Windows Mobile job listings confirm Microsoft's continued support of the platform

I would like whatever @Yangstax is drinking or smoking!

pass it around I'd like some of that to. 

You don't need any more drinks. :-)   You need a clear head to see the points I'm making: -  W10 user base is growing and the Windows Store apps is growing with it. -  TSMC is building a $16 billion plant to manufacture their 5nm chips in 2020. -  MS has filed patent for their foldable screen phone designs.  They have signed up with LG to use their foldable screens. Is my expectations (or dream) out of line?  I don't think so.

I noticed this too lately, the Windows Store is going through the roof  - with customers and new apps (I expect apps parity with ios and android combined at the end of the year).  Next I sell my android for that new shiny Trekstor Windows 10 mobile smartphone device. Trekstor is an underrated hardware maker in the country I live in. Yay! Zey make really high quality devices! Zey will make WindowsnPhoen great! ;)

I'm seeing rumors of a new Lumia phone coming before Surface Phone/Mobile.

"NIce"? People in glass houses.........

...don't throw stones.

I'm assuming, those are Gorrilla Glass 3 houses?  Although they probably need a lot of screen protectors.

Funny, there is a mistake in the Msft quote too. "Adapting" should be "adopting" :-) .

I still think the retrenchment was a dumb idea. Had they kept promoting their phones we probably could've gotten more phones from more oems like LG. But once Microsoft themselves stopped promoting their phones and os it self what makes them think other oems are going to be interested in making a phone. Now we have only a handful of phones now, and only 2 with the 820 processor that's only available on gsm.

Me and Zac fight over this. I agree with you that they shouldn't have retrenched, they surely could've afforded whatever investments to keep it afloat, they let Bing go on loss making for years in order to keep it in a position to make a comeback. Even if W10M is ready for a comeback, it's gonna be extra hard cus of the way they've treated consumers and developers over the last few years.

Yea that's my point. With their lack of communication from Microsoft, no kind of hope (at this moment) for new hardware, things have been looking kind of gloom and doom around here. The lack of support from Facebook on keeping their fb and messenger apps isn't up to date either it's making the OS look abandoned in consumer and developer eyes. The only phone that has helped a little on the consumer level is the affordable flagship Alcatel idol 4s. They need to partner with one plus one or Huawei at least to get a couple more phones or even get roms released to run on some of the android phones out there.

There were always a few consumers. The other 90% never used W10M. So, there is a world to win. Let's see what happens next...

Before Microsoft got rid of the Nokia branded phones they were actually getting promoted and had phones on almost every carrier at least. Now there's 0 promotion, 0 hardware, and apps are leaving or being abandoned by developers with alot citing their uncertain about Microsoft seriousness of the platform and Microsoft hasn't taken the hint and done anything to address the doubt from consumers and developers

Apps being abandoned is not the issue, as it is legacy code. The question is how many will release at launch of Windows for 64 bit ARM. Such processors are in phones already.

The promotion of phones and the reaching out to developers was ALL Nokia's doing. Don't fool yourself, Microsoft never really cared.
Which is why Windows Phone died when Nokia left. Nokia's brand and efforts were keeping the platform alive. Without Nokia, it died. Just like a body dies without a brain.

I'm of the mind that a retrenchment was a bad idea too and completely agree that burning consumers is going to make it a very hard comeback. Although, I will say this gives them time to plan things out, I think it's going to make the work a LOT harder for them to recover into a viable state in the market.  Any consumer that has used a Windows phone before and left for another OS will be hard to win back again, but when we look at how Microsoft has handled Windows 10 and their Surface devices over the past few years, even winning over some enthusiastic Mac users, there is hope they can do it, 

I feel Zac just feels somewhat indifferent in regards to certain aspects for instance suchas laptops 32gig storage which I believe are a terrible idea. You only get what about 12gigs of storage if your lucky from 28gigs which is not enough to even install the anniversary update via WU. Going back to the topic at hand, I agree, retrenchment was the most ridicululous idea they ever put out. This is why I say they are in an engineers bubble only engineers would look at stats, balance sheet and telemetry then base decisions on that. Any engineer worth his salt would do that, which is not the problem the issue is that they treated people like numbers. People aren't numbers, most are fickle with emotional attachments lol. I would say the writing was on the wall when they swung that massive axe on the mobile division... sure that fuels consumers with confidence...NOT! With their ability to look beyond the curve, they always forget their roots. It's the people. People adopted Windows en-mass and brought a PC into their home. If they didnot Microsoft would not be where they are today. Less focus on analytics, telemetry and more focus on people! What happened to the mantra - "we didn't design windows phone for all of us but each of us?". In a slight variance of Ballmer's famous chant. "People, People, People!. Say what you want about Ballmer, he took risks, he let Xbox take a hit with RROD and if he did not we would not have a complete ecosystem at all - No other company is in such a position. Ballmer was correct in acquiring the D and S division but the potential was squashed before it could be even realised. Lol, yes I'm getting somewhat passionate about this subject... I just find it galling when there is so much under utilised potential. Windows Phone/Mobile could be so much more than what we have today,

