[Closed] Is this the end of Windows Phone?

I loathe mine. It only gets used as a sat av in the car....

It's loosing out for a reason....

I don't think that's what the article says. No way is Microsoft dropping mobile operating systems, that would be death. They may just drop Nokia but I doubt it as no one else is quite ready to start using windows on their phone yet

I would instantly replace mine,I love it and the newer phones work nicely at a sensible price pointg

The dropping the Nokia brand, for sure.

More likely they would allow Nokia to run Android at the low end I wound have thought unless they have deals with other manufacturers to produce phones for them

As old hands on the forum now I am a massive fan of WinPho but currently cannot recommend it over Android Lollipop which admittedly has stolen an awful lot of the ideas that made WinPho so appealing but has done so rather well.

Coupled with the compete lack of a flagship (the 930 is very nice but lags behind the best Android phones) and I cannot currently recommend it.

I am currently rocking a Z3 compact which is just brilliant and will move back to WinPho one WinPho 10 is properly out and on a decent handset.

http://www.windowscentral.com/microsofts-restructuring-their-phone-business-was-necessary

No bloody wonder it wasn't making money with nearly 10,000 people working on it.

Definitely not. Windows Phone 10 looks awesome and has android and ios support.

I've given up on my windows 8.1 powered 930 until windows 10 comes out.

At the moment it's just so limited in capability.

Now on a lollipop powered moto g mk1 and it's so much better.

No, it's not the end. The most recent generation of Nokia phones are actually quite good and competitively priced. I've seen quite a few people (the type who don't care what phone they use) switch to Windows Mobile after having used Android and iPhone, and they've not been disappointed.

For people that live for their app collection, that's where Microsoft completely screwed up (there used to be more apps 5 years ago when Windows Mobile 6.5 was around !). But if Microsoft are now going to allow Android and iOS apps to run on their devices, that might solve the current problem.

And now that Microsoft are heading towards a single operation system for all devices (PC to phone) it'll be here to stay, i.e. a safe investment.

My son has a Windoze Phone (Nokia) that my wife got him thinking it was a good idea.

Utterly dreadful OS. Took three of us 10 minutes to add a contact. Won't run Whatsapp properly and is consigned to being a door wedge. How they sell any to anyone that's tried one is beyond me when Android and iOS are light years ahead.

My Samsung Keystone candybar phones have far greater appeal.

Bought my Mum a Lumy windoze phone.

She finds it simple to use.

It was cheap, has a camera, lasts longer than my ibone, has gps/email and works fine.

My dad and brother are both on Win Phone and swear by it. TBH, there are only a couple of apps I'd want that it doesn't have; iOS is a less bug-free zone than advertised (does anyone else suffer with the issue where the wifi doesn't work if cellular data is switched on?), and Android security patches don't get distributed as fast as ideal.

Meant to be some new flagships on the way, and continuum looks like a very interesting feature; I suspect what they'll be aiming for is the business market (though 18 months ago Surface was heading for a niche market, but now is doing very well)

With any Microsoft operating system my default attitude is to expect it to not work as expected unless you have the secret bit of hidden knowledge known only to the inner sanctum and those acolytes who spend their entire life immersed in its ways.

Utterly dreadful OS. Took three of us 10 minutes to add a contact

And took me less than a minute having never used one before even my Missus can do it on her Lumia 925 and she's a total luddite when it comes to technology, now on my 3rd one and no reason to change from it either.

I have one for work, and TBH it nearly gets thrown out the window at least twice a day. Awful awful OS, counter-intuitive, clumsy (swipe up then press another button to answer a call, just one example) as others have mentioned doing anything as straight forward as adding a contact is a minefield of dead-ends. and the lack of apps is painfully obvious.

can't wait for it to die

They seem to do alright in the business market - they sell a perfectly useable or "bastard hateful piece of shit" depending if you're the boss or the employee smart phone for £60 that's 10% the price of an iPhone or even 30% the price of an Samsung Mini or Ace phone and it does work well if you're a 365 user in work because it syncs brilliantly.

Not sure they've got many fans privately though, they're very sensible and boring - you can't even get Candy Crush on them!

I have a Lumia 635 for work and tbh it is not too bad apart from the paucity of apps. I also have a Samsung Note 2 of my own and I tend to do MFP, Google Play music and the other apps I use on that so I do not get too frustrated by the lack of apps on the work phone.

I actually find the OS pretty easy to use - probably simpler than Android - and for me it is the only device I have had where Windows 8 makes sense (PC or tablet no thanks!).

My job involves installing Cisco collaboration systems to which Microsoft are a growing competitor. There story having an integrated mobile phone platform plus the Skype carrier service is looking pretty good imo.

