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Microsoft Operating Systems Software Windows News Hardware Technology

Windows Phone Free-Fall May Force Microsoft To Push Harder On Windows 10 (pcworld.com) 250

tripleevenfall quotes a report from PCWorld: Microsoft sold a minuscule 2.3 million Lumia phones last quarter, down from 8.6 million a year ago. Phone revenue declines will only "steepen" during the current quarter, chief financial officer Amy Hood warned during a conference call. That's dragged down Microsoft's results as a company, too. As the company's mobile device strategy continues to disintegrate, Microsoft may feel compelled to push harder on Windows 10 adoption and paid services to prove it can survive without a viable smartphone. CEO Satya Nadella's strategy is simple enough: grow Microsoft's revenues by convincing customers to adopt its paid subscription services.
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Windows Phone Free-Fall May Force Microsoft To Push Harder On Windows 10

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  • by mrmaster ( 535266 ) on Saturday April 23, 2016 @08:07AM (#51971557) Homepage
    I am eagerly looking forward to reading about how amazing the Windows phone is and how everyone should own one. Every time there is a Windows phone article there end up being more positive comments about the windows phone than there are real life window phone users.
    • I do .NET development and really there isn't one.

      You can develop .NET on Android too now. Windows phone is simple a bust.

      • Then I'm wondering why MS bought Xamarin... Xamarin is an environment that lets you develop chross-platform apps for iPhone, Android, OSX, and Windows phones using C# / .Net and Visual Studio. I can imagine that MS bought them in order to get more app builders to target Windows phones, since with Xamarin you basically get to do that for only a little extra effort.

        By the way, I've been porting a fairly complex app to Xamarin for the past 3 months, and it's a wonderful environment compared to Objective-C
    • Best Microsoft hardware since the Zune!

    • I don't own a Windows anything, but my partner bought one because of the camera. The UI is really nice, but it's let down by the complete lack of apps. I'd buy one if it had support from more third parties, and more third parties would support it if more of them were sold. It's not clear that there's a way out of this spiral for MS.
      • by kuzb ( 724081 )

        Unfortunately there isn't. Windows phone is on its deathbed. I agree that if it had more apps it would be a serious contender .

        • Out of curiosity, what functionality is missing due to lack of 3rd party programs (oops, I mean "apps"?) I have GPS (both HERE and Waze), Pandora, FM radio (which oddly is unavailable on Apple without buying extra hardware....), email, browsing, and banking programs. Skype works well and there are enough games to help pass the time. Specific games are missing, yes, but it's anyone really buying a $600 define to primarily play a specific $5 game?

          • by dbIII ( 701233 ) on Saturday April 23, 2016 @09:57AM (#51972159)
            Less apps than an N900 can get today despite it's age - now that's a step backwards.
          • Perhaps your bank supports a Windows Phone app, but many banks don't. App developers have been pulling apps from Windows phone, so the situation for WP users is actually getting worse. Finally, it's quite well known that many WP apps don't work as well as their Android/iPhone equivalents.

            The problem is similar to that of a Linux desktop: for any given buyer, it only takes one missing must-have app (or feature) to make the whole platform unattractive.

        • by Z00L00K ( 682162 )

          Windows on phones were never really taking off because it was so lobotomized. It was a hell trying to make apps for it since the documentation stated that there were function calls that could be used but there was nothing behind the call. "the light is on but nobody home"-effect.

    • Have you considered that it's possible to think Windows Phone is amazing in some regards while also not owning one? I used the Lumia 900 for a few months before they announced I couldn't upgrade it to WP8, then went back to Android, but I loved the UI. It was a natural extension of the Zune UI, which I also loved, and the thing was just a pleasure use. The interface is even better now, but the platform has NO APPS. It's functionally useless because of that. I have an iPhone now, I like a lot of things abou
      • I have a Windows phone and I haven't really found the apps lacking. But that may depend on my limited uses for a phone. It makes calls, sends text messages, manages my calendar, lets me read and reply to email, lets me browse the web, browse reddit with one of the best redder clients out there (Readit), lets me check the weather, connect to Facebook, twitter and other major social networks, record my bike rides, look up maps and get directions and download maps for offline use, listen to music, watch videos

        • by Blaskowicz ( 634489 ) on Saturday April 23, 2016 @10:11AM (#51972247)

