The end of Windows 10 Mobile: the facts
Microsoft plans to end support for Windows 10 Mobile on December 10, 2019. The company revealed plans to end support for the mobile operating system on a support page on the company's website.
Support may end earlier than that for certain handsets running Windows 10 Mobile. All mobile devices upgraded to Windows 10 Mobile version 1709 will receive updates until the end of support day. Mobiles that run Windows 10 Mobile version 1703 on the other hand won't receive updates after June 11, 2019 anymore.
End of support does not mean that customers can't use their devices anymore; this will still be possible. The devices won't receive security updates or other updates after support end though.
Your Windows 10 Mobile device should continue to work after December 10, 2019, but there will be no updates after that date (including security updates) and device backup functionality and other backend services will be phased out
Third-party support and paid support may provide ongoing support according to Microsoft.
Microsoft suggests that customers switch to devices running the Android or iOS operating systems (and use Microsoft apps on these devices).
With the Windows 10 Mobile OS end of support, we recommend that customers move to a supported Android or iOS device. Microsoft’s mission statement to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more, compels us to support our Mobile apps on those platforms and devices.
Windows 10 Mobile end of support facts:
- Windows 10 Mobile 1703 support ends on June 11, 2019.
- Windows 10 Mobile 1709 support ends on December 10, 2019
- Creation of new device backups continues to work until March 10, 2020.
- The Windows Device Recovery tool will remain available to provide recovery images for Windows 10 Mobile devices. Microsoft did not reveal when it plans to end support for the tool.
- Photo upload and device backup restoration services will work for 12 months after end of support (up to June 11, 2020 or December 10, 2020 depending on the Windows 10 Mobile version).
- The App Store may continue to work after end of support.
- Windows Update still supports updates for Windows 10 Mobile devices. Microsoft states that it has no plans to "remove historical Windows 10 Mobile updates from Windows Update".
Customers who plan to run devices with Windows 10 Mobile after support end are encouraged to craete manual backups; this is done under Settings > Update & Security > Backup > More Options > Back up now.
Closing Words
Microsoft never managed to get a strong foothold in the mobile market. The purchase of Nokia did not change much in that regard (other than putting the final nail in Nokia's coffin).
The end of Windows 10 Mobile and the focus on producing applications for Android and iOS devices marks an end of an era of failed attempts to create a major mobile operating system.
Now You: What went wrong, in your opinion? (via Deskmodder)
Zero F’s were given.
Unpopular opinion, but W10M was far, far superior to Android and iOS. There, I said it. It’s not even close. W10M was more stable and much faster even on cheaper hardware.
Agreed. W10 Phone and Mobile was an OS so full of promise such as I hadn’t seen in many years. I was a big fan from the first moment, but MS bungled it up so spectacularly that nothing could have saved it from oblivion. RIP.
compared to android 2.1? sure.
to modern mobile OSes? nah
No. Most users hated the Metro Tiles UI in WindowsPhone 7/8 and Win 8/10, and M$.
Agreed. The 950 I have used for some years has more features than new phones today. I cannot find a new replacement Android phone that has all the same features. There may be some in the Apple range, but I don’t even want to bother going there. W10M is great but was slow off the mark and never caught up
@Anonymous: “Unpopular opinion, but W10M was far, far superior to Android and iOS.”
That may be (I don’t know, as I’ve never used W10M).
However, the thing that kept me far away from W10M has nothing to do with how good the product is. The real issue is that it came from Microsoft, and I’m very eager to avoid Microsoft products generally due to Microsoft’s behavior.
everything microsoft touches or buys turns to shit, it’s like a shitty version of king midas.
A negative Midas touch, everything they touch turns to shit – indeed yes
Just that Android and Apple had too big a grip on the phone market. Too little, too late by MS who thought they could see another cash cow.
I think there were a couple major, avoidable blunders that sank Windows Mobile. One was a lack of a clear differentiation of it from Windows desktop. They were in reality very different beasts and should have branded as such. Also, there was no real effort to sign up carriers and get apps ported. They assumed ‘Windows’ as brand would make everyone drool when many detest the brand and MS’ mismanagement of it.
