This is why Microsoft keeps 'starting over' with Windows Phone

Over the weekend, an article appeared on Digital Trends entitled "Microsoft needs to cease starting over with Windows Phone". The commentary in question put along the idea that Microsoft is rebooting Windows Phone a tertiary time with Windows 10 in 2022 and that this is an issue. The odd reasons cited for this existence a trouble span from the OS beingness inconsistent to "driving app developers and users crazy".

The Digital Trends commodity is flawed in many ways, simply I believe this is, one time again, a perception issue that is probably not uncommon in tech media, particularly ones that do non live and breathe Microsoft news. For that reason, I would like to articulate a more accurate position on the changes Microsoft has gone through in the last few years.

Windows Telephone – Photon versus Windows Phone 7

Dorsum in 2022, Microsoft did reboot Windows Phone vi.5 to Windows Phone seven. This shift remains one of the largest breaks in terms of overall OS design and app implementation in the history of Windows Mobile. Even the naming convention was in flux at this fourth dimension, as Microsoft was using Windows Mobile and Windows Phone interchangeably during the 6 and 6.v years.

The culling for Microsoft was 'Photon', the adjacent iteration of Windows Phone 6.5 that would take likely gone to the 7.x marker. Photon was a continuation of the design philosophy of Windows Mobile, with new improvements and a legacy of development issues (references for it go back to 2005). Not too much is known about Photon, although information technology was revealed in its early form under NDA to various people in the press.

This is the short of it. Microsoft faced two paths: Go the rubber road with 'Photon' or ditch everything and get with Windows Phone 7. They daringly chose the latter, nuking all of their previous Windows Mobile efforts.

Windows Phone 7 as we now know it borrowed heavily from the Zune Hd menu system, which itself grew out of Windows Media Center. This text-driven and minimalist design philosophy would eventually take over many of Microsoft's products, including Windows itself. At the time, it was referred to every bit Metro, though due to a trademark claim, about people just call it Modern.

The point being: If at that place were a fourth dimension where you could point your finger at Microsoft for a radical change in the OS, it would be a shift from Windows Mobile 6.five.3 to Windows Phone 7. However, due to the success of the iPhone, the ascent of Android, and the disability for Windows Mobile to hold market share, a fundamental divergence was needed for Microsoft.

Equally far as I know, this determination is uncontroversial and in retrospect considered to be the right one given Microsoft's management at the time.

Windows Phone vii to Windows Phone viii – The ascension of the NT kernel

Another shift came when Microsoft introduced Windows Phone viii in June 2022. The change here though was more virtually the underlying $.25 of the Os, referred to equally the kernel. Going all the way back to Pocket PC 2000 through Windows Mobile and Windows Phone 7, the kernel driving the Bone was Windows CE (now known as Windows Embedded Compact). Windows CE was the foundation that Microsoft could build upon for Windows Mobile Classic, Windows Mobile Standard, and Windows Mobile Professional.

The reason Microsoft swapped the kernel from Windows CE to Windows NT is 2-fold: Windows CE was old, express, and fabricated for another time. Much similar how Skype was not built to be a mobile VOIP or messaging system, Windows CE has some severe limitations limiting its potential for Windows Phone.

The 2nd reason Microsoft shifted from the CE to NT kernel for Windows Phone is more compelling than it just being archaic. Microsoft had already prepare in motility the "three screens and a cloud" vision back in 2022. In guild to get Windows Phone on the same folio equally Windows desktop, they needed to share an underlying support structure, which is the NT kernel. In other words, this shift was purely strategic and preparatory for what nosotros now know as Windows 10.

None of those reasons lucifer with what Sherman claims in his Digital Trends commodity, specifically "Due to Windows Phone vii's limited success, Microsoft essentially started over for its app developers and users akin…" This merits is only simulated. It was purely strategic.

However, this chronology of events does enhance the question: Why did Microsoft not switch to the NT kernel for Windows Phone 7 and instead look ii years? On the face up of it, this does seem similar shortsightedness but the reality is banaler: time. Working on OS kernels and replacing it in the Os is not something that one does overnight. From APIs to extensions, wiping out the foundation of the OS while keeping its façade is intricate work. Back when Windows Telephone vii was taking shape, the CE foundation was the quickest route to market place. Presumably had Microsoft wanted to go right to NT, Windows Phone 7 would have been delayed by a year or ii, ceding even more market and mindshare to Microsoft'due south competitors. Ship now fix afterwards.

Interestingly, for users, the UI experience was nearly identical during this time, regardless of Sherman claiming in his Digital Trends article "Microsoft seems unable to decide what its mobile experience should be like." Any changes in the Os design was to continue evolving the experience, no different than how the iOS pattern has evolved. If at that place is ane affair you can credit Microsoft with it is existence extremely consistent with its Modernistic UI since 2022.

Apps on Windows Phone viii were backwards uniform with Windows Phone 7 versions, though non the other way around. This limitation is mayhap the ane sticking point: if yous had a Windows Phone seven or 7.five phone, you lot are unable to get newer 8.0-only apps. The flipside to this is a bit cruel only accurate: Microsoft's market share was so small, that the ripple effect would be minimal.

