditch "community" versions of apps because the real app does not exist on Win 10 Mobile. Hell common apps like Tinder...it is not there, there's a community attempts of it, but ......sorry i'm starting rant...
 
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diabolus said:
As an owner of a Lumia 950 XL, running Win 10 Mobile, i am not exactly surprised.

The hardware is great, i also think Win 10 Mobile OS is pretty solid, but the apps are freaking terrible. I've had the phone now for a few months and are still in shock that i can't even use anything "Google" related without feeling i'm now actually back in 1990 with half-baked work-arounds or buggy community hacks . Seriously, i'm walking around with my old android phone just to talk to friends on google hangouts because on Win Mobile 10 the only way you can do that is via the browser ...no , just no.

The big promise from MS , and why i went for this, was Project Astoria and Project Islandwood . They were suppose to bridge app-gap by making it instantly easy to bring across apps from Android and IOS. So now it's already said Astoria (android bridge) is dead, and news on Islandwood (ios bridge) is so thin that it sounds like it might not even come out before people abandoned the OS.

Either way, i actually prefer the Win 10 OS in terms of navigation,look and feel over Android and it's even better than the pretty stale IOS . Unfortunately, it's really coming down to apps apps and apps.

So i already saw guides on how to flash the Lumia with Android, so if all else fails, that is what i will do....but i hope MS gets some direction with the apps...seriously, i can NOT emphasis enough how terrible the app situation is. Nevermind the missing apps, the ones that are there does not even have all the features the equivalent apps on android/ios have...nor do they get updated.

I'm so tired of seeing "community" versions of apps because the real app does not exist on Win 10 Mobile.
Click to expand...

Any links to those guides?
 
CataclysmZA said:
Microsoft continually drives the dagger deeper into the heart of Windows Phone, because the new strategy is to have their stuff everywhere else first and to have really expensive "hero" devices that no-one can really afford yet. Both the 950 and the 950XL are stepping stones to the Surface Phone, and I'm not sure why Microsoft didn't just go with that instead of exhausting all the designs that were still in the pipeline before the mass layoffs in the mobile division.

As much as I wanted them to make Windows Phone the best platform possible for everything Microsoft and Windows when they first came out with the Lumia 800, I don't think they have quite the same direction or drive that the original team had, staying slightly terrified while the Elop wrecking ball was tearing Nokia down into bite-sized chunks for Microsoft to later buy.

Windows Phone 10 is decent. But just like Edge, it lacks a lot of the functionality found on other platforms, and killing off the Android bridge, leaving them without any mobile payment system, for example, further drove people away to other devices.
Click to expand...
^ As an aside, I think you do Elop an injustice. He was a new guy Microsoft, joining only at the beginning of 2008 before leaving for Nokia in 2010. He was previously at Lotus Development, Macromedia, Adobe, and COO at Juniper Networks. He's no fool, and thpose who know him or watch closely are certain he was no trojan for Microsoft to somehow inflitrate and capture Nokia. That's an ugly slur far removed from reality. Remember, Microsoft bought Nokia because Nokia was doing >90% of WinPhones and not doing so would have removed Microsoft from even the tiny marketshare they had. Shortly after buying Nokia (to save Windows phone), Microsoft took the hit and reported its first ever loss - a shock to investors and shareholders. Taking a $7b hit for Nokia is not getting the company cheap!

Sure, they have fluffed the mobile market twice already. Their management was defocused by bigger probems like anti trust and an organisation that was very silo'd with each group/div doing its own thing. There was little talk between the divisions and their strategy was confused and contradictory. Just look at the mess around mail a few years ago, the Win8 fiasco, and messaging even today. That's why Balmer had to go. With Nadella they're getting back to their roots, have dramaticaly re-orgd to "One Microsoft", and are turning around in fundamental ways. But that takes time. 2016 will see some fruits of the changes made a scant 18 months ago. 2017 is the year it comes together. In the meantime, many things are already coming together very nicely ~ clients (Win10), servers and enterprise cloud (not consumer cloud), dev tools - these are very solid offerngs getting better and better. It's far too soon to write off Microsoft. And it's plain wrong to say they're the same as before. Anyone who follows this stuff closely knows that it's a very different place today to just 18m ago. And it's getting better and better. My 2c (from a Win10 phone).


(PS. I left Msft in the good days, in 1997, before all this grief.)
 
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The_Librarian said:
- IBM's OS/2 (backwards compatibility with Windows 3.1 and DOS was part of what killed it off)
Click to expand...
Not true. OS/2 2.x was supposed to be the last version with full backward compatibility. Completely new OS/2 3.0 was on the drawing boards for a while and wasn't delivered. On topic, as it was a first time Microsoft was responsible for development. When Microsoft failed to deliver, IBM was left without a new operating system. OS/2 Warp 3/4 brought only improvements to the existing OS/2.

It is Microsoft who brought down OS/2, the same as Microsoft's former employe brought down Nokia, so it was possible to buy Nokia a lot cheaper.
 
sajunky said:
Not true. OS/2 2.x was supposed to be the last version with full backward compatibility. Completely new OS/2 3.0 was on the drawing boards for a while and wasn't delivered. On topic, as it was a first time Microsoft was responsible for development. When Microsoft failed to deliver, IBM was left without a new operating system. OS/2 Warp 3/4 brought only improvements to the existing OS/2.

It is Microsoft who brought down OS/2, the same as Microsoft's former employe brought down Nokia, so it was possible to buy Nokia a lot cheaper.
Click to expand...
Not true.

