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Windows 10 Mobile support ending: Microsoft says go to iOS or Android [usatoday.com]

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 [microsoft.com].

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. 

Microsoft no longer sells or manufactures Window 10 Mobile devices so contact any seller that may have recently peddled you a Windows 10 phone to see if they’ll take a return. (Good luck with that.)

Of course, Microsoft retains a significant presence on phones through its various Office and other apps for iOS and Android. Under development, meanwhile, is a streaming technology called Project xCloud that will let you play Xbox games on phones and tablets. CEO Satya Nadella has likened Project xCloud to “Netflix for games.”

More: Microsoft Project xCloud plans to bring Xbox gaming to phones and tablets [usatoday.com]

More: She ditched her iPhone. Here's why she didn't mind switching to Android. [usatoday.com]

More: How to set up your new phone for iOS and Android [usatoday.com]

Microsoft has a long and bumpy history in mobile. In the early part of this century, the company was a factor of sorts with Windows Mobile handsets, and even before then with what were called Pocket PC devices. These were targeted at business users. But Microsoft never produced a smash offering or offered a compelling case for Windows Mobile for consumers, and was pretty much left in the dust after Apple released the iPhone in 2007.

Fast forward to 2014, when Microsoft was already playing catch up to Apple and also Google's Android. That’s when it spent $7.2 billion on the ill-fated acquisition of Nokia’s smartphone business, one of the final acts of CEO Steve Ballmer’s reign. 

It didn’t take long before new CEO Nadella deemed the deal a disaster. He slashed jobs and wrote off $7.6 billion in 2015; a year later, the company took another $960-million impairment and restructuring hit [usatoday.com] and shifted the Windows 10 Mobile focus back almost exclusively on the commercial market.

Incidentally, the end of support dates for consumers and businesses are the same.

So the funeral march hath long begun. But with Microsoft publishing the end of support page for Windows 10 Mobile, the Thurrott [thurrott.com]blog for tech enthusiasts felt compelled to write: "Yes, for real for real. It is dead. Dead dead."

You Windows loyalists may have to finally ditch your old phone, but through the iPhone and numerous Android devices take a small bit of consolation from all the excellent alternatives [usatoday.com]to choose from. And you’ve still got those Microsoft apps.

Email: ebaig@usatoday.com; Follow USA TODAY Personal Tech Columnist @edbaig [twitter.com] on Twitter

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