Microsoft seem really well placed to grab the business mobile market from Blackberry so this move kind of surprises me.

I just bought a 50 quid Nokia 530 just because I wanted to test whether an idea was simpler to code on the windows platform than android. So far I've been pleasantly surprised at how well it works. Slight problem with bluetooth comms with a power meter at the mo, but the manufacturer is looking into it.

Not sure they've got many fans privately though, they're very sensible and boring - [b]you can't even get Candy Crush on them![/b]

[url= https://www.windowsphone.com/en-gb/store/app/candy-crush-saga/aebbdef8-1792-488b-a7be-7596a1720166 ]You sure about that?[/url]

When was the start of Windows Phone?

How times change. Nokia and Ericsson once the darlings of the embryonic mobile phone industry but too late to adapt to the smart phone revolution.

Awful awful OS, counter-intuitive, clumsy (swipe up then press another button to answer a call, just one example)

Mine doesn't do that. Are you holding it right?

I've got one (Nokia 925 I think) and it's great. Simple to use and does everything I want it to. My Mrs liked it so much she chopped in her iphone for the next model up. She was back to the iphone last week while the screen on the Nokia got fixed and she couldn't wait to get the windows phone back.

Mine's a work phone and I've been told the contract is changing in December. I'll be gutted if they change to another brand.

The article is very much an opinion piece not news

I have a mate who is an academic in this area and he thinks that Winodows is getting their. My son is on his second windows phone and he like it and has had no problems. He is not big on Apps but uses Whatsapp all the time

What i didn't realise was that Nokia sold the brand name and phone plants to Microsoft. But they kept he patent portfolio which is doing well. when you buy any mobile Nokia get a cut

Tried a Widows phone, it wouldn't connect to my car bluetooth, every subsequent iPhone or android phone worked though.

Apparently ," the phone is too new and maybe I should buy a new car! "

😯

I've just upgraded to a Samsung Note 4. You can have my old Nokia 100 if you like. 😀

How they sell any to anyone that's tried one is beyond me

I think that's just your failure to adapt to something different.

It's a great OS, simple and clear. Phone hardware is good too and the budget ones are fantastic value.

The main apps are mostly there, but what bugs me is the way that small specialist apps only come for the other two.

, simple and clear.

The settings menu on the 930 looks like a right dogs dinner

Could someone bring back a physical button for answering calls?

Could someone bring back a physical button for answering calls?

I have owned 3 x different windows phones and all of them have connected to the Bluetooth in our Cmax with no issues whatsoever, also have a Bluetooth fault code reader for the cars(Elm 327) again no issues connecting my phone to that to read fault codes.

I think a lot of people are so indoctrinated in doing things the 'Apple way' on phones that when it doesn't work the same its automatically sh!t.
I use a iPhone daily admittedly it's a older 4s and find it irritating in comparison to my 925 lumia.

I like Windows phones BUT THEY TURNED OFF MY SCRABBLE APP.
Bought an android phone and just made myself get used to it.
Miss the dedicated camera button though.
edit. When the scrabble app did work it was pretty hit and miss if your words would get sent.

Windows Phone is generally excellent but Lollipop imo (and as someone who's been using WP for the last 4 years) has the edge. But, only because they've nicked a few ideas from Nokia/MS.

@zippy-note the Sony Z3 and Z3 compact have a proper camera button. The rest of the Sony range may well do also

Having had android phones for years then a couple of work iphones I bought a Lumia 1020 windows phone for a bit of a change and in every respect it was (IMO, ymmv obvs etc) a much better phone and OS than the ios android equivalents.

Physically the device was easily on a part with the construction of the iPhone, the OS and tiles just worked better and I found cortana to be genuinely useable.

But I couldn't run Zwift on it so I'm back on android and I expect in not the only person who has one or two apps which are just not available even as 3rd party clients and for that reason either try wp and move back or just stick with what they know.

I'm hoping that the rumours of windows phones eventually running android apps similar to how BlackBerry did a while ago turn out to be true then I'll swap back again.

There's a whole load of Windows Phone demise press at the moment, started by Android fan blogs, all picking up on Microsoft's restructuring announcements. None of which say Windows Phone is going away at all.

All that's happened is Microsoft's venture into hardware side of phones is basically not making them money based on how much they paid for Nokia Mobile. They have rightfully decided that they'll leave the manufacture to others, and maybe release the odd flagship phones themselves rather than their flawed plan of releasing loads of low end phones. New flagship stuff coming out like the 940 and 940XL is Windows 10, most or all existing Win 8.1 phones get upgraded, and a huge amount of their developer tools are geared up for cross platform development on all devices and Windows 10 on phone is a key part of that. Though they are also supporting Android and iOS development.

cp - Member
I've given up on my windows 8.1 powered 930 until windows 10 comes out.