In a perfect globe, the transition from Windows Phone vii to Windows Phone 8 would have been more continuous. However, the new programmer tools, flexibility, and potential of Windows Telephone Bone fabricated information technology worth it.

Going to Windows 10 for telephone

Windows 10 is the side by side iteration of Microsoft's operating system, and it spans from PC to tablet to phones. The current upgrade path for Windows Phone 8 users is currently unknown, just modernistic devices should be upgradable. The but reason Windows Phone seven devices could non exist upgraded to Windows Phone 8 back in 2022 is that information technology is an entirely new Bone that needed flashing to the phone (that kernel thing once more). Although technically possible, the risks involved were greater than keeping the electric current Os and updating bits of it.

Windows ten though is a tremendous accomplishment for Microsoft. It represents the kickoff time their operating systems is unified beyond all devices. Everything from the app Store to the programmer tools work across all of these systems, giving consumers one-shared experience.

Why this is not a problem

Bold you concur with Microsoft's philosophy of uniting their operating systems, the path they took to go at that place was likely unavoidable. Much criticism tin can be hurled at Microsoft for their past mobile strategy but given the situation in 2009-2010, Windows Phone seven was the all-time they could exercise.

Is this confusing to customers? I exercise non believe information technology is. Most of the technical gobbledygook outlined here is for those who follow OS evolution. For consumers, Windows Phone 7 looks a lot similar Windows Phone 8.ane and even Windows 10. Certain, the UI has evolved based on how people use their phones but the cadre UI experience is the same equally it was four years ago.

When it comes to apps and compatibility, the upshot has been older devices cannot run newer apps. This limitation, nonetheless, stopped with the Windows Phone seven to 8 transition. The latest estimates put Windows Phone seven at just 15% of users left on the platform, with the remaining 85% on Windows Phone 8 or 8.1. The trouble has never been the newer phones could non run older apps, which would exist more devastating to the app itemize, users and developers.

What about developers? Many changes occurred over the years for developers on Windows Telephone, especially with the eight.0 shift in 2022. Windows 10 also brings more deviations. However, change in and of itself is not automatically a bad thing. Windows 10 makes coding for developers easier with universal apps that can run anywhere.

In the Digital Trends article, Joshua Sherman laments "Unfortunately, Microsoft has washed little in its Windows Store to prove it can finer build apps across such a great scale." The trouble hither is that developers tin can already share up of 80 to 90 percent of their code for Windows Phone 8.i and Windows viii.i apps. Microsoft's goal is to get that to 100 percent with scaling for platforms washed on their back end during app submissions. Microsoft has already congenital a platform to build apps across scale, and it is hither today. Windows ten only takes it farther.

The worst condemnation by Sherman is almost the stop of the article where he notes:

"At worst, Windows smartphone owners will yet again be left behind as developers focus on the far more popular desktop version of the Bone. Along the way Microsoft will certainly anger users and developers looking for a consistent OS experience."

This complaint is completely antonymous to the goals of Windows 10. There is no reason to believe that an app developer will make an app for PCs merely skip over 1 for telephone. The developer tools for Windows ten brand it an choice to spit out an app for Windows Phone with barely whatsoever extra work to get in happen. The only reason a developer would not brand an app for the phone would be out of spite at this point. I exercise not understand the last chip from Sherman near people looking for a consistent OS feel—this is exactly what Windows ten does on all levels. Users of Android or iOS certainly do not have a consistent OS experience when jumping to desktop.

Finally, Sherman finishes with this doozy:

"This move from Windows Phone to Windows ten may merely opposite its efforts to win over developers and users to its mobile OS. We'll have to wait and see what Microsoft announces in the coming weeks to see the true extent of this merger between Windows and Windows Telephone. Whatever happens, Microsoft needs to decide in one case and for all the future of its mobile platform, or it may amerce the few loyal users it still has."

Microsoft decided years ago the time to come of their mobile platform with "3 screens and a cloud". Windows 10 is the realization of that mantra. Switching to the NT kernel in 2022 laid out the background for Windows 10 to happen on the phone. Everything Microsoft is doing is to brand development ridiculously like shooting fish in a barrel on Windows x for phone, PC, tablet, laptop, fifty-fifty Xbox One. This benefit already exists with Windows RT apps for Windows Phone 8.i e.g. the Tweetium app for Twitter. It gets meliorate with Windows x.

I do concede that Microsoft'south strategy needs to be proved in the real world. However, the path leading upward to Windows 10 has been very deliberate starting with Windows Phone 8 in 2022 and its NT kernel base of operations. Microsoft could have certainly been more aggressive in the early days of mobile, perhaps attenuating some of these changes, but it is not clear that these shifts could be completely avoided either. Should Google or Apple decided to go down this path of Os unification, they too will face many challenges merely with greater risks due to larger market share.

Change is never easy, simply Windows 10 represents the culmination of a fascinating philosophy for technology in which users share the same feel across all of their devices, regardless of the medium. How Microsoft executes this strategy in 2022 will be heady to watch, but Windows 10 is non something to scold them over just yet.

Source: https://www.windowscentral.com/why-microsoft-keeps-starting-over-windows-phone

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