The Windows Phone ‘Twilight Zone’

by Volker Weber

Windows Phone 8.1 ... is essentially tombstoned at this point. Windows 10 needs to come to mobile in a way that excites people, and then it will have a chance of success.

As much as I loved the 930, 1020 & 1520 Lumias, it seems very unlikely that is going to happen. Microsoft has been asleep at the wheel for too long. The 1520 is still the best Windows phone out there, and that's two years old. The app gap is getting worse, not better.

What I do expect is a Surface Phone, a phone/PC convertible. But that's not going to establish an ecosystem in mobile.

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Comments

As sorry as I am about it: I personally do not see any scenario with a good end for Windows 10 Mobile... And you know, I were a fanboy. The app gap is really is back-breaking...

Ingo Seifert, 2015-08-26

We'll hopefully know more in a little more than a month's time, Personally, I would be very reluctant to go back to Android, and equally reluctant to have to buy an iPhone which is way to expensive. I don't like paying the equivalent of a Mac Mini for a phone. So I hope vowe is wrong...

John Keys, 2015-08-26

Your phone won't die off. So you can keep it. The question is about the ecosystem. I would be pleasantly surprised if Microsoft can pull this off.

Currently I see only two major options: cheap or good. Android or iPhone.

Volker Weber, 2015-08-26

Maybe I should feel lucky that I'm not the usual Smartphone user, as I only use very few apps. There are only two apps I use, that don't already ship with a Windows Phone so for me the ecosystem is fine.

The one thing that I absolutely love on Windows Phone and really don't like on iOS and Android is the user interface.

For my needs the concept of Live Tiles is perfect. All the Live Tiles for the apps I use fit on the screen of my Lumia without any scrolling at all.

Marc Henkel, 2015-08-27

I think Microsoft aims to establish the Universal Windows Platform as one of the mayor app ecosystems. And I think mobile is an integral part of UWP - in the long run.

Researchers like to argue that phones, tablets are computers. And while Windows mostly owns what we used to call the computer market, the overall market share is dwindling. Facing that, trying to establish an ecosystem which spans all modern computers seems like the reasonable thing to do.

Also, starting out on their stronghold, the desktop, and then expanding to other platforms might just work. (I'm really curious if they can pull that of - I hope they do) But that strategy only works if they eventually catch up on mobile to add some numbers to the user base - otherwise they would only retake a market they already own.

So, as long as Microsoft is perusing UWP, they are not going to give up on mobile. And they don't need exiting flagship phones to execute on their strategy. As boring as the mobile watchers that might find.

Max Nierbauer, 2015-08-30

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