At the moment it's just so limited in capability

Curious to know in what way you feel it's limited. Just got a 640. Cheap, plenty of power for what I want, immense battery life, amazing camera and it's not even high end camera, but also it does everything I did with my old Android. Really can't find any limitations that I didn't have before, and some things are quite refreshing. Not having it run out of storage for apps despite tonnes of storage for one thing, not having it do an update and nearly brick the phone again or halve battery life, consume way too much data, or keep resetting itself, is also a major improvement.

One of the most frustrating things about Android I find is the fragmentation issue, which results in so many phones on different versions and customisations by operators and manufacturers. You can't easy pick up two Android phones and find the same thing in the same place. Some apps won't work on some versions, or are limited, or are buggy because the developer can't test on the thousands of different versions.

Another thing I've found with WP is I'm no longer consuming loads of mobile data with background apps, even though I have roughly similar background apps doing the same things. I went with a 2GB plan given how much my old Android was consuming, but I only get through 500mb tops in a month with WP. I've even been able to install Facebook. I removed it on Android as it consumed vast amounts of data!

mikertroid - Member
Won't run Whatsapp properly

I'm running WhatsApp on my 640, and it's doing everything it did on my old Android.

nickjb - you've changed my life for the better

One of the most frustrating things about Android I find is the fragmentation issue, which results in so many phones on different versions and customisations by operators and manufacturers.

This is also a security issue; unlike iOS and how WP10 is meant to work, security patches for Android have to be tested by manufacturers before release. End result is that a lot of phones don't get updated because the patch hasn't been approved.

Coming from Android I love how I have had lots of incremental upgrades over the last two years. Previous phone got bugger all.

[b]Nokia Lumia 635 help please[/b] - How do I turn on, or off, Voicemail?

Thanks!

What network are you on?

What do you mean turn off voicemail?

Well, you know, turn it on or off!

You mean stop the phone going to voicemail when you don't pick it up? If so, that's nothing to do with the phone, it's your network that does it.

As above, MS have cut their losses on Nokia. They'll still be strong in the OS market I reckon - for business at least as you can significantly reduce complexity and cost of your business's systems by having everything on Windows.

Tesco network (02 really), can't see how to switch it off as it's not needed.

The tiles are doing my head in, can't stand a cluttered screen!

[s]Try dialing 1760 to disable and 1750 to enable.

901 dials into VM.[/s]

NOPE - Try

"To switch on your voicemail
Call 2905 free.

To switch off your voicemail
Call 2915 free."

Tesco's page:
http://www.tescomobile.com/help-and-support/1080-getting-started/1320-setting-up-your-device/voicemail

I made my tiles spread down a long way, so many were off the screen.

You can remove (un-pin) all the tiles if you want, and just have one for the phone and one for texts.

Or if you only call a few people you can have those people as tiles and nothing else so you can effectively speed dial them. Hold your finger down on a tile you don't want, then a symbol will appear that's a picture of a pin with a line through it -that's the unpin button.

can't see how to switch it off as it's not needed.

As above - voicemail is handled by the network not the phone - talk to Tesco.

As above, MS have cut their losses on Nokia. They'll still be strong in the OS market I reckon - for business at least as you can significantly reduce complexity and cost of your business's systems by having everything on Windows.

Not really, all phone OSes sync with Exchange now, so there's no real benefit in having Windows phones over MS phones.

Number no worky gofasterstripes.

Soz - look up/refresh page 😀

You're assuming that exchange is the only app you want access to via your mobile. With W10 you'll (potentially) be able to access everything you can at your work desktop/laptop in exactly the same way, not just your emails.

I think a lot of people are so indoctrinated in doing things the 'Apple way' on phones that when it doesn't work the same its automatically sh!t.

I reckon this has a lot to do with it.. it's getting quite boring really

You're assuming that exchange is the only app you want access to via your mobile. With W10 you'll (potentially) be able to access everything you can at your work desktop/laptop in exactly the same way, not just your emails.

True, although with Dropbox I can already do this - since I sync my entire W7 machine...

As above, MS have cut their losses on Nokia. They'll still be strong in the OS market I reckon - for business at least as you can significantly reduce complexity and cost of your business's systems by having everything on Windows.

😆 I doubt that even Microsoft have a majority of their corporate smartphone users on Windows Phone.

True, although with Dropbox I can already do this - since I sync my entire W7 machine...

Dropbox just syncs files.. nemesis is talking about using the actual applications from your Windows desktop on your phone as well - and vice versa - the same phone apps on your desktop. That's going to be a pretty big thing in the mobile area.

