Does Anyone Else Think Now Is A Better Time For Microsoft To Come Back To Mobile?

[Pulagatha]

Does anyone else think that Microsoft is in a much better position to come back to mobile now than they used to be? There's PWAs, THE WINDOWS 8 DEBACLE IS OVER, there would be some form of XBox integration, they would have some form of Office for mobile, and they have the Microsoft Store (that is a lot better than when it was first implemented) that people can buy devices from? It really feels like the ecosystem is missing this one piece.

They have around 700 million devices running Windows 10 as a desktop operating system and no one is going to take over that market. It's not going anywhere.

[devn00b]

...no... because they would find a way to shoot themselves in one of their feet...

 

That's what they always do with mobile.

 

And I'm someone who would really like a decent MS phone and app availability.

[protocol7]

Nope. Anybody who still had confidence in them has long lost it.

[+InsaneNutter MVC]

If anything Microsoft are in a far worse position now compared to when they had some presence in the mobile market, any credibility they built up has been lost.

 

Microsoft lacked developer support when they had some meaningful mobile market share, I can't see many of today's popular apps been ported over if Microsoft were to enter the mobile market again, which would be a deal breaker for a lot of people i'm sure. You only need to look at the Microsoft Store on Windows 10 at the moment, the quality of stuff on there is not exactly great beyond a few AAA Xbox games

 

Android now runs great on low end mobile devices costing between £100-150 (Mi A1 & A2, Moto G for example), historically Windows did perform great on lower end mobile hardware, so that could have been an advantage at one point.

 

Xbox / Office isn't really a unique selling point for Windows Mobile as the experience for both is very good on Android and iOS.

 

Microsoft would have to do something better than what Apple or Google are doing at this point to have any chance in the mobile market. Windows Continuum looks really good in my opinion, I love the idea of been able to dock my phone and having a fully functional Windows OS. Realistically it's not something i'm ever going to use though, however it could be a unique selling point from a business point of view.

 

Personally I think Microsoft should keep doing what their doing well at. Windows on the desktop, Xbox, Azure, Office 365 and so on.

[Mindovermaster Moderator]

No, but I would like to see Ubuntu phones again...

[fusi0n]

No. The phone space is to crowded as it is. You have your two major players, Samsung and Apple that have the market down. Then you other smaller highly successful brands such as LG and HTC. Also, don't forget the Google Pixel that seems to be getting more and more popular. 

 

MS can try to do two things if it comes back into the Mobile Phone Space,

 

1. A True computer\laptop phone. One that can run "real" apps. Connect to a USB-C dock and you have everything. I could see these people really popular with people that have to travel for work and only need to do Office365\research\presenting

2. Make a fork of Android and try to take it away from Google. 

 

I don't see it happening as much as Microsoft is going to try to sell you 1000's of services to go along with that phone. They would sell you some botched up version of a laptop hybrid that uses Azure for app-v. This will be to much work for the targeted audience and would require constant internet connection. 

 

The smart phone space isn't going to disrupted by another smart phone, it will be disrupted with what replaces the smart phone, which replaced the "phone". 

[Bryan R.]

I am still rocking my Lumia 950. In my view, the lack of apps is a blessing both for security and sanity I would like them to support the platform again, keeping things like Edge updated is all they really need to do.

[Raa]

Not a chance, sorry. They had a golden opportunity and squandered it.

[zhangm Supervisor]

31 minutes ago, Bryan R. said:

I am still rocking my Lumia 950. In my view, the lack of apps is a blessing both for security and sanity I would like them to support the platform again, keeping things like Edge updated is all they really need to do.

I'm also sticking with my 950. I guess from a device, what I need is the ability to send/receive texts, a web browser, GPS, and the ability to make a wifi hot spot, so it works.

 

As for finding success, I think they burned all their support with 7 to 8, and then 8 to 10. I think with 10 they could have carved out an operating space similar to Bing vs Google, but they just quit instead. Hardware was good, but they never managed to hit a point where I could point at the specs and say, "Hey, this is a pretty good deal."

[helpifIcan]

Would love to see them return BUT probably an exercise in futility.