Windows Phone 10 Revealed But Will It Help Microsoft

Windows 10 for phones reveal has progress for Microsoft with Office Touch on Windows Phone

By Stephen Pate – After 2 years of low-level progress, Windows Phone is dying. The phone is not as good as iPhone or Android. You can’t find the high end Windows Phone models in stores and now the Windows 10 update looks lame or non-existent.

Major enhancements for Windows Phone 10 include a touch version of Office, which already exists on iPhone and Android, a newish interface, and integrated apps with tablets and the Windows 10 desktop.

Featured image – Windows 10 Phone (WinBeta photo)

I gave up trying to get a new Windows Phone at retail in Canada since no one carries them. My 2-year-old Lumia 920 is behind the times in phones with its clunky features and slow camera. The Lumia 1520, a competitor to the iPhone 6+, looks like a great phone but is not available.

An interim update called Windows Phone Denim is supposed to fix the slow camera bug but there is not firm date when or even if all Windows Phones will get the update. Microsoft said that “most” Windows 8.1 phones will update to Windows Phone 10.

Despite promises of cloud support for your music library in OneDrive, Windows Phone is a lousy music player compared to iTunes and iTunes Match.

Now Apple is ascendant even taking market share from Samsung in Korea. Meanwhile Microsoft is slipping into some race to the bottom with an endless variety of cheap plasticky phones. I bought my mother a Lumia 635 and can’t believe how cheap it feels.

Microsoft should never have gutted Nokia by firing 18,000 workers after the merger, classic short-term thinking that decimated the product and company. Who did Microsoft think would develop, sell and support the Lumia’s when that many people were turned out into the street?

The result is slow development of the operating system and no flagship phones released in over a year while Samsung ships the new Galaxy phones and Apple wows the market with iPhone 6.

This Wednesday passed Microsoft revealed Windows 10 which looks like a big improvement over Windows 7 and 8. The coolest feature is the new hologram device called Hololens.

When it ships later this year Windows 10 will make up to 1.5 billion Microsoft customers happier.

A day later, Microsoft revealed Windows 10 for phones and frankly it was underwhelming. Not only was there nothing to write home about, the code was merely demonstration software which means they have not developed Windows 10 for phones as much as for computers.

The rumor a month ago was that Microsoft was shipping Windows Phone 8.1 to developers as Windows 10 code for testing. That may be true even today which is disappointing.

None of the demonstration phones shown to Neowin, Winbeta and other computer sites actually worked. Bad sign when the desktop version of Windows 10 has been in early adopters hands for months.

Photo gallery by Neowin.

Windows Phones are available from Amazon.com, the Microsoft Store for Windows Phone and other mobile resellers.

Follow NJN

• Twitter – @sdpate
• Facebook at NJN Network
• OyeTimes and IMA News Buzz
• Add the NJN icon to your desktop
• Subscribe and get new stories by email