I.e. you will buy an app in the store and it'll be available on your phone, tablet and PC. And not just Candy Crush etc - MS will make their productivity apps available cross platform too.

MS will make their productivity apps available cross platform too.

If you mean Office then they already are and that's 99.999% of all productivity stuff.

And most 3rd party productivity tools are on all platforms eg Concur, Salesforce etc. It's MS who is catching up, not leading the pack.

Well, those too but all the programs you use for your job. For some, as above, simple sync tools like dropbox of google sheets, etc will be fine but most people use a wider range of programs/apps than that for their jobs.

If you mean Office then they already are

Not really - Office mobile is a tiny little thing. This could mean something much better.

Sorted! Cheers chaps. 8)

Running a 930 on 8.1 as a company provided phone, was given a free reign choice of any handset Iphone, android etc.
Had a cheapo 620 previously that died in an accident but was a great phone dispute being sub £100.

The camera (20mp) is great on the 930 and performance is snappy. Iphone loving wife doesn't like it but mainly because its just different to an iphone.

MS will make their productivity apps available cross platform too.

You might have missed it, but Apple got there first for once. Their last iOS added syncing app states between all their platforms iPhone, iPad, Macs etc.

http://www.macworld.co.uk/feature/mac/continuity-in-ios-8-os-x-yosemite-handoff-phone-call-text-airdrop-3524705/

Not really - Office mobile is a tiny little thing. This could mean something much better.

That I doubt, who is going to want to edit a 500k line application on a 5.1" phone in fully featured version of Visual Studio? Basically you do the vast bulk of work on a PC, laptop, or Surface and then just remotely access / view stuff on a mobile (unless you're a real masochist).

I chose a Nokia 930 for my company phone when my old iphone died, Seems good to me, much nicer than the iphone and none of the arrogant Apple sh*te. It's got a good camera and it runs the apps I want. Navigation and sports tracking apps seem to use a fraction of the battery that the iphone used to. If it has a fault I would say that the screen is a tad too sensitive and it sometimes fails to connect automatically to wireless. No big deal, though.

You can alter the screen sensitivity ,High setting allows you to use it with gloves on, which makes it a bit too sensitive when using as normal.
To alter GOTO:
Settings.
Touch.
Touch sensitivity.

Excellent, thanks!

I love my 930. It took me a few days to get used to it but it just seems great now. Limited apps but it means great real life battery and I use a tablet more for those. Camera is superb and the live pictures are fun. The built in satnav is spot on. Built in music app works brilliantly in the car and with bluetooth speaker.

Once you are familiar with the interface it seems so logical.

You might have missed it, but Apple got there first for once. Their last iOS added syncing app states between all their platforms iPhone, iPad, Macs etc.

App states - but not apps? The app vendor has to have made the app for each platform separately, no? The MS offering allows the vendor to create a single app and it will magically work on all Windows platforms. You only need to buy it once.

That I doubt, who is going to want to edit a 500k line application on a 5.1" phone in fully featured version of Visual Studio?

You picked the most obvious one for effect, but chances are MS and the other vendors will think of apps and usages that you haven't 🙂

And most 3rd party productivity tools are on all platforms

I don't think you're following me. Currently, you have to write your app two or three times for different platforms. With Windows you will only need to write one. Not the same thing.

Still not convinced that it actually solves a problem (other than making writing apps a bit easier) as the usage case for a PC and a 5.1" phone are very different. I don't use my phone in anything like the same way I use my work PC with twin monitors and not because the Apps aren't all the same, because I have access to both and use them appropriately i.e. the phone for mobile things and the PC for static things.

I don't think you're following me. Currently, you have to write your app two or three times for different platforms. With Windows you will only need to write one. Not the same thing.

Yep, 100%. The pain of the developer has no affect on the user. I don't care if the App took 5 mins or 5 years to write and neither does anyone else. Most decent productivity tools exist on all platforms today, so the extra effort isn't a limiting factor and removing this extra effort doesn't make the App any more appealing to the user, which is all that matters. And they're still going to have to write an Android and iOS version anyway as MS will never have more than a few % of the mobile market (in the next 5-10 years).

the usage case for a PC and a 5.1" phone are very different

Quite true, and it will be interesting to see what happens.

The pain of the developer has no affect on the user.

I disagree, because if it's too painful developers won't do it. Which is why there are so few WP apps - writing WP apps isn't hard, but there aren't enough users to bother. If this works well then it would immediately increase the number of potential users for your Windows apps by a factor of a bajillion. I'm thiknig that the piggyback effect might boost WP as a platform significantly.

Hopecso my wife has one and they are nothing but a bag of crock
basically anything Android is xxxx