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[Guess Who]

I don't really think they should stick with Xbox either, it has never been really successful. Even the 360 was mainly an American console and that was the best MS has ever done with Xbox. The Bone is heading for a distant second place finish this gen and it's not going to be close worldwide or in the US.

It doesn't have to be first place or even a close second, it just has to make enough money to justify existing. The Xbox brand is still very popular, especially in the US and UK.

Windows Phone, on the other hand, was DOA from the start. All other OEMs have dropped out of making Windows Phones and even Nokia couldn't keep it up, which is why MS had to buy out their hardware division for Windows Phones to continue being made at all.

 

[GSG Flash]

I don't really think they should stick with Xbox either, it has never been really successful. Even the 360 was mainly an American console and that was the best MS has ever done with Xbox. The Bone is heading for a distant second place finish this gen and it's not going to be close worldwide or in the US.

I agree.

MS should go back to focusing on the PC gaming market, I miss games like Midtown Madness and Age of Empires. The Xbox hasn't done much for MS except lose them money.

 

[RunLikeH3LL]

Simple: Whoever has the most consumers locked into their ecosystem.

Let's say you have an iPhone or Android phone, and a Windows desktop. These new all-in-one phones are all the rage, and you want to get one. Which do you choose?

Your phone probably has dozens, or even hundreds, of apps on it, all tied to your account. Your Windows machine, unless you're a gamer or content creator, probably has a web browser and Microsoft Office.

If Microsoft can't establish a fulfilling Windows ecosystem fairly soon, and get people locked into it, Windows is absolutely doomed in the long term.

This is why Microsoft Office is available on iOS and Android. They're hedging their bets in case Windows fails, and they don't want an alternative office suite getting too big.

As for enterprise, if the BYOD trend continues, that spells bad news for Windows on that front too. Enterprise used to push tech into the home. (Which is why home users originally chose Windows.) Now it's the other way around.

Why would you choose an Android or IPhone if your company's win32 ERP software only runs on Windows 10 Mobile with continuum?

They already have a vibrant software ecosystem for businesses, and continuum is targeting business users and enterprise. Windows 10 on desktop is growing and is being adopted quickly, it isn't going to fail and will continue to be the dominate desktop platform that gets the most desktop apps.

BYOD devices are not replacing desktops, they are supplementing them. Microsoft owns the desktop space and continuum is simply an extension of a segment that they are already dominate in. Maybe the end user wouldn't choose a Windows mobile device as their personal device, but there is nothing stopping a business from replacing their desktops with a Windows mobile device that supports continuum, and having the end user use this device in addition to their BYOD device, just like today.

With that said, this all hedges on MS getting win32 apps either to run on an Intel based mobile device, or on an ARM device using emulation (There are signs this will be the case). If they rely on UWP alone then they will certainly need businesses to embrace UWP for their applications.

 

[RunLikeH3LL]

I agree.

MS should go back to focusing on the PC gaming market, I miss games like Midtown Madness and Age of Empires. The Xbox hasn't done much for MS except lose them money.

Xbox is more then just the hardware, Xbox live is making them a ton of money.

 

[Mr_Zombie]

Microsoft should stick to OS and Xbox. What they do best. Zune was a failure, phone turned out to be a failure, hows the market for surface?

They can't really afford doing this. The reason Microsoft is in the distant third place in the mobile market is because they were sticking to desktop OS for far too long, ignoring the mobile revolution. The world moves forward, people buy less and less desktops/laptops, because for your average user (who mainly consumes content, not create it) smartphones and tablets are all they need.

That's so chunky and gross looking.

Maybe, but that camera great, even in low-light environment.

 

[Future]

I still don't know what they were thinking breaking app compatibility not once, but twice when moving between major releases of the platform. Can you imagine is previous apps wouldn't work on iOS 9? No, because Apple's not stupid enough to do that.

It all comes down to Microsoft's need to have to shoehorn all its consumer products into alignment with whatever the company mission statement is at the time. The Twist navigation UI on Zune was carried onto the XBox 360 in order to replace NXE. Windows Phone begat Windows 8's start screen and setup, which in turn gave us Snap as a primary feature on the XBox One, which is slow and ineffective. Now universal apps are breaking backwards compatibility for a second time on the Windows Phone platform.

Let your mobile platform stand on its own without having to be co-opted into whatever the Redmond brain trust thinks is "hot" that month.

