From bad to worse: The sad reality about Windows Phones - walkerlayse1998

Everybody loves smartphones, but almost nobody loves Windows smartphones.

A absolute majority (78 percent) of all mobile phones sold worldwide betwixt January and March were smartphones, and smartphones gross revenue grew past 4 percent compared to the same period the year previous, according to a past report away market research firm Gartner. Yet with complete that smartphone activity, Windows phone gross revenue fell even promote. Actually, the Scripture "fell" is being generous. The truth is they crashed.

Hard.

Windows mobile device market share fell below the one percent mu worldwide to 0.7 percent during the first quarter of 2016, reported to Gartner. Retributive one year ago, Windows device sales were anemic at 2.5 percent, simply that's still many times bettor compared to where they are now.

Just as we saw after Microsoft's financial results in January, Gartner's cover volition patronize the endless march of articles (suchlike this i) proclaiming Windows phones dead—or at least more dead than it was before.

Merely judging by Microsoft's actions, not much is being cooked to aright the ship.

Nobody's making Windows phones

In its recent report, Gartner estimates there were 2.4 zillion Windows phones sold 'tween January and March. Microsoft reported in Apr that it sold 2.3 million phones during the same time period. If Gartner is right, that way about 96 percentage of Windows device sales came from Microsoft.

That's a trouble since Microsoft recently hinted that IT will not make any more Lumia devices. The long-reported Surface phone is likewise looking like a truant for 2016. In March, Microsoft's Windows chief said mobile was not the company's focus for the remainder of twelvemonth.

Melissa Riofrio

Continuum lets a phone mirror its presentation on a proctor. Some the Desk Dock (shown) and the Mobile Extender suffer additional ports for connectivity.

That leaves third parties to make devices. Short of experiments with Continuum, like HP's Elite x3, thither's almost none incentive for call makers to mess around with Windows 10 Ambulant. Carriers are unlikely to market a revolutionary Windows device in any significant way, and it's an open question whether enterprises truly want a fleet of Continuum-enabled phones in the wild.

Without Microsoft, Windows 10 Mobile computer hardware development will most likely be completely but non-existent.

Apps

Then there's the app question. Microsoft's only Leslie Townes Hope for a bigger selection of Windows 10 Racy apps is if Sir Thomas More developers work on universal Windows program (UWP) apps. The idea is that a UWP app can support PCs, tablets, the Xbox One, and phones alike with some feat on the developer's part with.

But developers aren't required to release UWP apps that support totally form factors, and some of the biggest services around are bypassing Windows Phones. Chirrup's Vine recently came to the Windows Store in UWP spring absent a mobile version. True, there's already a Windows Phone 8.x reading procurable, but if converting an app built for Windows 10 PCs to Windows 10 Mobile is thusly elementary why hasn't Twitter through with it yet?

Mark Hachman

And then thither's Facebook. In late Apr, the company released UWP versions of Facebook and Messenger. That release was besides PC/pad of paper only, with nobelium mobile versions in pot. Facebook says the UWP versions bequeath down on mobile later this year, which once again suggests the conversion process isn't so simple.

Still not enough

Assuming that Facebook and Twitter are just too lazy to pinch a hardly a lines of code, a firm UWP app choice stillness means we'll see an app store filled with holes. Microsoft's UWP scheme depends on developers that are creating apps for PCs and tablets to make that extra effort to back phones. Even off if that happens, Windows 10 Moving users leave simply get apps that make horse sense for PCs and tablets first. Call-centric apps like Snapchat bequeath continue to be no shows.

A silver lining quickly going gray

The entirely splinter of desire for the future is that Microsoft is tranquillize actively developing Windows 10 Mobile software package. As long as that continues there's always hope, but signs of rebirth for Windows 10 Mobile need to hap now.

The Windows Store needs to get a larger roster of top tier apps ahead the end of 2016. On top of that, we ask to see a chat dropping phone coupled with gung ho carrier put up that puts the telephone set in millions of men.

If either of those pieces are missing it will be just now more of the said: dismal sales and lagging developer support.

Source: https://www.pcworld.com/article/414940/from-bad-to-worse-the-sad-reality-about-windows-phones.html

Posted by: walkerlayse1998.blogspot.com

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