The well-known software giant from Silicon Valley, Microsoft has stopped support for its Windows Phone 8.1 effective from July 11, 2017. Microsoft launched Windows phones six years ago with Windows Phone 7 handsets and provided a third alternative mobile ecosystem to the world. Now, with the
end of support, it can be concluded that the company has faced a huge failure in this endeavour.
As per a
report published by AdDuplex, around 80% of Windows Phone devices are running either on Windows 7, or on Windows 8 and Windows 8.1. That leaves merely 20% handsets running on the latest Windows 10 mobile operating system, the devices eligible for official support.
Source: AdDuplex.com
The Windows 8.1 update was launched on April 14, 2014 and it all seemed very promising because of the inclusion of Cortana, impressive UI changes, and significant updates in core OS. But, these were the last major efforts made by Microsoft. As the sale of the Windows Phone devices decreased every year, the company started loose interest in this domain. This is why, company stopped manufacturing its legacy Lumia Handsets, and we did not see any feature updates in Windows 10 Mobile Creators Update.
Also, the company has not included the mobile version of Windows 10 Fall Creators Update in testing. However, there are rumors that the company is planning to bring a new Surface Phone in the market, and will maintain the Windows 10 mobile OS until support ends which is due in 2018.
What we see is that the company is now more focused on omni-platform and omni-device cloud-powered services, and helping Android and iOS platforms offer better featurs to the users. Still, it will be interesting to see if Microsoft leaves the battle ground of mobile platforms or comes up with a new warrior (Surface Phone). But today, it is time to bid goodbye to the Windows 8.1 phones.
RIP Windows Phone !!!