As if you needed convincing. With market share well under 5%, it’s a safe bet you don’t even see anyone with a Windows Phone in an average day. It’s Apple and Android, Android and Apple all day long. Blackberry has more or less thrown in the towel, too. So, if you’re looking for an alternative, you don’t have a lot of choices.
First off, as for the headline of this article… Digital Trends does a pretty good job of laying out why a Windows Phone isn’t for you, and in fact isn’t for anyone. The fact is that Microsoft’s never been terribly serious about their mobile devices, and it shows. They’re pretty consistently a step behind everyone else.
This was my first Windows Mobile device, about 18 years ago. You can still read a preview of it here, but I’ll give you the basics – it was about the size of half of a brick and pretty much as heavy as one too. Unlike its competitor the Palm Pilot (which surprisingly is about the size of a Galaxy S5) it didn’t do handwriting recognition and it didn’t really have any third-party apps. It acted like a little PC. I used it to take notes in meetings because it was lighter than a laptop.
I proceeded on the Windows Mobile train for about another ten years, when just like everyone else, I decided that Apple did it better. But Windows soldiered on with meaningless upgrade after upgrade. Most upgrades meant that old apps were incompatible, but that was ok since there were so few of them. Windows Phone actually had a moment in the sun about four years ago because its slickly designed OS really made iOS and Android look dated. Those two giants bounced back and the sad thing is that Microsoft hasn’t had a win since.
Today, Windows Phone 10 looks like it’s a fairly good OS. It will run many apps designed for Windows 10 Desktop and if you use a bluetooth keyboard you can basically transform any phone into a full-featured (albeit slow) desktop device. Sounds great, except it still doesn’t have a GMail app or Snapchat. There’s a rumor that you’ll be able to run Android apps on it, which sounds fun, but then again you know what also sounds fun? Running Android apps on your Android phone.
Oh Microsoft… you’ve won so many battles… why did your mobile division lose the war?
