Going through my old posts, I noticed a screenshot of Windows Phone. It made me realize that I actually really miss the platform.
This is not financial advice.
Underpowered but buttery smooth
The hardware of the Windows Phones were never really that good. Android phones and iPhones used better SoCs, yet despite that, Windows Phone always had a buttery smooth experience. Certainly better than the Android phones of that era. Part of this is the way it used resources and forced best practices to developers.
One of those things was Tombstoning. A way for apps to save their state when they’re closed by the OS and restoring that state when it is opened again, allowing it to resume seamlessly when the user returns to it. The user will not notice that the app itself was closed, but the phone conserves its resources.
Project my screen
Ironically, Project My Screen was what nudged my memory on Windows Phone. A nice tool to control Windows Phone 8.1 devices from your computer. You could see what was on your phone, either wirelessly or through USB and even control the apps you had on your phone. I had some issues with it way back when, which required me to delete the drivers and reinstall them. A feature that I still really miss on my Android phone.
The app problem
One of the biggest issues with Windows Phone, was obviously the lack of apps. Even though they paid developers to create apps, it sadly was not enough. Google, famously, sabotaged Microsoft where they could. Google refused to work on an YouTube client, so eventually Microsoft made one. Google blocked it because it did not implement ads. The problem here was that there was no way for Microsoft to implement that, because Google never gave them an option to.
“Despite government scrutiny, Google continues to block Microsoft from offering its customers proper access to YouTube. This is an important issue because consumers value YouTube access on their phone: YouTube apps on the Android and Apple platforms were two of the most downloaded mobile applications in 2012, according to recent news reports. Yet Google still refuses to allow Windows Phone users to have the same access to YouTube that Android and Apple customers enjoy. Microsoft has continued to engage with YouTube personnel over the past two years to remedy this problem for consumers. As you might expect, it appears that YouTube itself would like all customers – on Windows Phone as on any other device – to have a great YouTube experience. But just last month we learned from YouTube that senior executives at Google told them not to enable a first-class YouTube experience on Windows Phones.” – Dave Heiner then Vice President & Deputy General Counsel, Microsoft
And even the app that they released shortly, was regularly broken by the changes in Google’s APIs that they didn’t communicate.
When it comes to ads, Howard claimed that Microsoft’s app served Google ads based on metadata made available to the Redmond, Wash. company. Though Microsoft asked Google to provide the same information given to iPhone and Android so it could mirror how ads appear on these platforms, “Google has refused to give this information to us.”
https://www.techradar.com/news/software/applications/microsoft-google-s-reasons-for-blocking-youtube-app-manufactured-1173448
Continuum
And then there was the thing that obviously wasn’t ready for prime time back then. The promise to have someone connect their phone to a monitor, keyboard and mouse and turn the phone into a makeshift PC. When docked, the phone would switch to a tailored desktop-like experience on the external display, while still maintaining its regular functionality on the phone screen. It didn’t get widespread adoption and Microsoft discontinued it.
With programs being compiled for ARM more readily now, and the performance of phones, having desktop apps running off of phones could’ve been a possibility now. Especially with Surface devices running on ARM properly and Apple using ARM for their devices.
It’s a shame
I really liked the platform. I do think it released too late. If it released a couple of years earlier, they might’ve had a much larger market share. Even with the release date they had, I wish they wouldn’t have given up. Something even CEO Satya Nadella says he regrets.
I guess they could still relaunch it. If they offer a superior experience in every way, hey, I might switch. But it’s hard to get people out of their habits. Still, if they do it, I’ll be first in line as a developer.