For example a Windows phone was not an available phone option offered by my carrier plus many of the apps I use were not available (or never were). And I am not sure if there were equivalent apps available on a Windows phone. So, it made no sense for many like me to even consider a Windows phone when they may have trouble using with their carrier and may not even have enough decent apps to make it reasonably functional beyond a basic phone.
Maybe a way too expensive product who came on a moment that the economy (around 2013) was cold that bundled with too many negative Microsoft information on that moment about forced updates to Windows 10.
And also I think a big part played into the equation that the Windows 10 system updates do not add anything really important luxury (Or security) wise or any really handy new feature to the system and maybe the most important part I think was that the updates still are doing more harm to the system than good.
And do not forget the enormity of the Android ( Read google) o.s. already back around 2013 and Google there absolute stepping over anybody else dead body mentality to stay the only king/(Evil)empire in the multiverse.
What do you mean by too expensive? Most W10M phones were actually very good bang for your buck. And there were some dirt cheap ones.
The phones were quite expensive. It was not until late in the game that Microsoft decided to make cheaper Windows phones, but at that time it was already too late
Did it ever really get support?
So on the desktop builds of Windows 10, does Microsoft now decide to drop the UWP application design/interface, thereby sticking with the Explorer based interface? Or have they gone too far into that direction to concede defeat?
Meh!
I thought it said “The end of Windows 10”
lol
“What went wrong, in your opinion?”
TBH I don’t care about how wrong M$ is at all, so I digged things related to *Firefox OS* in ghacks, and finally got an interesting article with serveral interesting comments dropped by @Martin xd:
https://www.ghacks.net/2014/07/02/slow-withdrawal-things-google/
So many years passed, the Dominance has been even becoming more and more concentrated and consolidated.
Too big too fail huh? Just sigh…
What went wrong is MS trying to shift its user-base to a closed, tightly controlled platform, ala ios and android. Windows RT was obvious in that regard and was an epic, well deserved fail.
Windows Phone was merely the rebranded same thing, with SIM card support and a phone app.
Had MS had the guts to offer a true windows phone (meaning x86), without bothering us with the UWP crap, many would have jumped in, starting with me. But then we’d have to deal with Intel, which is even worse, though less obvious.
Let’s dream: a linux phone on x86 without either Intel/AMD backdoor. nah.
@archie:
So you mean a full “desktop” phone? Wouldn’t that be just as dumb as having UWP on a desktop? For phones and tablets, Metro works.
@archie: “Let’s dream: a linux phone on x86 without either Intel/AMD backdoor. nah”
It’s not running on x86 (because I prefer a different processor type for this sort of device), but I’m about halfway done building my own smartphone that runs ordinary Linux. It’s a very large project, but honestly, it’s the only way out — my current phone probably has a year or two of life left in it, and there’s literally nothing on the market that works for me.
So the only way forward is to DIY it.
I thought it was dead since there’s almost nothing mentioned today.
One would think MS would at least offer a conventional interface option for windows instead of continuing to use that silly touchscreen phone/tablet tile interface which put PC’s and laptops at the back of the line. IE had horrible font rendering on computers for so long so it would read well on phones.
As long as the common design features plopped onto all users with Win 8 remain, Win 10 Mobile and RT live on.
I guess MS cares little about what made them MS.
“Microsoft never managed to get a strong foothold in the mobile market. ”
Because they’ve made a habit since before the days of smart phones of getting in, making an OS, seeing it isn’t perfect and then dropping it and all its users flat. People stopped taking them serious or believing that anything you buy as a mobile version from MS will actually be around in 1-2 years anywhere other than the clearance bin.
“Microsoft never managed to get a strong foothold in the mobile market.”
Because they’ve made a habit since before the days of smart phones of getting in, making an OS, seeing it isn’t perfect and then dropping it and all its users flat. People stopped taking them serious or believing that anything you buy as a mobile version from MS will actually be around in 1-2 years anywhere other than the clearance bin.
Its too bad that they’ve always lacked the staying power. They’ve had some neat stuff.
This proves that M$ Windows will die when there is a viable mass market competitor like Google Android. Apple is only concentrated in the 5% luxury high end market.
.
At the moment, there is no viable mass market competitor to Windows desktop. If Google had long ago acquired Ubuntu/Canonical Inc, Windows desktop would have already died as well. Google’s web-based desktop Chrome OS does not cut it as a viable mass market competitor.