I was a product manage for OS/2 at IBM, spending time in Boca Raton (OS/2 1.x, 2.x) and Austin (OS/2 EE). I know the inside story, as we've discussed before.
 
Arthur said:
Not true.

I was a product manage for OS/2 at IBM, spending time in Boca Raton (OS/2 1.x, 2.x) and Austin (OS/2 EE). I know the inside story, as we've discussed before.
Click to expand...
Based from past experience I would avoid to hear any 'true' stories from former IBM employes who left IBM just to join Microsoft. They are spreading lies about IBM and people who give a different view are called "uneducated liers". So give up, buddy. No trust.
 
DA-LION-619 said:
Huh, you need to read that site again. There is no Play Store on any Lumia...
Click to expand...

There is a play store on Android , the link was meant to illustrate how to install android on the lumia. Anyhow, i have not done this, it's just a link i saw with a guide on to do this, so use with caution.

I suggest people start here :

http://forum.xda-developers.com/lumia-950-xl
 
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DA-LION-619 said:
At which point in that guide are you installing Android on the Lumia?
Click to expand...

Where it says "how to install android 6 rom on your lumia 950" ? Did you scroll down? Anyhow, i do think the site is dodgy and most likely fake, so i would skip it. If it's not on XDA it is most likely fake.
 
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diabolus said:
As an owner of a Lumia 950 XL, running Win 10 Mobile, i am not exactly surprised.

The hardware is great, i also think Win 10 Mobile OS is pretty solid, but the apps are freaking terrible. I've had the phone now for a few months and are still in shock that i can't even use anything "Google" related without feeling i'm now actually back in 2003 with half-baked work-arounds or buggy community hacks on that old HTC Win Mobile 2003 "pocket pc" phones . Seriously, i'm walking around with my old android phone just to talk to friends on google hangouts because on Win Mobile 10 the only way you can do that is via the browser ...no , just no.

The big promise from MS , and why i went for this, was Project Astoria and Project Islandwood . They were suppose to bridge the app-gap by making it instantly easy to "port" across apps from Android and IOS. So now it's already said Astoria (android bridge) is dead, and news on Islandwood (ios bridge) is so thin that it sounds like it might not even come out before people abandoned the OS.

Either way, i actually prefer the Win 10 OS in terms of navigation,look and feel over Android and it's even better than the pretty stale IOS . Unfortunately, it's really coming down to apps apps and apps.

I know people that has always stuck with Nokia and then the Lumia, of course, they have no idea what they are missing. The critical apps are there, but once you been on android, it's glaringly painful what is missing on WM10.

So i already saw guides on how to flash the Lumia with Android, so if all else fails, that is what i will do....but i hope MS gets some direction with the apps...seriously, i can NOT emphasize enough how terrible the app situation is. Nevermind the missing apps, the ones that are there does not even have all the features the equivalent apps on android/ios have...nor do they get updated as often. Even simple apps like IMDB, the WM10 version looks fancy, but it's terrible to use. Facebook, same story, i've now just uninstalled it and using my browser because i can't do half the stuff that you do on the web.

I'm so tired of seeing desperate/last ditch "community" versions of apps because the real app does not exist on Win 10 Mobile. Hell common apps like Tinder...it is not there, there's a community attempts of it, but ......sorry i'm starting rant...
Click to expand...

That the apps are bad is not only Microsoft's fault. The sh**ty .Net developers who wrote the apps are also to blame. Maybe even entirely so.
 
zippy said:
That the apps are bad is not only Microsoft's fault. The sh**ty .Net developers who wrote the apps are also to blame. Maybe even entirely so.
Click to expand...

True, that's what i refer to with these desperate "community" versions of apps that the original devs didn't bother to create for WM10. It just feels like you are stuck with second grade apps. Some apps shine, but ultimately they just ain't as good and always playing catchup. Something so obvious these days : Youtube . There are no official youtube app, you have to dig through the pile of alternatives, and to rub it in, when an indie dev gets it decently close to the android/ios experience, you can bet your arse you will be paying for it.... /sigh .

And often when the original devs that do give it a shot, they dump their half-baked app on the store and abandon it! Tapatalk is perfect example of it, the new one doesn't even work and the devs doesn't give a crap. So i had to switch to another indie/hobbyist dev's attempt at remaking tapatalk, at least it works, but nowhere near what the tapatalk on android is like.

So yea, i don't blame MS for the lack of apps, i don't think they make it difficult to create apps or anything, they just don't have that critical mass that would entice devs to code for WM10 . Their approach to instead create bridges to allow android/ios apps to be ported across is the only way they will get back into this....but this seems to have stalled and falling apart.
 
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200 million PCs running windows 10 as well as just shy of 20 million Xbox Ones running windows 10, it's worth the effort developing apps for Windows 10
 
Make you wonder why Joe Belfiore took a 6 months leave from Microsoft :o
 
mmmig said:
200 million PCs running windows 10 as well as just shy of 20 million Xbox Ones running windows 10, it's worth the effort developing apps for Windows 10
Click to expand...
Stats do not say how many people has ditched Windows 10 and returned to 7/8.x
 
That is sad, windows phone is the best mobile OS, pity about the lack of apps though.
 
Pity. I saw a live demo of continuum on windows phone this past week & it looked awesome.
 
sajunky said:
Stats do not say how many people has ditched Windows 10 and returned to 7/8.x
Click to expand...



What they said was that in December there were 200 million people currently (at the time) running Windows 10 on their devices NOT 200 million who had upgraded to Windows 10.
 
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