Windows phone just got killed

As if there was any doubt this should settle the issue:

Microsoft is bowing out of building its own phones for consumers. After dramatically scaling back its Lumia devices last year, Microsoft hammered the final nail in the coffin today with an additional $950 million write off and 1,850 more job losses. Microsoft’s Lumia devices still account for more than 95 percent of all Windows phones sold, but a lack of new devices means sales and Windows Phone market share have declined sharply over the past year. Windows Phone is dead, and phone makers aren’t interested in reviving it.

I need to start porting my apps (Field Ballistics and As the Crow Flies) to the iPhone or Android so when my current phone dies I’ll still be able to use them with my new phone.

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10 thoughts on “Windows phone just got killed

  1. Happy to help with a port of Field Ballistics to Android if you need assistance.

  2. Please consider an Android-based shot timer. The ones out there on Google Play are horrible!

  3. Just my two cents worth: go with Android. Most apps are free, you’re free to put your own music and video on the phone, easy to root. Not so much so with iOS.

  4. I guess I’m glad I didn’t pick the Lumia last year when I finally decided to upgrade to a smart phone. Your apps were among the reasons I thought about the Lumia. I wound up with an Android, so if you port your apps to that, I might have a chance to try them out yet.

  5. There’s a lesson here. You might or might not like the iPhone; that’s your choice. But there is a HUGE number of them out there. People can’t use your apps unless you make them for the phones they use.

  6. Yes, please. I’d happily pony up the $2.50 to have your app on my phone (Android) or iPad.

  7. Damn, and I was looking at a Lumia for when I (at long last) make my jump to a smart phone.

    Well, back to the drawing board, I guess….

    Still, and I’m just saying: the hardware capabilities of the Lumias are substantially the same as comparable Android devices, so why on Earth did Microsoft choose to build their own phones rather than design the OS to run on a variety of different hardware devices, like they do with their normal Windows OS (Microsoft doesn’t build a proprietary line of PCs, after all)? Google’s approach seems much more efficient, with lower overhead. Was it just because that’s how Apple does it?

    I’m just not seeing the logic there.

    • Microsoft _did_ build the OS to be the basis of a OEM ecosystem. Until it finally died, my phone was an HTC 8x. The most hold-able phone evar. I miss it. There were other OEMs as well. Before that, it was a Samsung Focus, running Windows Phone 7.

      “Windows Phone 7 devices were first produced by HTC, LG and Samsung. These hardware partners were later joined by Acer, Alcatel, Fujitsu, Toshiba, Nokia, and Chinese OEM ZTE.

      Windows Phone 8 devices were being produced by HTC, Huawei, Nokia, and Samsung.

      At the 2014 Mobile World Congress, Microsoft announced that upcoming Windows Phone 8.1 devices would be manufactured by Celkon, Gionee, HTC, Huawei, JSR, Karbonn, LG, Lenovo, Longcheer, Micromax, Microsoft Mobile, Samsung, Xolo, and ZTE among others.”
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Phone

      But by then the app and accessory ecosystems of iOS and Android had too much of a head start. The target audience for WinPhone apps was too small to interest developers. And the hardware OEMs dropped away, though you can still buy HTC One (M8) and BLU winphones.

      Microsoft sells PCs under its Surface and Surface Book brands.

  8. I’m still baffled why there aren’t Finnish assassination squads hunting Ballmer.

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