Since the last Windows 10 Mobile update on Jan 9th, most of my non-Microsoft apps are not working. When I tap on an app I get the message “__can’t be opened. An app update may be available in the Store”. I also don’t see these apps in my backup list, so I’m hoping I haven’t lost data. Anyone else have this issue?
Very simple: Android and Apple lovers have managed to kill an excellent phone just by making a hate campaign.
These haters are represented in many of the comments I see on most technical blogs I visit. I have nothing to do with Microsoft, but Windows Phone is a great device, I have one and I will use it until the last minute.
MS killed itself with incompetent program management by fools in suits. They continually trashed their own developers and decided Consumers are too difficult to farm for cash.
Very simple. Nobody cares about a mobile OS with no popular apps. Only Windows fanboys. Even Microsoft’s propaganda couldn’t save it.
I had been a satisfied Windows Phone user for a long time. The app-gap initially was no big problem for me, because 99.9% of apps are worthless anyway. But when essential apps (banking) etc. stopped updating and supporting WP I was forced to move on. In the meantime I switched to Android. Android is okay, but I still have some annoying issues, like with bluetooth playback that continues on my phone after I turn off my car stereo etc..On my Windows Phone playback started and stopped automatically and I never was able to configure my Android phone to behave the same.
I still have my old Lumia 1020 with camera grip for photos. It is still superior to the photos from my current phone.
RIP WP
Pretty much MS had a huge lead in mobile, then fiddled and diddled around by continually changing the development environment at a time they as almost NO useful apps, then threw in the towel when they found it easier to go Full Corporate rather than keep even a toe in the Consumer phone market.
These are the same fools who have lost the web browser market, market Surface devices with continual issues, and have left a trail of abandoned corner office ‘initiatives’ over the last couple decades.
They also have turned Windows into a hated ‘service’ with chaotic updates that continually screw over the Consumer, who can’t block them, as opposed to Business, which can afford Pro, which can block them.
If there were a viable option to Windows, there’d be only the MS cloud, just like IBM has disappeared, no Linux drivel, please.
This is fully poor/incompetent business management, fostered by the death grip MS has on the PC OS system, a deathgrip that needs to have some Congressional investigation if only as punishment. Facebook is merely optional, but you almost can’t work without Windows.
I’ve lost count of how many things Miscrosoft have discontinued over the decades.
In late 90s the have the awesome MS Gaming Zone – what today’s equivalente is Steam. Such a good product was discontinued.
Miscrosoft is good at 3 branches:
1. Windows PC
2. Office Suite
3. Games (not sure anymore)
Out of those 3 branches Miscrosoft is a disaster: Bing, OneDrive, mobile, …
We want to back Windows 10 mobile!📱Â
We need your help. 😮Â
Let’s go sign the petition for Microsoft.
(link: https://www.change.org/p/together-for-keeping-and-victory-windows-10-mobile?recruiter=900140418&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink&utm_campaign=share_petition)
Please send and share this petition with others!
Hi all :-)
Here we go again!, If any of you have read any of my previous comments, on this corporation of used car salesmen, spawned from perdition’s flames, you will have arrived at the conclusion that Ms$, do not give a shit about their end of license users, nor do they care about their users experience.
In a nutshell, if the product has only a minor uptake, it is dropped like a red hot brick, this should tell you everything you want to know about this corporation, any existing users can go to hell! Ms$hit has no interest in technology at all!, the ONLY interest is in making as much money as possible. If this coagulated shit pit of a corporation were not in technology, they would be in some other area of business, AS LONG AS they were making piles of cash!. That is all that matters to them!.
If this insatiable greed for money is so great, I would suggest that Ms$hit, should adopt a modicum of honesty and pioneer two new investment markets based on Hypocrisy and Lies, they would make a killing over night, and in the process leave us poor sods alone, to get on with our lives, without having to tolerate their perennial fascistic interference!.
What a thought, a bunch of Arthur Daileys managing “The International Hypocrisy and Lies Exchange” … sounds perfect for them, but at least it lends a certain degree of honesty!.
Thanks for your attention
Peter Newton [London UK]
Windows 10 for Phones is dead but people are forced to use the same OS for the PC… congratulations Microsoft, really well done.