Windows 10 Mobile: Why Windows phones still have potential | Hacker News Reader

Windows 10 Mobile: Why Windows phones still have potential

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2 pointsilmiont7 comments

Disclaimer - I am the author of this article. While Hacker News and W10M aren't necessarily regularly associated, I thought it'd to be interesting to put together some thoughts on how the third mobile platform is faring in 2017. I'm not trying to blatantly self-promote; if you are also still on the W10M bandwagon, why are you still using it? And if you're not - which is probably more likely - what's your perception of W10M today?

I'd advise you to leave the burning platform, Microsoft has pulled nearly all their development talent of Windows 10 Phone, hence why the Lumia 640 still has no wifi calling and desktop messaging integration is still broken. Additionally, the abject lack of new devices shows their commitment to the platform, hell, they are even selling Galaxy S8's in the Microsoft Store now!

It is a burning platform - but it hasn't yet burnt down. Can't speak of 640 and WiFi calling not a concern to me personally, but I do agree that lack of devices is a problem - my biggest request is a compelling device to replace my 1520, because right now I see nothing to justify further investment in the platform. This from a fan who still wants to support, but increasingly feels it's not feasible to do so.

The 640 is one of the upgradable 8.1 devices. The WM 10 native device is the 650.

I've come to the conclusion that Microsoft uses the phone platform primarily for research and development and in order to provide an option that does not send data to their competitors. Similar to Bing -- imagine the business intelligence value to Google of Google search queries originating from Microsoft's block of IP addresses.

Mobile phones are a long play for Microsoft. They are getting close to convergence between platforms (server/cloud/desktop/mobile/embedded) with Windows 10 and .NET Core.

> what's your perception of W10M today?

Some kind of ad financed adware that is ment to run as your desktop and looks like it belongs to a kids nightmare about computers?

I use WP10 because I don't want to be a part of Apple's ecosystem and Google's interests in Android security do not align with mine...it's Windows 95 but Google can (and does) say it is the manufacturer's responsibility.

I also use WP10 because the user interface is not a rehash of the Xerox Alto from 1977. It's really good and has been since WP7. OLED displays are part of it. Live tiles are part of it. A willingness to use text as an interface is part of it.

The lack of apps is not such a big deal for me because, you know, the web. What I miss from Android is having Forth and Ruby and Clojure and J and Python and Octave running on my phone.

Agree - lack of apps is of no concern to me, I have barely anything installed. Big part of reason I'm still here, Start still makes the experience for me too

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