I know it's out of context with the article, but I have to agree with you on the 32GB thing.

Yes, and they should have kept it afloat with WP8.1 at least until W10 was really ready. Interest in UWP was low anyway, and they would not have had so many "unupdateable" devices becaus of natural replacement. A chunk more attention to the update to W10M later on, here and there a cool new phone, the outlook that all these new phones would run W10 (say from Spring 2016 onwards) and marketshare would not have dropped that much, especially in Europe. UWP would have been a lot more attractive to developers, and we would be further ahead with UWP now. 

Cannot agree more with Jez and the rest of you saying retrenchment was bad. Fighting back from a position where you have a small market share is much easier than trying to claw your way up from having almost zero market share. MS made the wrong choice by putting mobile on life support. I'm not really a fan of the choices Nadella has made, if they have been specifically his choices of course. I always liked Barmy Balmer lol.

I hate to nitpick, Jez, but as I consider you a professional writer, seeing you say "Me and Zac" makes me sad. I don't disagree with what you stated. Just how you did it. :)

"Zac and I" Damn, who's your editor? 

There is no editor. Why would there be?

I feel as though they did it because their plan involves something either radically different, or something they're not quite sure themselves what it is. I understand their position somewhat, but do also agree that having kept some semblance of market presence would have been advantageous.

I agree the way they "retrenched" (it seems more like a retreat) was a mistake. When they initially talked about it, I was hopeful that they were going to do something more like Apple did when Jobs returned in the late 90s. Macs were in a similar situation to Windows Phones back then: a confusingly large lineup for a small market, sold through retailers who didn't promote and even disparaged the products. Reducing the lineup to a core few focused devices and partnering with select retailers to get things under control worked for Apple. MS talked like that was what they were going to do, but they really didn't.

I completely agree. Windows Phone has been on the rise. Especially in Europe. Although they were still persistent with a US only features. In some major European countries they have even surpassed iOS. They are only supposed to continue giving full product line, and the trend would continue. But instead we get half of x40 product line. The lower ones, without Flagship. Than half of x50 line, with unready Windows 10... They should launch x50 line with Windows 8.1 update 3 or something, till Windows 10 is ready. Unfortunately, everything stopped for Windows Mobile since Ballmer gone.

Barely outselling iPhone in a couple price conscious markets selling $30 phones isn't worth anything. Worldwide, sales were terrible, especially after Android caught up on the low end. Microsoft had nowhere to go.

Lol, you have no idea. In Europe there is no cheaper Lumia than 100 EUR (5X0 line). And they sell very well. I have not heard of such a low price anywhere. But there was low prices only in US. They tried in US too hard, instead they focus on better markets...

They didn't sell that well and the few people they did sell them to didn't upgrade to the 730, 830, or 930 as Microsoft/Nokia hoped. People didn't seem to like Windows phones, otherwise they would have upgraded from the L520 to the newer devices. In Europe, the Nokia name brought the initial sales, but the Microsoft software prevented future sales.

I will have to argue against "retrenchment" comment. Let me preface by saying that I hated hearing that Microsoft is going to, for lack of a better term, back off from the mobile platform. I disliked developers disappearing and taking their apps with them. I also disliked the opinion-journalists writing horrible pieces that has anything to do with their mobile OS. However, I'm OK with the retrenchment, because they were able to look at their mobile strategy at an "out of body experience". To look at it from the outside. If they didn't take this approach, would they be where they are now? I don't know, but I'm sort of glad they did.

