{"id":360610,"date":"2017-10-10T06:12:05","date_gmt":"2017-10-10T06:12:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=360610"},"modified":"2017-10-10T06:12:05","modified_gmt":"2017-10-10T06:12:05","slug":"microsoft-gives-up-on-windows-10-mobile","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2017\/10\/microsoft-gives-up-on-windows-10-mobile\/","title":{"rendered":"Microsoft gives up on Windows 10 Mobile"},"content":{"rendered":"
Microsoft appears to have abandoned its smartphone operating system ambitions.<\/p>\n
The company’s Windows 10 chief\u00a0has tweeted that developing\u00a0new features and hardware for the Mobile version of the OS was no longer a “focus”.<\/p>\n
Joe Belfiore added that he had also switched to Android himself.<\/p>\n
Windows 10 Mobile tried to attract users by letting them run the same “universal apps” on both their PCs and handsets, but the concept failed to catch on.<\/p>\n
The OS accounted for just 0.03% of the global market – based on smartphone shipments – between April and June, according to research company IDC.<\/p>\n
The market intelligence provider said the news had been a long time coming.<\/p>\n
“There wasn’t a wide range of devices running Windows 10 Mobile, so it wasn’t attractive to retailers or operators,” said IDC’s Francisco Jeronimo.<\/p>\n
“And from a consumer perspective, the operating system didn’t provide as good an experience as Android or iOS.”<\/p>\n
Mr Belfiore began a series of tweets on Sunday by discussing the recent launch of a test version of Microsoft’s Edge web browser for Android and iOS – the latest in a series of releases of its core software for rival mobile platforms.<\/p>\n
He then went on to respond to questions about whether there was any point sticking with Windows 10 Mobile.<\/p>\n
He said that while Microsoft would support the “many companies” that had adopted the platform, he had switched to Android for the diversity of its apps and hardware.<\/p>\n
“Of course we’ll continue to support the platform… bug fixes, security updates, et cetera,” he said.<\/p>\n
“But building new features or hardware is not the focus.”<\/p>\n
Mr Belfiore posted Microsoft had tried “very hard” to incentivise other companies to release universal apps – even writing their software for them in some cases – but the number of users had been too low for most to bother.<\/p>\n
The announcement comes a week after HP had said it no longer planned to release further Windows 10 Mobile handsets, and a fortnight after Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates disclosed that he had\u00a0already made the switch to Android.<\/p>\n
However, some manufacturers – including the UK’s Wileyfox and Germany’s TrekStor – had unveiled new models powered by Windows 10 Mobile as recently as last month.<\/p>\n