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Windows 10 Mobile support ending: Microsoft says go to iOS or Android
Are you among the few people left still using a Windows 10 Mobile phone? Even Microsoft has been suggesting that your time to embrace an iPhone or Android handset is long overdue.
This is the final year Microsoft will provide "support" for Windows 10 Mobile, and the company has published a page where you can learn more about nursing your device toward its final days.
Yes, the handset should continue to work after Dec. 10, 2019, the last official day for product and security updates. After that, though, the phone is likely on borrowed time, though Microsoft says automatic or manual creation of new device backups for settings and some applications will continue for three more months, ending March 10, 2020. For that matter, some services including photo uploads and restoring a device from an existing device backup may continue to work for up to a year more.
Still, for most of you, you'll want to start the long goodbye now. And for some versions of Windows Mobile the end of the line comes as soon as June, so consult that online support page for details.
(Score: 2) by coolgopher on Tuesday January 22 2019, @12:20AM (3 children)
If it hadn't been mismanaged it would've been pretty decent IMO. The UI is superior to both iOS and Android as far as I'm concerned. The ability to get a phone with both a removable battery and dual SIM was also very nice.
Not looking forward to the cripple-ware of iOS or the festering pile of goo of Android. (Yes, I'm opinionated.)
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 22 2019, @01:35AM (2 children)
Mismanaged is a perfect way to describe what microsoft did with the cell market. It was theirs to own. iPaq showed them the way. They screwed it up so badly with a poor API and rando choices along the way where you basically had to toss out good portions of your code to make it work again. Why sure I would LOVE to connect my phone to my computer because the battery went dead (whoever thought that was a good idea needs a slap upside the head). Apple came along and showed everyone how to do it correctly. Even THEN it took MS 4 years to do anything meaningful. It was their market to own.
(Score: 2) by Mykl on Tuesday January 22 2019, @05:29AM (1 child)
I remember playing around with a Windows Mobile 6.0 device (with a slide-out keyboard) about 6 months before the iPhone appeared. It was horrible. They had clearly just tried to jam Windows XP onto a mobile device, complete with the start menu etc. No attempt to modify the device for proper mobile usage.
Looking back, it's almost surprising that nobody else came up with the innovations that Apple brought to phones given their ubiquity now, but it was clearly never going to be Microsoft.
(Score: 2) by bobthecimmerian on Tuesday January 22 2019, @03:34PM
But I think where they really killed their chances was constant dump-and-start-over in the mobile market. If Microsoft had any fanboys, they must have alienated every single one by releasing a product and then killing it six times in a row. They might as well have posted a sign with Windows Phone 7, 8, and 10, "We're looking for more early adopters to stab in the back!"
I really think that the company signed its own death warrant with this. Obviously Microsoft is enormous and still enormously popular today. But my experience is that a lot of people and businesses are moving to iPads and Chromebooks and Android gadgets to get things done. For every graphic designers, video editor, software developer, or hardcore PC gamer there are ten or twenty people happy with their mobile device and maybe a Playstation or Nintendo. I expect Microsoft to still be around and still be big in twenty years, but compared to Google and Apple it will be a shadow of its former self.