I am convinced the retrenchment is a good bet, but a bet it remains. From marketing perspective Microsoft has seemingly discontinued smartphones, which allows them to make a splash with something that can be presented as eye catching different, grabbing attention and raising desire to own. Such a strategy is called "changing the rules of the game". So far Microsoft seems to be rather good at that with the Surface line of devices.
We have 64 bit ARM processors in smartphones, but which OS on such devices is 64 bit?
And, the splash is not in April, it is in October with the Redstone 3 release. Meanwhile, cloud services will get an upgrade. I bet ;-)

"Soon"... In October, when RS3 is released and had no improvements for mobile again you will be saying the same thing about RS4 and April. Just like last year and the year before. With Microsoft Mobile, the answer is always 6 months away.

A refreshed 950 and 950XL would have been nice this year, just to instill some confidence. 950s 950XLs with Snapdragon 820 and 821 with same display storage and formfactor like iPhone 6 and 6s. This would have cost them almost nothing while still letting consumers know they want to be in the mobile space.

Great news , hope the best to grow up and be on the top 👍

Oh wow, I'm so not excited. I'm not on any insider build, but my phone randomly restarts, lock screen is acting weird, and sometime my phone won't play music until I restart it.

Do a full reset.

That really is clutching at straws. That just isn't how it works in a big company. Low level positive messages and recruitment will continue whilst the Board is discussing exit from a market and mass redundancies. These adverts say nothing about corporate strategy.  

So you think hirings can happen without the upper management's approval? Got it! 😏

And senior hirings at that! Not just some junior engineer. This will get to the board.

Naaah, you're rather clutching at straws ;)

Better late than I never I suppose. Logic and Microsoft don't really go together at all. They had so many talented people with the D&S acquisition..... It's almost past the 12th hour now. They better double down on mobile pronto if their are to have any hopes of rekindling anything. Even though they flipped and flopped from WM 6.x to WM 7.x to WM 8.x to WM10 there were always active development from developers, partners and good reasons. But WM10 -> ?? No good reason at all, they had so much momentum and were almost at that pivotal point in a few key markets.... If they maintained that momentum it would have been so much easier to engage developers on UWP apps as it's really forward thinking then onto Ai and beyond the curve computing. But Microsoft being Microsoft, always knee-jerk reacting. They need to get out of that engineers bubble where people become stats and numbers. This bubble is why they always get leapfrogged even when they are first to the game. But I don't know if they ever will get out of it.

Selling some $30 phones in price conscious markets isn't momentum. Continuing Windows Mobile is a mistake. Microsoft needs something new, not the same failed platform and strategy. They are wasting their time.

@Bleached Look in the UK, Nokia Lumia was everywhere. In some markets Windows Phone had a higher market than ios. User engagement numbers were over the roof when Nokia was pushing Windows Phone. Just because you saw $30 dollar hands sets in your region. Plus unlike the US, carriers were happy to push Windows Phone, their reps however were not so eager. Regardless, in the EU where carriers are just dumb pipes, they don't have much hold on what devices people use. Plus we don't have to deal with carrier specific models suchas the lumia icon let alone the CDMA nonsense :P. Plus there are so many things that added together to bring Windows Mobile where it is today, you may not see them however others do. I could cite my background here but that's just being petty in trying to provide a reference point.

They sold a few L520 and then those people didn't upgrade to the higher end LX30 devices. Motorola and others released really good low end devices and stole that market as well. Nokia was frustrated and left. Doesn't sound like they had much momentum at all. You can't really compare sales between the L520 and the iPhone. It is like comparing sales between the Ford Focus and Ferrari California. If the Focus was barely beating the Ferrari in a price conscious market, Ford wouldn't be happy either.

A few L520s?
You sure like to look everything with negative connotations and things that only appeal to your bubble :P.
True Microsoft could have put more resources into it back then but they wanted to play nice with the US carriers i.e secure sim - mobile wallets. But that got them shafted. Then there was the architectural issue, where a simple facebook backend changed required an o/s level update. As response they developed the social extensibility framework because apparently the social networks wanted to utilise their UX instead of the integrated solution that Microsoft was pushing. But again they got shafted, so you see the return back to the hub model. Which is why I said they are always knee-jerk reacting. Then you had people clamouring for the UX to be ios and android like. But they never really "picked it up" claiming it looked no different and didn't want to switch. Meanwhile they left the UX and experience sullied for those who saw the merits and potential of Windows Phone. That is what happened in a nut shell.

The L520 was the only device that Nokia was able to move. I agree with your other points. Windows Phone was mediocre and didn't resonate with anyone but Microsoft fanboys. Microsoft failed to create a universally loved platform so it failed.

they had higher market because Lumia was cheap and Android 2 - 4 had worse performance then WP 8/8.1... but thats the history. Nowadays cheap Android phones have decent OS speed with minimum lag + China offers good HW for fair prices like Xiaomi

Exactly. A $100 Android phone is amazing these days. It is crazy how far they have come.