          I feel like there's too much stuff in your list! The only stuff missing is e.g. the local bus company's app, that of the bank. Even government/welfare apps etc. Trading broker's app. Grocery delivery. All that stuff is made for the duopoly. Although there's no big reason why a mobile site with a shortcut on the home screen wouldn't do the job for most of these, hence why I'm pissed at the death of Firefox OS. Native apps (including Java/C# here) were vitally needed when they needed to support a single core and 256MB RAM and also the javascript engines were more crappy back then.
          Perhaps with Web Assembly that will make the news again. Although yes maybe web apps are technically despicable but well I'm typing on the Slashdot "web app" right now.

          • My phone does all those other things you mentioned as well. The local bus company doesn't even have an app, they just have a web site. They actually opened up the API so other people could provide a better experience and have real time bus locations without the bus company needing to pay for expensive development fees. My bank app works on my phone, although I hardly use it because I don't really see much need for banking on my phone.

    • by kuzb ( 724081 )

      Actually Windows Phone is pretty good, it's just that the software development isn't there which makes them less useful than an Android phone. Try one the next time you see one in a store with a display - it might surprise you.

    • by DogDude ( 805747 )
      I'm not a paid shill, but I love my Windows Phone. The better question is, who's paying you?
    • by Octorian ( 14086 ) on Saturday April 23, 2016 @09:25AM (#51971941) Homepage

      When Windows Phone was newer, Microsoft paid everyone to write apps for it. As such, people were giving it tons of half-hearted lipservice calling it the "legitimate 3rd platform" to the exclusion of anything else (that didn't have as big of a bank account behind it).

      Now that they've stopped the payouts, and still keep changing the APIs, support is dropping and a lot of that lipservice is starting to fade away.

    • You know, I came here to say that I actually like the Windows phone. But it's true I don't own one - I had to use one when abroad for a month last year. But by the time I was done I thought it was actually a more-well-thought-out UI than my iPhone. I didn't scrap my iPhone though. Friends of mine that have tried them have said the same thing. But none of them have switched either. So what you're saying is true, even without paid shills: there are more people that "like" Windows phone than use it. I guess th

      • I guess I'm the opposite then. I actually owned a Windows Phone. It was the large screen (for the time) HTC. I don't even remember the model name. I only gave it a chance because of the heaping praise all the tech blogs and commenters were giving it. I absolutely hated it The browser sucked, the apps sucked, the swoopy animations sucked. I eventually traded it for some craptastic Galaxy S based phone that while it sucked too, was a helluva lot better than what I had.

    • by GuB-42 ( 2483988 )

      I prefer Android for several reasons but I am sad to see the Windows phone fiasco. I really wanted it to succeed... for other people.
      The biggest reason is that it didn't try to be a clone of iOS and Android. I especially liked the tile-based interface. I don't know how it does in practice but at least, they tried something that is not a iOS clone. They also introduced the "flat" design which everyone copied, for the better or for the worse. It seemed like it was rather well designed internally too.
      It was fa

    • I owned one. A dirt cheap Nokia 820. I bought my elderly mom a Nokia 640 for Christmas. :-)

      I LOVED the OS. For a cheap phone with 1 gig of ram it was very quick. Never froze. Had the best UI. Outlook worked well. The tiles were big and animated to keep me up to date until, I switched to Kitkat a few years later, etc. The big tiles and ease of use is why I bought one for my Mother. BIg easy things to read and it was cheap and ran well on low end hardware.

      I own an Android now because I dropped it and saw the

  • by enriquevagu ( 1026480 ) on Saturday April 23, 2016 @08:12AM (#51971577)

    Seriously... Harder?

  • But here's the LINK [pcworld.com]
  • Microsoft may feel compelled to push harder on Windows 10 adoption and paid services to prove it can survive without a viable smartphone.

    Which makes me wonder: why did MS think it needs a viable smartphone (smartphone OS?) just to survive, and why do other people think this as well forcing MS to prove the opposite?

    Maybe they should have a good look at OS-X, Mint and Ubuntu, get some good ideas on how to design a proper modern OS (ssh out of the box would be awesome, both command prompt and a way to easily connect to sftp servers which only Windows fails at nowadays), and make Windows desirable again. They for sure have the money and manpower

    • by kuzb ( 724081 )

      It doesn't, which is why I think this article is useless PCworld crap trying to gain clicks through sensationalism. Nadella has already stated that they're probably going to axe the mobile division.

