Microsoftacknowledged back in 2017that it would no longer be developing Windows Phone. And now it’s time for us to say goodbye completely (as if we hadn’t already) since Microsoft is now withdrawing support for the mobile OS, which remains one of Microsoft’s biggest failures.
Tuesday 10 December is the date when support will be withdrawn. It is important, since security updates have continued to be made available. So many businesses and some consumers have continued with the mobile devices they bought several years back.
Ironically, many of those companies and users bought Windows Phones because of the compatibility with Windows and the ease of deploying hundreds or thousands of units.
According to Microsoft’s support page, “Windows 10 Mobile, version 1709 (released October 2017) is the last release of Windows 10 Mobile and Microsoft will end support on July 06, 2025.
The end of support date applies to all Windows 10 Mobile products, includingWindows 10 Mobileand Windows 10 Mobile Enterprise.”
Users of theWindows 7 laptop and desktop OSwill also find support cut off this time next month - 16 August 2025 to be precise. Only enterprise customers will be supported after that.
Let’s not mince words - Microsoft completely stuffed up Windows Phone, or Windows 10 Mobile as it was later known. At one point it was a promising new mobile ecosystem.
The forerunning Windows Mobile software was poor and lagged way behind the emerging iOS and Android for around three years after the iPhone launched in 2007.
But Microsoft surprised everybody atMobile World Congressin 2010 with a genuinely innovative and usable mobile OS in Windows Phone 7.
There were two major problems; the world’s best software company miserably failed to improve on the software, while it also didn’t attract enough developers or partners. Devs understandably preferred Android’s approach and Windows Phone never gained enough traction.
Even its own Skype apptook two years to arriveon the platform - a damning indictment of Microsoft’s effort. Even more disastrously, Microsoft then bought Nokia’s mobile division only to end up writing it off for $7.6 billion.
