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Windows Phone is dead, long live Windows Phone!

User Experience

As a long time Nokia user from the S60 days (Pre-Elop), I was skeptical about Windows Phone. From 7.5 Mango to 8.1 Denim, there was reassuring progression with new built-in features and apps to fill any gaps.  The user interface is clean, modern, intuitive and consistent. And Cortana is truly incredible, especially in the car: selecting playlists, dictating texts and making calls.

In comparison, Android is fragmented. Google, HTC, Samsung and LG all have their own Android interfaces that all appear a work in progress.  And OK Google is minimally functional on-line and useless off-line.

Market Share

Despite being a superior platform, Windows Phone is unable to complete against iOS and Android. User adoption peaked in 2013 at 3.2% and "rallied" this year to reach 2.7%. Not encouraging numbers.

App Store

In March 2014, JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America discontinued their Windows Phone apps*. Banking apps are an essential, unlike Goat Simulator.  Those departures highlight a disturbing issue: the Windows Phone app store is mostly empty shelves.  And getting emptier.  Microsoft themselves are releasing apps for Android before their own platform; see https://blogs.office.com/2015/06/24/office-for-android-phone-is-here/.

Developers

Comparing the SDKs for Android and Windows Phone, there is one significant difference.  Both are free and include feature rich IDEs, but Android offers hardware debugging. Free. Windows Phone hardware debugging is available only to registered partners and requires a $1,199 Visual Studio Professional with MSDN subscription ($799 annual renewal).  Microsoft is pricing themselves out of the developer market.

Looking Forward

This begs the question, what is Microsoft's mobile strategy and does Windows Phone have a future? Microsoft is betting big on the Windows 10 for mobile release later this year. The major feature being cross platform apps creating a developer and app influx into a unified Windows Store.  I expect we will see those Android-only Microsoft Office apps showing up then. Will it be enough to lure back the early adopters and entice Android users? Regardless, until then my Nokia Lumia 1520 is shelved.

* Wells Fargo recognized the opportunity and promised continued Windows Phone app support.
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