Just over a year ago I became an ex-WindowsPhone user. Right now I am using a Nokia 7 Plus as my daily phone. A pure Android version, crapware free, Android One, but with the Microsoft Launcher and Edge browser. It’s pretty much customised with Microsoft services. However, I hate it. I hate IOS too. It seems an interface of icons changed little since Steve Jobs launched the iphone and started the icon grid, home screen and home button paradigm. That’s probably why I used a WindowsPhone for so long – a fresh and imaginative UI that was somehow Windows in a modern world.
I thought I was over WindowsPhone angst. The slow mysterious death of WindowsPhone. Killed by neglect but with bursts of hope as Microsoft occasionally launched something new or let a rumour run for a while. Microsoft communication via the blog is notoriously opaque. That’s why you need other bloggers as intermediaries to decipher the cryptic nature of a Microsoft press statement. The new Microsoft was supposed to be about empathy. Yet the death of WindowsPhone was curiously direct and insensitive. A tweet as an answer to one question – Joe Belfriore said it’s dead and I like my Samsung.
The last week or so had the return of WindowsPhone angst. The re-announcement of the previous end of life announcement to make sure bloggers could write some clickbait. WindowsPhone was declared dead again. It’s new death covered on Windows Weekly.
For one sudden moment of madness I looked at ebay to price a Lumia 950xl. I didn’t click. I am emotionally disturbed by the death not mad.
Occasionally the muscle memory tries to click the dedicated camera button of the new Nokia I have but I suddenly realise that was a feature of my old Nokia WindowsPhone. I sometimes look for the additional “lenses” in the camera app. I also get annoyed that my calendar app doesn’t exist and I use the considerably more fiddly Outlook mobile app.
However, the good news is that Microsoft is saving itself for the next wave. It is AI, ambient computing, intelligent edge. Fortunately when I moved to Android I integrated Cortana into my phone for the new promised future. My personal assistant from WindowsPhone transitioned to my Android device. I waited for the home speaker system to complete the world of ambient computing.
This week also formally announced the death of Cortana and the ambitions for ambient computing.
At least I didn’t buy a Zune (US only), Band, and I migrated to Spotify when the writing was on the wall……
skane2600
<blockquote><em><a href="#399606">In reply to Greg Green:</a></em></blockquote><p>I agree. They should have let people develop for free from the start and reduce their cut relative to iOS and Android for the first few years. They should have offered all the carriers financial incentives to support it. It might not have made a difference but it's clear they didn't behave like they really wanted it to succeed.</p>
skane2600
<blockquote><em><a href="#399800">In reply to hrlngrv:</a></em></blockquote><p>Yes, Microsoft wanted to make money on their investment just like every other company in the smartphone market. No big revelation there. </p><p><br></p><p>I've spoken about Microsoft's blunders with respect to smartphones etc here for years, so you're not telling me anything I didn't already know. </p><p><br></p><p>Yes some tech fans like to think of Windows as "old and stodgy" but I doubt that the average user thinks about it one way or another.</p>
skane2600
<blockquote><em><a href="#400058">In reply to Greg Green:</a></em></blockquote><p>A minority compared to whom? Smartphone users who primarily consume content? </p>
skane2600
<blockquote><em><a href="#399559">In reply to remc86007:</a></em></blockquote><p>They would have just been jumping in to the commodity Android phone business. The only reason for buying a Windows Phone over an iPhone or Android phone was that if offered a third choice of OS. </p>
skane2600
<blockquote><em><a href="#399567">In reply to Bill_Russell:</a></em></blockquote><p>I don't see why you would think than a Windows phone is more complicated than an Android one for the common person. In fact WP's swipe to see an alphabetical list of apps is a much simpler approach than swiping through page after page of icons in no particular order (later versions of Android may have been better organized). And pressing on a letter in the list displays all of the letters so you can quickly zoom to the letter you want. This works identically for the People app so you can leverage the experience you used to select apps. LIve tiles don't add much IMO, but they don't really create any problems either.</p><p><br></p><p><br></p>
Bats
<blockquote><em><a href="#399610">In reply to Xatom:</a></em></blockquote><p>Do you drive around your area in a horse and buggy? (lol)</p>
skane2600
<blockquote><em><a href="#399638">In reply to jimchamplin:</a></em></blockquote><p>Well, the first half of your first sentence was right – There is no next wave.</p>
skane2600
<blockquote><em><a href="#399639">In reply to cadrethree:</a></em></blockquote><p>If you are living in the future that you dreamed about, you must have modest dreams. I was a kid in the 60s and the present still doesn't fulfill my childhood dreams. </p><p><br></p><p><br></p>
Bats
<p>The lesson you need to learn here, moving forward is to avoid all Microsoft products except for the legacy Windows and Office software. Despite what Thurrott and Samms will say, with regards to the future of Xbox…..avoid that too. </p><p><br></p><p>I am like dcdevito, who listed all the Google products that he uses. I've been using it for well over a decade, starting with Gmail, and gradually built a portfolio of products and services that I use and depend on, by Google. Moreover, I've been following Paul Thurrott ever since Episode I of Windows Weekly and I have read all the negative comments and WARNINGS made by him and Supersite/Thurrot.com readers have made for over the years…and do you know what? I don't recall reading or hearing of anyone being seriously "injured" by any of the products and services by Google for over a decade. Everything they have said, has been totally false and wrong. </p><p><br></p><p>To truth is, I am not really "Team Google." I just endorsed their products and services because I have experienced first hand, how great they are. They are the best in market, without question. Like I said, no one has been seriously "injured" by Google, AT ALL and I am talking about injury in a legal sense and not in a physical one where the courts have to be involved. Part of me, wishes it did, so we can see what happens and move on….but nothing. </p><p><br></p><p>My point being is this…..enjoy the tech that is out there. It's fun and can make your life so much easier. It has for me. If you ask me, upgrade your smartphone first. You don't need "Android One" , but you do need the full power of the Pixel. Despite it's launch problems, it's now (arguably) the best phone in the world….until the Samsung Galaxy is released. </p>
skane2600
<blockquote><em><a href="#399798">In reply to hrlngrv:</a></em></blockquote><p>Another way to look at it is that Apple never did very well in the computer market, so they switched to consumer electronics while Microsoft did very well in the computer market, so they don't need to be a consumer electronics company.</p>
skane2600
<blockquote><em><a href="#399917">In reply to hrlngrv:</a></em></blockquote><p>I'm not an Apple user but many comments I've seen in recent years from Apple customers don't seem to jibe with your claim that Apple is humoring it's customers. Headphone Jack? Old CPU's? Years without updating the Mac Mini and then releasing an expensive new version that doesn't match the original intent? Increasing iPhone prices?</p>
skane2600
<blockquote><em><a href="#399963">In reply to hrlngrv:</a></em></blockquote><p>I mentioned two issues for Apple's computer customers. According to Apple's ads nobody knows what a computer is these days so who knows where the lines are drawn :)</p><p><br></p>