Flashback: a decade of Microsoft's failed attempts to conquer the phone market

24 July 2022
The Kin phones were an odd experiment, but Windows Phone 7 was supposed to capture the phone market the same way that Window had the PC market.

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  • ?
  • Anonymous
  • IJK
  • 24 Jul 2022

It was always to limited and every couple years they would bring an update that 80% of devices were "not" compatible with.

And their famboys were horrible.
Plus the jerks killed off what was left of nokia

The potential was there but the management and development was horrendous.

    • A
    • Ali2020
    • 2IG
    • 24 Jul 2022

    sq2013, 24 Jul 2022Apple innovation? Is innovation being the first to introduc... moreAll of that is bad but the worst thing apple do is to limit what apps can be installed and not letting companies to make transaction within the app (Spotify, fortnight) .

      • ?
      • Anonymous
      • KAS
      • 24 Jul 2022

      Anonymous, 24 Jul 2022Except 950, the rest were crap like samsung low midranges. Owned several Nokia phones back in the day. They were the best phones at any price point. Had their S40 Java phones, Symbian phone, Android phone (the X series) and finally their windows one (lumia 520) and all of them performed very well until they decided to discontinue all of it. I suppose you don't know any real history about Nokia

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        • AKI
        • mGt
        • 24 Jul 2022

        I like windows phone very much and used lumia 625 for a long time. The innovation and windows style is still not matched by andriod and ios to date. Wish microsoft should do their best to develop a window app store.

          YUKI93, 24 Jul 2022I still remembered the time when the Lumia 520 even outsold... moreLumia 520 had krait and cost just around $130. For comparison its like today someone anounced low end device with sd 7G1 with same Big core (cortex A710) as sd8G1. It could even run Gta san Andrea at full speed (Genshini impact of that time) thats why it sold a lot.

            • ?
            • Anonymous
            • pI@
            • 24 Jul 2022

            Kangal, 24 Jul 2022We're living in the darkest timeline. Basically a mon... moreThere is no monopoly with IOS on high end. Android have also high end and doing well in there with 100 different brands. IOS is just one exclusive operation system for one exclusive brand with what you cant compare with anything.

            Apple is totally it's own thing and you cant compare it with Android. Both are two totally different things. It's like comparing car with a bus. All these people compare chip power of Apple Bionic with Snapdragon flagship. It's not possible to compare when they run on different operation system. Especially as Apple chips are designed specifically to run one set of specific hardware for there latest models. While snapdragon is designed to run on android with limitless of different hardware

              sq2013, 24 Jul 2022Apple innovation? Is innovation being the first to introduc... moreThey do have few like LTPO display, but they contribute so little compare to their size and revenue. Most of time they leech others innovations.

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                • Sean
                • puH
                • 24 Jul 2022

                Wish it would come back and take a bite off the OS market.
                Really tired of Android and iOS being the only major operating systems.

                  GSM Arena with perfect timing with this flashback. All weekend, I've been seriously considering getting a Surface Duo 1 or 2. I think the dual display with reversible hinge seems more practical to me than the Fold series. Owned iPads before and tablets aren't my thing and never will be.

                  I like the Duo 1 more in terms of costs and form factor. I really hate that camera hump of the Duo 2. But the Duo 2 has all the internal upgrades like a Snapdragon 888 over 855. That SoC will handle PS2 and GameCube emulation much smoother than any Snapdragon below 888.

                  A Surface Duo is more interesting to me than a Nothing phone (1). The Snapdragon 778+ is only on par to a 855. And you can get a Duo 1 cheaper than a Nothing phone (1). I like weird, niche devices. Duo is a weird, niche device but a more practical one than a Nothing phone and LG Wing stuck on a Snap765G.

                    • ?
                    • Anonymous
                    • CGH
                    • 24 Jul 2022

                    Im amazed they employ CEOs, product managers and so on, pay them money some of us might never see to only produce ridiculous products. Sometimes you just wonder! If they bother to read places like these they would have way better ideas because the users are always complaining or suggesting

                      Hemedans, 24 Jul 2022Nokia Made foundation for Microsoft success, Q3 2013 when M... moreI still remembered the time when the Lumia 520 even outsold the iPhone. Really miss those days a lot.