Sounds like the real problem right there. Wow that's horrible

 

[Mr_Zombie]

Did the Lumia 900 stop working after WP8 was released? Also how many older Android phones get upgraded to the latest version? Must be a ton of teeth getting kicked in.


Correction: How many Android phones released last year will get upgraded to the latest version?

The problem is that each new system breaks app compatibility and makes the older system obsolete. My dad's phone broke last year so I had to lend him my old LG GT540 for few days - a phone released in 2010, that was still running on Android 2.3 (custom ROM). As clunky and laggy as the phone was, you could still use a lot of new apps on it.

That was not the case with Windows Phone, since WP7 users could not use apps dedicated for WP8, and a lot of developers abandoned WP7 and moved to WP8 (or stopped supporting Windows Phone platform altogether).

 

[Alienfan]

How's windows 10 on mobile? I haven't been keeping up, is it officially out? I was LOVING windows 8.1 on phone, the best phone OS that's ever existed. However installing windows 10 alpha ,I was left disappointed. Wtf was up with the hamburger menus everywhere!!! They weren't even accessible by a swipe. It just made the phone unusable with just one hand, the main joy of using a windows phone for me.

I'm using past tense because I'm now using a temp android phone at the moment. Please tell me they have fixed this!!! Would love to go back to windows phone

 

[CrazedProfessional]

Windows Phone and Blackberry 10 were great OS's but the app duopoly was already set up by the time they got there.

 

[Admodieus]

Windows Phone and Blackberry 10 were great OS's but the app duopoly was already set up by the time they got there.

Can't be the fact that they left all their early adopters for Windows Phone 7 out to dry with breaking app compatibility and update progression for Windows Phone 8.

I had several friends with Windows Phone 7 because they wanted an alternative to iOS and Android. When they announced their plans for 8 and the fact that you couldn't upgrade a 7 device to it AND your apps wouldn't go forward with you, all of them chose an Android or an iPhone as their next device.

 

[CrazedProfessional]

Don't get me wrong, Windows Phone 7 started up promising but locking in your users to IE and Google pulling out made the OS a zombie until the Nokia buyout and the Nokia apps that came in to try and fill the google gap.

But then Microsoft fucked it all up again by shifting to 8 because our numbers must match! then shifting to 10.

Blackberry OS 10 in contrast gave devs tools to port android apps over for free but you know, Blackberry had no money to bribe or advertise so if you cant beat em, join em.

 

[gamz]

Windows Phone and Blackberry 10 were great OS's but the app duopoly was already set up by the time they got there.

My Wife still uses a Blackberry she can't live without the keyboard for work. BB 10 is so damn over complicated.

 

[CrazedProfessional]

You get used to it.

 

[jstripes]

Why would you choose an Android or IPhone if your company's win32 ERP software only runs on Windows 10 Mobile with continuum?

They already have a vibrant software ecosystem for businesses, and continuum is targeting business users and enterprise. Windows 10 on desktop is growing and is being adopted quickly, it isn't going to fail and will continue to be the dominate desktop platform that gets the most desktop apps.

BYOD devices are not replacing desktops, they are supplementing them. Microsoft owns the desktop space and continuum is simply an extension of a segment that they are already dominate in. Maybe the end user wouldn't choose a Windows mobile device as their personal device, but there is nothing stopping a business from replacing their desktops with a Windows mobile device that supports continuum, and having the end user use this device in addition to their BYOD device, just like today.

With that said, this all hedges on MS getting win32 apps either to run on an Intel based mobile device, or on an ARM device using emulation (There are signs this will be the case). If they rely on UWP alone then they will certainly need businesses to embrace UWP for their applications.

Then businesses are going to have to supply their own devices, or read the writing on the wall and adapt, because millennials are not going to give up their personal device preference for that of their employers.

You have to shake this ancient concept that being #1 in enterprise automatically guarantees you being #1 in the home.

"Dullard corporate IT people will love Windows 10 Mobile, so teens and young adults all over the world will too!"

 

[Dilly]

You have nearly a thousand posts in the latest Windows phone thread alone...

brotkasten is het Hiroo Onoda of Windows Phone, obviously.

 

[lastflowers]

brotkasten is het Hiroo Onoda of Windows Phone, obviously.

He also missed that brot made the WP OT...