    • by dbIII ( 701233 )

      Which makes me wonder: why did MS think it needs a viable smartphone (smartphone OS?) just to survive

      Apple had one so via cargo cult mentality MS had to have one to get success as well. The irony is they did it by getting hold of an already viable phone company and then removing everything that made it viable - destructive idiots.

    • by deragon ( 112986 )
      Given my bad experience with Ubuntu [deragon.info], I would not consider it a "proper modern" OS. Still, I stick with it because I am a fan of Linux and FOSS. I just wish that the Linux desktop experience would be on par with Mac and Windows. These days, it is far behind.
  • by QuietLagoon ( 813062 ) on Saturday April 23, 2016 @08:44AM (#51971719)

    ...CEO Satya Nadella's strategy is simple enough: grow Microsoft's revenues by convincing customers to adopt its paid subscription services....

    Microsoft has already stated that they intend to make Windows 10 a service.

    .
    Now Microsoft is saying that they want to move away from the "buy once" revenue model.

    So how long before there is a monthly fee to use Windows?

    Perhaps the enormous data harvesting is only the first of many egregious aspects of Windows 10.

  • by raymorris ( 2726007 ) on Saturday April 23, 2016 @08:54AM (#51971755) Journal

    In Microsoft's heyday, people would anxiously await the opportunity to pay $120 to upgrade to the new version. New bells, whistles, and blue screens.

    Now many people are trying hard to avoid Microsoft's "upgrade" to Windows 10. More and more people go through the trouble of removing the Windows install that came with their computer, to replace it with a less troublesome OS. They want to get rid of Windows.

    Microsoft's last-ditch solution is to try to get their few remaining hostages and fanboys to not only pay for MS software, but to keep paying again and again every month. I feel for anyone who's either stuck in a position where they have to keep paying every month for software most people don't even want for free, or who simply doesn't know any better, they're probably still paying $25/month for AOL too.

    • Microsoft's last-ditch solution is to try to get their few remaining hostages and fanboys to not only pay for MS software, but to keep paying again and again every month.

      I don't like Windows, but who are these few remaining hostages and fanboys you speak of? Would they be the The >90% of users on Windows machines? [wikipedia.org]

    • by tom229 ( 1640685 )
      An utterly moronic strategy. Move everything to mobile interfaces, the cloud, and a subscription model before you even have any product, application, or consumer support to do so. What could go wrong? Sounds like an MBA making decisions if I've ever seen it. I guess you only have to read my sig to know how I feel about this.
  • And Microsoft's effort to push people to Windows 10 will be just as successful.
    • by kuzb ( 724081 )

      Considering they have 200 million installations and growing it's been very successful.

      • ...it's been very successful....

        How much revenue have all those copies contributed to Microsoft's earnings?

        • by dbIII ( 701233 )
          I have a feeling that from revenue gained by selling results of data mining associated with win10 that it's going to be a lot more than we would like from selling some information we'd prefer not to be sold.
      • How many of those were involuntary though?
  • by burni2 ( 1643061 ) on Saturday April 23, 2016 @09:31AM (#51971991)

    1.) radically change window 10
    a.) make cloud/spy "features" optional and opt-in
    b.) make the XP & 7 GUI availible (the GUI is not the fucking OS)

    2.) offer WinXP & Vista Keys an Upgrade

    3.) don't force users by circumventing the window update blocklist by changing the "update date" on the installer.

    The children will come!

  • I have a Dell laptop (XPS 15 L502x) that Dell says I shouldn't update to Win 10 from Win 7 Sp 1. Furthermore, I have never seen any of the nagging popups or other notices from Microsoft encouraging an update even though I manually install 2nd Tuesday updates. Looking around the web I find folks who have upgraded this model have a variety of problems as various hardware features no longer work with Win 10. The problem seems to to be that Dell has deigned not to provide critical hardware drivers and I've also
  • Since they took over for Nokia, their phones [microsoft.com] have just gotten uglier, too. I really liked the look of the 532, wish they'd bring that back.

  • Comment removed (Score:4, Interesting)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Saturday April 23, 2016 @12:29PM (#51972969)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion

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