I'd love to see which $100 Android phones you feel are amazing.  All the ones I have seen are poor on specs and features.

I have a Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime that literally cost $30. Lag is minimal and it runs all the apps I need. Sure, it doesn't have waterproofing, NFC, or a high end processor but the screen is decent and so is the camera. It runs everything we have thrown at it and I would prefer it to any Windows phone. There are so many $100 Android phones these days. I am sure almost all are better than flagships from a few years ago.

I remember seeing the Grand Prime.  Retail cost was around $200, but most prepaid carriers had it down under $100 with a signup offer.  Sounds like you got a decent deal.

I could say the same things about my L640. And it does have NFC.

I also have an L640. It is trash next to the Galaxy. NFC doesn't make up for all the shortcomings in Windows 10M. It is laggy, apps take forever to open. There are no customization options, no decent apps and the interface makes everything a chore. Waiting for long, slow animations and plodding through that inane app drawer is so frustrating. The Galaxy doesn't have those issues. The interface is quick and the app drawer fits much more on the screen. You aren't spending forever trying to find that random app. There actually are apps available and they open when you click on them. Then, the apps are even far superior. Everything on the Lumia is outdated, it feels like using Android in 2011.

We're all entitled to our opinions.  I have an L640 as well, which I used when I was on TMo, and I miss it now that I'm back with Verizon.  I picked up a Moto Z Play and have not enjoyed the experience or issues that Android has to offer. The app drawer/app list is a matter of opinion.  On my L640, I just pinned all my regular apps to the Start screen.  Half of them, I simply relied on the live tile for info, and never had to open it.  I knew where everything was, and could get to it within a second.  And, I never had the performance issues you mention.  Performance was on-par with my iPhone that I have for work. So, we each have our experiences and opinions based on them.

Agree with DragonPoo . I have a L640 and it works fine for the price I paid , less then $100 unlocked , lots of apps , dual sim , lag is minimum , almost never hangs . I much prefer WM10 to Android but that's a question of personal taste

Agree with DragonPoo . I have a L640 and it works fine for the price I paid , less then $100 unlocked , lots of apps , dual sim , lag is minimum , almost never hangs . I much prefer WM10 to Android but that's a question of personal taste

I'm a big Windows fan, but I love my $100 Moto G4 Play.

Moto g4 can be had for $160 new these days. Snapdragon 617, 2GB Ram, 16ROM with SDXC, decent camera, runs nougat. Faster in everyday use compared to my 950, gets better battery, camera is no comparison to the lumia though.

The only reason Lumias sold in Europe was because they were Nokias. Nothing else.

This is very interesting. It's reassuring.

I agree it is, I just I hope they pick up the pace with more hirings...

I couldn't agree more with you on that. Hopefully this equals to doing things better.

MS is hiring two new employees for windows mobile because that one developer was lonely :D

LOL

legendary comment!!! hahaha. made my day.

Crazy article title, excellent comment Lpneo.   I about spit out my ceral. :)   I will note that they are changing the name of "Build" as everything is always delay till the next Build... so the went ahead and changed the name to "Next Build".

Three managers bossing poor developer around, just the solution he/she was waiting for ;)

Hahahahahaha!!!!
Best comment ever :)

Maybe they'll get around to fixing the gps/navigation issue. Or not. I'm about fed up. This is a basic function for phones today and I can't rely on it. It's unacceptable

Finally the one guy left working on W10M will get some much needed help :D. In all seriousness though, this is good. It gives a reassuring message to the people still using W10M that are losing faith in the platform, which I'd imagine is a lot of people.

What's the point? That supposedly mobile and productivity focused update has become a creators update. May be good for long term but nothing in short term is just killing it.

"Windwos Mobile" does not necessarily mean (only) the "Windows 10 Mobile" OS we currently know.

But mobile is definitely part of mobile.

Right, it probably means working on iOS & android offerings.

When is #Build2017?

http://build.microsoft.com/

How's your Idol 4s going?

10-12 May

Makes me wonder, "How long has Mobile been without Program Management"!!??

Oh it was being taken care of by the Janitor till now.

All I saw now was Janitor from Scrubs when we posed as Doctor!

Since about 2013 I'd guess.

