Can Microsoft succeed without a serious mobile platform?
Microsoft hasn't given up on Windows Phone just yet, but you wouldn't know it from its Build 2016 developer conference.
Each year, the company welcomes thousands of developers to Build to talk about the latest updates on all things Microsoft. This year, the updates included Windows, HoloLens, Xbox,Cortana and chatbots, but not — much to the chagrin of some developers in attendance — Windows Phone.
In fact, despite doing many of the onstage demos with a Windows Phone, none of the executives who took the stage Wednesday even mentioned Windows Phone or Windows 10 Mobile. And while we weren't expecting to hear about a new handset or any major mobile updates, the fact that Windows 10 Mobile didn't even warrant even the slightest acknowledgment in the 2.5-hour keynote would certainly seem to be a strong statement in itself.
What's more, other than a sole session on Continuum, there isn't a single developer session about Windows 10 Mobile on the schedule. Needless to say, this didn't go unnoticed by thedevelopers in attendance.
Of course, there have been problems long before Build. Consider this: Microsoft pushed out the long-awaited Windows 10 Mobile update to older handsets just weeks before Build, finally bringing them into the Windows 10 ecosystem alongside the (very few) newer handsets like theLumia 950. How did Microsoft mark the event? A blog post. Even more curiously, that update was only available for some devices. Some handsets that were eligible for the Windows 10Mobile Preview weren't, and likely won't ever be, included.
"I think they're going to have to let this go," Ben Bajarin, an analyst with Creative Strategies, said of Microsoft's Windows Phone efforts. Still, he predicts they will "make one last go of it," — perhaps with the rumored Surface Phone — though he doesn't expect it will make much of a difference. "The market share battles have been won," he says.
Indeed. To say Microsoft has already lost the market share battle would be an understatement. As of Q3 2015, Microsoft's share of the smartphone market declined to just 1.7%, according to Gartner.
it would be wrong to assume Microsoft has completely given up on Windows Phone
Even so, it would be wrong to assume Microsoft has completely given up on Windows Phone, analysts say.
"There is no magic wand that they can wave to suddenly make Windows Phone take off and become successful," Gartner Research VP Stephen Kleynhans tells Mashable. "There is a long-term, slim potential that if they can get the other Windows 10 platforms to take off, they can compel more interest from developers to maybe make Windows Phone take off over time."
But for a clearer picture of Microsoft's current mobile strategy, it may be best to look at what they did discuss during Wednesday's Build keynote: Cortana, Universal Windows Apps, unprecedented compatibility with iOS and Android, and bots. These are the cross-platform tools and efforts where Microsoft sees a feature on mobile.
As Bajarin says, "Cortana or these bots, these are all things that you can interact with that are developed on Microsoft tools… and you don’t have to be on a Windows platform to do it."
really?
ReplyDeleteserious??
ReplyDeletecool, the phone
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