RIP Windows phones: New Windows 10 Mobile hardware and features ‘aren’t the focus’ - brownthinger

Melissa Riofrio

Windows phones are really, truly unanimated. This weekend, Microsoft's VP of operational systems confirmed the writing on the wall. "Course we'll continue to backing the platform [with] bug fixes, security updates, etc.," Joe Belfiore wrote on Twitter, in response to a conversation sparked by a user asking whether it's time to move on from the Windows Rotatable platform. "But building new [features and hardware] aren't the focus."

It's the prototypal time a senior Microsoft employee has said that flat-kayoed, merely it's not the starting time time one has been thusly pointless or so Microsoft's mobile computer hardware prospects. "If you sought to reach a administer of phone customers, Windows Phone isn't the way to do it," Windows top dog Terry Myerson told the Verge in 2016, while essentially putting Windows Phones on hold for the year. That hiatus now appears more permanent.

The downfall of Windows 10 Mechanised seems to stem from our biggest gripe with the platform: The near-absolute lack of apps. "We have tried Identical Velar to incent app devs," Belfiore writes. "Remunerative money… wrote apps [for] them… but volume of users is as well low for all but companies to invest."

Belfiore's Twitter posts come mere years after HP told The Brink that IT no longer plans to build up an extended line of devices about its Elite X3 French telephone, the last bully Windows Phone flagship. Earlier this year, the Windows 10 Creators Update lop off 40 percent of Windows phone owners from upgrades, and the company reportable "negligible revenue from phones" after old age of laying away former Nokia employees. This announcement has been upcoming for a long clock time.

So what's a diehard Windows Phone partisan to do? At an event in August, Joe Belfiore said that uses the Samsung Galax S8 Microsoft Edition, and regular Pecker Gates runs Android directly. "American Samoa an individual end-exploiter, I switched platforms for the [app and hardware] diversity," Belfiore said in a keep up-upwards tweet. "We will support those users too! Choose what's unexcelled [for you]."

edge browser mobile — Microsoft's Edge browser on iOS and Android.

Wherefore Microsoft is killing Windows phones

In that location's a ground for those defections. Windows phone hardware may get on the way out, but Microsoft's mobile ambitions aren't disused. They've clean shifted to computer software.

During Satya Nadella's reign As Microsoft CEO, the company has shifted gears from focusing happening mobile Windows hardware to delivery Microsoft's key software to every available platform. Office, OneNote, Lookout, and even Xbox can constitute found along both iOS and Android; we've even through a feature happening victimisation Microsoft apps on Android phones. Humanoid's core port doesn't resemble the unique look and sense of Windows phones whatsoever, but if you load one skyward with Microsoft's apps, you'll get a damned fine experience notwithstandin.

Just last week, Microsoft released a beta version of Windows 10's Edge browser for mobile devices, along with the Microsoft Catapult for Android. Both will intertwine deeply with the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update, allowing you to seamlessly break up up what you were running on regardless of whether you're using your phone Oregon your PC. The bod may be dead, but the spirit of Windows phones lives on—though you take up to wonder what this means for the future of universal Windows apps.

Note: When you purchase something later clicking golf links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. Learn our affiliate link policy for Sir Thomas More details.