Call me crazy, but I still think that Windows will be at like 30% on the phone market in a few years. Obviously, this "few" isn't 1 or 2 years, I'm talking about a 3 to 5 years prospective. I think, that in 2020 or 2022, it will be like 60% android, 30% Windows and 10% iOS. But only time can tell.

"Call me crazy, but I still think that Windows will be at like 30% on the phone market in a few years." This is what we said in 2011.

I used android in 2011 😁 Switched in October 2015, because I had enough of it. So I don't know what you said in 2011 😂 But I still believe in this.

Yes, you are crazy!  Most of us would love to see just 3% again!

Aim at the moon, and the worst that can happen to you is landing between the starts 😉

I think Microsoft is currently between the "starts"

Oh, did I screw up the spelling? Sorry, I didn't notice that 😁

Its actually quite a true statement...Use windows moible/phone and you will always land between STARTS!

Unless Microsoft can bring something revolutionary that no one has ever seen before, they won't even bother trying. Microsoft is too hung up on Windows to get it done though.

Not sure about crazy, but most definitely hilarious.   (Sounds like someone from 2010-12)   Its really been over since about 2006 when Ballmer was unable to see the market was in the beginning phrase of a shift... its over.  "It's dead, Jim" - Bones from Star Trek  

In fairness other phones existed before the first iphone, it was a fancy cloud connected calculator... with zero apps. Windows Mobile back then had various OEMs, it was running on PDAs and other handled devices. You could really tinker with it and load custom .cab files it was way more open than android. You just need to look at the xda roms that were cooked up back then. So Ballmer didn't "fail" per say infact he was hesitant and understandably so... would you risk antagonising a large revenue stream for something that may or may not take off. We all know the "history" but many do not know the actual story and presume to know because they read some article somewhere lol.  

Ballmer was correct in that people were probably not willing to buy a $600 phone, what he was wrong about is not forseeing the carriers would sub the cost of the phones.   He failed to recongize a major shift in the industry and in turn doomed Windows presence in the mobile market.   Its not a huge knock on him because I actually agreed with him... the problem is not forseeing the sub by the carriers.   But its all over now... as you said its history... the shift was completed a long time ago.   Unless Apple/Google mess up or another shift of the market... its over. My guess... MS will have a hard time holding onto a 1% market share by the end of the year.   There is no reason for developers and companies to even consider it as a platform... but that is kind of history... its been over for a long time.

They are well before 1% already. Currently they are at .3% and dropping.

Quarterly sales, yes. As expected. You're not offering any insight. When you have nothing to sell...nothjng sells.

If quarterly sales are bad, which they have always been for Windows phones, then usage numbers are also going to be bad. You don't seem to understand. People need to buy the devices before they can use them. Not many people have ever bought Windows phones so not many people are going to be using them when compared to the competition. The math isn't that hard. If you maxed out at 3% of quarterly sales, then your usage % can't be any higher. For example, if you sell 3 phones every quarter and I sell 97, after 2 years if you assume life span is the same for each device, when you add up numbers your usage is still only going to be 3% because I have also been selling phones. You seem to think you can add those sales up each quarter and the percentage somehow stacks. When you have been at 1% or less for over a year, then your usage stats are going to also drop significantly. You can't actually post usage stats because Microsoft doesn't disclose them because they are embarrassing. All we have to go off are quarterly sales. Quarterly sales are terrible and always have been, so usage is also going to be terrible.

@MakoDaniels. Actually Apple and Google have missed the next shift. Too many operating systems. Sure there are real world merits for this but with advent of connected devices, one single operating system is key. But that also makes it the biggest target. Because there are no redundancies if it becomes compromised. Which is why security must be at it's core. However Microsoft clearly knows that, otherwise the military wouldn't be picking up W10 tablets lol.

I agree there are probably too many operating system, Windows Mobile whether 7,8, and 10 have been selected by the market for elimination, kind of like the dinosaurs.   What does the military have to do with anything?  DOD has millions of Windows machines... very few of them are mobile devices.   The primary mobile devices for government for mobile will continue to be iOS/Android.   Obviously if you need to run naive Win32 those are not really an option.   Interesting, I have been looking for a replacement for my 8 inch Dell Venue Pro... well almost none on the market now in the 8 inch space but most of them are cheap quality builds.. .most of the major third parties have really stopped/slowed with Windows tablets. @bleached I didn't hear it was that low, saw about 1% market share at the end of last year... either way.... dead and buried platform... which is what I think you are suggesting.

@Mako Daniels, you need to look beyond what you se