For the record Windows is not a dead platform by a long shot, the only reason people say that is cause they don't like the fact that it's not open source so people can play around with it, fact is Windows will do a lot of stuff that both Android/Linux will not do, to me that's not a dead platform by a long shot, point of the matter is that Windows will be out here running for years to come... Case and point
I called the Windows Phone a dead platform because it is a dead platform and open source has nothing to do with it.
In 5 years they've gone from being a significant presence in the market to less than 2% - and that includes two reinventions, Ballmer's salary getting slashed repeatedly because of the abysmal performance, taking over Nokia just to get at the brand, and having to abandon Nokia after destroying them.
Did I like any of the Nokia Windows Phones?
Yes. Yes I did. Many are excellent in their own right.
But I can like them all I want and it won't change the fact that it's a dead platform - the market has spoken.
Now comes another reinventing with Windows 10. Microsoft believes that they're on to something big with an app building approach that won't care if it's mobile or desktop, just do it one way and it can work. They hope to capture developers first, and the public next, with that approach.
Is it possible? Is it the right thing to do?
I have no opinions on it. The market will speak and then I'll know. If it succeeds, it will be alive again. I'll be happy to say so - without competition, we - as in you and me - suffer as consumers.
With 2% or less of the market, the Windows Phone may exist, it may make its users happier and do things better for them (I hope so or they'd have been off with an Android or iPhone) - but at 2% and still falling, it's not really a competitive choice.
Like BlackBerry. Both are dead platforms today.
Until the unified Windows 10 theory can gain traction, Microsoft is including an emulator (couched in marketspeak as a subsystem) that will let you run Android and iOS apps on Windows 10.
That could either help rapid adoption or make people crazy and drive them to iPhones and Androids. I don't think anyone who thinks that they know how that will go knows at all. Tech predictions have a way of being terribly wrong, so we'll have to see about that.
I used Windows Mobile 6 in 2007 and had to wait until 2010 before I could do some of the same things on an Android.
But being technically superior didn't stop it from dying and neither was it because it was closed source.
It died because its faults outweighed its advantages.
Over 50% of the North American Internet traffic is used on Netflix and YouTube.
Over 50%.
And yet because Microsoft wouldn't follow the terms of service, there isn't a true YouTube app for the Windows Phone.
You can't Chromecast from the Windows Phone Netflix app - moderators at the Windows app store still insist in a stunning display of twisted logic that that's because Windows is somehow open source while Google is closed source and won't update the Chromecast SDK. Forget about timely feature updates for Netflix if you are a Windows Phone user, 2014 saw one in January and one in December.
Nevermind that you can use Chromecast from your Windows desktop, nevermind that they couldn't figure out how to make the .Net portion work the same on mobile, nevermind that they couldn't follow the same YouTube terms of service that Apple happily could - they just blame Google and redefined terms.
Defects like that, just like the defects in Windows Mobile back in the day, are what killed the Windows Phone and why it's very much dead.
I hope that Windows 10 turns it around.
Windows Phone users deserve better than they've gotten and we NEED the competition.
If they succeed and I like it better, I'll be more than happy to switch. I vote with my money and I spend it on viable options.
The iPhone has apps that Android either doesn't have or doesn't have working as well. But that didn't stop their decline and their recent marginal growth at least shows us what?
That a closed source system, technically deficient on most every count, can survive, stay alive as a platform and never die because the parent company has a lot of money, isn't stupid at marketing (as absolutely every Android maker is), and maintain a rabid fan base.
So the market has one of those, and it has the open source alternative.
Microsoft can't expect to win pretending to be either one and they can't win holding on to the past and getting by on just their name.
They finally figured that out. Their new CEO gets it. Windows 10 could turn it all around.
And create demand for cross porting to Android devices. (I'm surprised that no one else here is remembering the lesson of the failed iOS ports to Android - that actually worked for the most part - but failed anyway. Ask yourself why.)
A lot is riding on the new app emulator. If Windows 10 turns it all around, think about the apps. Will devs change over or just keep building apps to run in emulation mode?
Everyone is all over that bandwagon but have we seen the attempt before?
Yes. Yes we have. Did we forget what happened with the HP Touchpad running WebOS with Android apps? The BlackBerry 10 running Android apps?
Anyway - there it is.
The Windows Phone is a dead platform, because the market has spoken.
Not because of an assumption that I don't like it or don't understand it.
It just is what it is - dead. Even Microsoft finally got it.
Windows 10 still carries the name but will be an entirely new platform and an innovative, welcome, new approach.
Maybe it will live, grow and its users will thrive.
I hope so because we need more competitive choices than what we have today.
Case and point? Game, set, and match.
(Seriously, that was just a JOKE. The only winner in this will be us if we can get more ok.
)
