Windows Phone was dying a slow death for a year, and it was pretty clear. Now, Microsoft’s Joe Belfiore made it official through a series of tweets, that they aren’t developing new features or hardware for the phone. While the company would continue with bug fixes and security updates for existing users, they wouldn’t work on the device further.
Belfiore tweeted, “Of course we’ll continue to support the platform.. bug fixes, security updates. But building new features/hw aren’t the focus.”
Of course we’ll continue to support the platform.. bug fixes, security updates, etc. But building new features/hw aren’t the focus. ? https://t.co/0CH9TZdIFu
— Joe Belfiore (@joebelfiore) October 8, 2017
The news comes a week before the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update which indicates that the company is very clear about its priorities, keeping what is profitable and rejecting what is not.
Windows Phone was running in losses for a year now. After all the job cuts and struggling with the Nokia experiment, Microsoft finally announced that the venture was a huge mistake.
The CEO Satya Nadella announced the shift of their agenda from “mobile-first, cloud-first” to “intelligent cloud and intelligent edge” technology during the recent Build and Inspire conferences.
Just like Bill Gates, Belfiore also shifted to Android. He said that the primary reason for the failure of the phone project was that developers didn’t find it worth investing their time and effort. He tweeted,
“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.”
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
While a harsh reality, Microsoft realized that people don’t really want Windows on their phone. To make the experience better for users, they launched the new Android Launcher for Windows as well.
