{"id":361314,"date":"2017-07-12T03:12:00","date_gmt":"2017-07-11T19:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/2017\/07\/11\/windows-phone-support-ends\/21|23025167"},"modified":"2017-07-12T03:12:00","modified_gmt":"2017-07-11T19:12:00","slug":"microsoft-officially-ends-support-for-windows-phone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/microsoft-officially-ends-support-for-windows-phone\/","title":{"rendered":"Microsoft officially ends support for Windows Phone"},"content":{"rendered":"

Windows Phone 7<\/a> was launched in 2010 as Microsoft’s formal response to the iPhone and Android. This was the release that was going to prove Microsoft could make a truly consumer-focused mobile platform instead of catering primarily to the business crowd. The tile-based home screen and other interface elements were breaths of fresh air, but the so-so device lineup (HTC Surround<\/a> anyone?) and lack of feature parity (it launched without copy-and-paste text<\/a>) set the tone. It was always a bit lackluster compared to what Apple and Google were doing, even if there were occasional bright spots.<\/p>\n

Case in point: Windows Phone 8<\/a>. It was a huge upgrade, but no Windows Phone 7 device could run it<\/a>. Millions of users were faced with the prospect of having to upgrade their handset early to stay current, erasing a lot of Microsoft’s hard-earned good will. Windows Phone 8.1<\/a> finally provided a truly complete answer to Android and iOS, but it was still a little bit behind and never got the sustained big-name app support that Microsoft had tried so hard to cultivate. And we can’t forget the ill-fated partnership between Microsoft and Nokia<\/a>, including the eventual purchase of Nokia’s hardware business<\/a>. It was supposed to be a match made in heaven (Microsoft got a huge, reliable partner while Nokia got a modern OS), but it mostly led to a lopsided Windows Phone market where third parties always played second fiddle to the latest Lumia.<\/p>\n

That Microsoft ditched Windows Phone entirely in favor of Windows 10 Mobile says a lot. Just as Microsoft shifted from a dependence on Windows sales to a focus on apps and services, the pocket-sized Windows is no longer intended as an iPhone-beater — it’s more an extension of the desktop PC experience<\/a>. Even then, it’s fading away as Microsoft cuts its former Nokia staff<\/a> and has been winding down its mobile plans. Windows Phone produced many fond memories, particularly stand-out devices like the Lumia 1020<\/a>, but it largely represents a missed opportunity to adapt to an industry where phones, not PCs, are the center of the computing universe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Windows Phone 7 was launched in 2010 as Microsoft’s formal response to the iPhone and Android. This was the release that was going to prove Microsoft could make a truly consumer-focused mobile platform instead of catering primarily to the business crowd. The tile-based home screen and other interface elements were breaths of fresh air, but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5817,"featured_media":361315,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[27,59,26],"class_list":["post-361314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-media","tag-engadget","tag-media","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5817"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=361314"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361314\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/361315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=361314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=361314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=361314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}