Windows Phone launched back in 2010 as “Windows Phone Series 7” and there was a lot of ambition from Microsoft to push the hardware and software to consumers and developers alike. Unfortunately for Microsoft, Windows Phone was not as successful as they had hoped. Many were rooting for Microsoft to succeed in the mobile market, but stiff competition from Android and iOS buried any hope.
Timing for Windows Phone wasn’t the best either. It was introduced at a time when Android and iOS were both skyrocketing. The company hoped that Windows Phone would catch on and ride the skyrocket wave, but many reasons kept it buried, and further buried it to dead.
In a series of Tweets from Microsoft’s corporate VP of operations Joe Belfiore, he acknowledged on Sunday that Windows Phone is no more. He continued to state that the company would still continue to support the platform with bug fixes and security updates, but there would no longer be any feature updates or future releases of the platform.
https://twitter.com/joebelfiore/status/917071399541391360?
We have tried VERY HARD to incent app devs. Paid money.. wrote apps 4 them.. but volume of users is too low for most companies to invest. ☹️ https://t.co/ePsySxR3LB
— Joe Belfiore (@joebelfiore) October 8, 2017
It’s unfortunate that Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform wasn’t able to catch on. Though the exec’s admissions doesn’t surprise anyone, but it’s good to see that Microsoft admitting. Hopefully Microsoft will be able to find success in another area in their future.