                        vrvly, 24 Jul 2022It feels more like they chose not to, as 950/XL was great a... moreThere are even rumours about the 950/950 XL having Surface Pen stylus support, so that explains why Microsoft want to place the 950/950 XL as a business-grade device. When both phones were officially launched in my country, it was only initially available under the SME Business telco plan.

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                          • Swaraj
                          • DkB
                          • 24 Jul 2022

                          Scram, 24 Jul 2022There was no stopping the Chinese juggernaut. China was ... moreIncredibly well said . But the Chinese only made cheap hardware. They alone could never defeat Microsoft . Microsoft had both software and hardware . Microsoft could stop making budget phones altogether .. And make excellent flagship phones . It was Google , helping the Chinese and bullying Microsoft by pulling their apps away from windows Phone , inspiring developers to not make apps for windows phones .

                            Bodygard, 24 Jul 2022I always said that microsoft was gonna fail vs android and ... moreI don't see anything wrong with having more options. Not everyone only wants to see the Android-iOS duopoly ever exist. However, I do believe that corporate mismanagement kills Windows Phone. Now that we have Windows on ARM, we should have no problem seeing a new Lumia lineup with modern SoC and Windows 11 ARM.

                              Aadrian, 24 Jul 2022My Lumia phones where the best smartphones I've ever u... moreCouldn't agree more. The only reason I was forced to go back to Android is because of WhatsApp, which the majority of my friends and family are using. I myself much prefer to use Telegram and it still works fine to this day.

                                Never used Windows Phone 7 or 8 before, so I won't comment on either of them. However, I did start using both Windows Phone 8.1 and Windows 10 Mobile when I made the decision to leave Android in July 2016. To this day, I'm still impressed with the overall memory efficiency, especially on low-end devices. Nowadays, I'm rocking a Lumia 950 as my daily driver that I bought back in August 2020.

                                P.S I did own the bigger Lumia 950 XL back in October 2018, but it needs a camera module and screen replacement.

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                                  • Swaraj
                                  • DkB
                                  • 24 Jul 2022

                                  Anonymous, 24 Jul 2022Except 950, the rest were crap like samsung low midranges. Crap ? Are you sure? My 50 dollar lumia 435 lasted from 2015 to 2021. They were not fastest but the os was way ahead of the CPUs of the time . Windows Phone ram management was great , Their battery had the finest lithium , their cameras had state of the art algorithms . Windows Phone was killed by Google's anti competitive practice, and by their ego ofc . Google even killed nexus , their only creative approach . Now they are just pseudo apple. Inventing ways to control people and make money is their only invention

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                                    • Scram
                                    • ps8
                                    • 24 Jul 2022

                                    Kangal, 24 Jul 2022We're living in the darkest timeline. Basically a mon... moreThere was no stopping the Chinese juggernaut.

                                    China was inevitable. The Chinese popularized the concept of "good enough", when the prevailing philosophy in the industry at the time was "excellence".

                                    Considering the vast majority of the planet's population at the time was in developing countries, primacy of the Chinese approach was set in stone.

                                      • s
                                      • sq2013
                                      • smP
                                      • 24 Jul 2022

                                      Kangal, 24 Jul 2022We're living in the darkest timeline. Basically a mon... moreApple innovation? Is innovation being the first to introduce a completely integrated battery, the first to remove the SD card slot, the first to remove the headphone jack, the first to charge for cloud storage, the last to move to OLED screens, the last to move to variable screen refresh rates, the only OEM to never introduce a mechanical pop up camera, the only OEM not to launch a foldable and the last OEM to adopt the standardized USB type c charging standard (and only because EU law is forcing this), and the only OEM who has does not allow Bluetooth file transfer? Can you please give me some examples of innovation through apple because I'm really struggling to find them.

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                                        • Scram
                                        • ps8
                                        • 24 Jul 2022

                                        The Flip, 24 Jul 2022I've been into phones since 2004 thanks to websites li... moreClasses of 2011 and 2013 were unreal. The excitement was palpable.

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