Microsoft’s Joe Belfiore confirmed earlier this week that Windows 10 Mobile is pretty much a dead platform, explaining that no new features and hardware are on the radar, and now CEO Satya Nadella comes with more information on why the platform failed.
Speaking at the 2017 GeekWire Summit, Nadella pointed out that what Microsoft wants to do right now is focus on iOS and Android apps to make sure that customers can access their services no matter the platform of choice.
And while Microsoft has often been criticized for bringing certain apps to iOS and Android first and only then to its own platforms, Nadella pointed to Office as the living proof that new products don’t necessarily have to be Windows-first to become successful. The Office productivity suite was first launched on Mac OS X and only then on Windows.
As for the reasons Microsoft is giving up on mobile hardware, the CEO admits that the current share of the platform does not allow the firm to continue investments in this area.
“We absolutely do not have the share to have our smartphone hardware, that’s a real consumer choice. That’s the reality of it. The reality is that we cannot compete as a third ecosystem with no share position and attract developers. The thing we’re doing is to make sure that the software is available so that we can service the enterprise customers who really don’t care about a lot of the things a consumer will care about,” Nadella explained in the interview.
This means Microsoft will continue to keep Windows 10 Mobile alive only for enterprises, as companies aren’t necessarily interested in the same features as consumers.
But Redmond not investing in hardware means fewer partners building phones and running its software, so sooner or later, the enterprise platform could be dragged down by the lack of devices as well.
HP is one particular example. The company admitted recently that it was working on several new phones running Windows 10 Mobile, but because of Microsoft’s dropping investments in the operating system, it canceled them all, with the Elite X3, which is already on the market, to be discontinued in 2019.
