Microsoft stops supporting Windows 10 Mobile
Nokia Lumia 920: one of the smartphones on the Windows Phone operating system
on December 10, 2019, the latest patches and security updates for Windows 10 Mobile will be released, since Microsoft has refused to further support this operating system . The last major update for Windows 10 Mobile took place in October 2017 (version 1709). After this, the development of new features was completely curtailed , continuing to release only bug fixes and security updates.
This is sad news for users. With the release of Windows Phone 7 in 2010, the company proved that it is capable of releasing a modern, high-performance mobile system that is in no way inferior to iOS and Android. But something went wrong.
The FAQ says that some online services will continue to work after December 2019. However, not very long. You can save a backup copy of settings and applications for another three months, until March 10, 2020. You can restore the saved settings and upload new photos to the cloud within 12 months after the official termination of support.
The company advises users to switch to Android or iOS devices and continue to use Microsoft applications. If you objectively choose a platform for the level of support for Microsoft applications, then Android is better. On the other hand, iOS also has advantages.
According to some commentators, Microsoft lost a significant part of user confidence when it refused to support Windows Phone 7 with a fairly developed infrastructure (in principle, all the necessary applications were already developed for Windows Phone 7). Instead, Microsoft has written a new version of Windows Phone 8 without backward compatibility . If someone then retained the loyalty of the company, Microsoft finished them off by repeating the trick with the release of Windows 10 Mobile.
This thesis is even more relevant for developers of mobile applications. The ecosystem around Windows Phone 7 was created for a long time, but Microsoft destroyed it with one step. After the release of Windows Phone 8, not all developers agreed again to invest in the development of new versions of their applications compatible with the new OS, and when Microsoft repeated the focus with Windows 10 Mobile, the situation became extremely clear. And it takes so much effort to support versions for iOS and Android, what’s the point of investing in supporting a minor OS that doesn’t have one percent on the mobile device market (the maximum figure for Windows 10 Mobile is now 0.8% in the French market ).
But at the peak of popularity in 2013-2015, the share of Windows Phone was much higher. In August 2013, it reached 12% in the UK, 12.9% in France in November 2013, 17.1% in Italy in December 2013, and 10.5% in Germany in August 2015. In some countries with low iPhone popularity, she even managed to rise to the second place among mobile OS.
Windows Phone stumbled a bit at the start, but in 2012–2013, several smartphones appeared with excellent features. For example, in the lower price segment, no model for Android could compete with the Nokia Lumia 520. Phones with the same price for Android were inferior in speed.
In September 2013, Microsoft announced the purchase of Nokia's phone business for $ 7.1 billion (the deal was closed in April 2014). It seemed that the company had excellent prospects, but everything went awry. The following Nokia models turned out to be worse in all respects, and the top model did not enter the market at all . The moment was lost. Soon the market share of Windows Phone began to decline. Microsoft could not fix the situation with the new versions of the OS, including due to the lack of backward compatibility, as mentioned above.
As a result, even the most ardent supporters of Windows Phone 7 had to abandon this platform: “Only Microsoft is to blame, it’s not so easy to undermine the user base. Even if you have a good overall concept and a clear vision, you should not treat users and developers like crap, ” writes user flunk on the Ars Technica forum .