Microsoft's Looking To Reboot Mobile with New Software and Hardware: Sources (thurrott.com) 114
Long time Microsoft watcher Brad Sams, reporting today: Two independent sources inside of Microsoft have told me that there is a new hardware device being tested internally and that there is also a separate branch of Windows Mobile for this device. I have been hearing about the software update for some time and the added hardware component makes sense as the company is pursuing "new experiences" with this device. Additionally, the UI is expected to be different than what we know today as Windows Mobile but the exact changes are still evolving as we are in the early days of development of this experience. There may also be another 'cut' in the support for older applications with the new mobile experience. I have heard, but am not able to fully confirm at this time, that Silverlight applications may not longer work with the updated OS.
Oh great (Score:5, Funny)
Microsoft is copying Hollywood now.
Re:Oh great (Score:4, Funny)
Underling: "We tried sir, three times. (under his breath: we should have kept Windows Mobile, at least people bought it)."
Nadella: "Well make it different this time. Make it in the cloud!"
Underling: "Uh....ok. (under his breath: does that even mean anything?)"
Nadella: "And put some AI in it. Our Taybot was showing good results!"
Underling: "Heil sir!"
Nadella: "What?"
Underling: "Nothing, sir. Should we make it IoT?"
Nadella: "If it has that Intel Inside, nothing can fail"
Underling: "ok........"
Defining cloud (Score:1)
Nadella: "Well make it different this time. Make it in the cloud!"
Underling: "Uh....ok. (under his breath: does that even mean anything?)"
Of course it does. It's described in detail in Mary Branscombe's article [zdnet.com], but let me sum it up: A "cloud" is a large set of identical servers that can be leased programmatically for short durations, such as Azure or AWS.
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It can also mean things like "remote storage" which is what most people think of. "My music is in the cloud"
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The "Cloud" is someone else's computer over there ---->
NAS server farm (Score:2)
A "cloud" is a large set of identical servers that can be leased programmatically for short durations
It can also mean things like "remote storage" which is what most people think of. "My music is in the cloud"
That meets my definition as well, with the servers being network attached storage (NAS) servers.
Re: Defining cloud (Score:1)
Or lets just call it the Internet
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The Internet is a network. The cloud is a server farm on the other side of the network.
Re: Oh great (Score:2)
Crazy that this is Microsoft's 4th iteration of a phone OS. Google and Apple are still on their first.
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Google, is actually on its second, and a third is in production. It bought Android and had a version in development before it did. They have another one in development now.
Re: Oh great (Score:4, Interesting)
Google, is actually on its second, and a third is in production. It bought Android and had a version in development before it did. They have another one in development now.
I figured somebody would say that, and that isn't accurate. An unreleased product isn't a product, it's a prototype. It's perfectly normal for prototypes to go under major revisions before they are released. As for Fuschia, nobody really knows whether that will see the light of day, and if it does, it's more than likely going to retain app compatibility.
When I say iteration in this context, I mean they broke compatibility with existing implementations. And with that in mind, Microsoft is currently on iteration number 4 (windows mobile with PE binaries, windows phone 7 with an early pre-RT framework, windows phone 8 with an incompatible but newer RT framework, and windows phone 10 with the UWP framework) and it sounds like they're about to have iteration 5 soon.
What makes this particularly embarrassing is that they've gone through 3 of these iterations within the last 5 years, whereas iOS is 10 years old and Android is 9 years old. That, and the fact that they knew the transition from 7 to 8 was going to break things long before they even released 7, which is a mean thing to do to your own fans.
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Your best argument is the Android / iOS vs Microsoft Phone iterations during the last 10 years.
I know a guy, swore by Windows Phone, up and until the day that he couldn't get a replacement. He went with iPhone after that, and still complains. Won't use Android, for whatever reason.
My smart devices were, Palm III, Blackberry, Android. Back in the day of the Palm Pilot, I wished a phone had its capability for calendar / contacts / email ... I wish I could go back and invent the thing.
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I really have to wonder what Microsoft is thinking. Sure, it's not like the first or second time they tried to break into mobile really went anywhere, but if they wanted to get into that market they should have just kept with it, continued to support the products they had released, maintained compatibility, and eventually their platform might have taken off or at least carved out a respectable niche. It's not like they don't have the money to sink into something like that.
At this point, whatever they rele
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Stephen Elop (Score:2, Funny)
So, which Company is he going to destroy from the inside next?
Of course Microsoft is looking to reboot (Score:5, Funny)
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Alright, you win the Internet for one hour. Don't drop it!
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Has it been demagnetized by Steven Hawking himself? Is the Hawk ok with this?
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I gave him praise because he taught of that joke before me. :p
There's no rebooting that business (Score:3)
Separate branch (Score:3)
Because...why not, I guess. Isn't that how every other failed "apps on Windows" effort has always begun?
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Or worse, until they actually roll it out, a few million people buy, some dumbass developers actually develop time to it, only to have Microsoft abandon it again. In the meantime we'll have an endless stream of Redmond shills telling us why it's the bestest mobile OS ever, and why you're just a stupid doody-head if you want a mobile platform with apps, and how it's going to totally blow iOS and Android out of the water.
At what point do the investors finally say "Pay us higher dividens, you fucking witless w
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Not to defend MS .... but how is that any different from Google? They are constantly canceling projects left and right, leaving developers (who made the stupid mistake of using their APIs) in the dust.
Re: Can't wait... (Score:3)
Google is trying to create whole new market segments, and if those market segments don't feel like big winners, then they ditch them. Essentially the same concept as the myriad of startups that fail. That, and Google wants to out-facebook Facebook, so they also routinely discard social media projects that are only moderately successful, even if they're quite profitable.
Microsoft is trying to force its way into an already saturated market that is seeing limited growth by throwing shitloads of money at it, an
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There's value in doing it for the wider community, I use iOS and its initial multi-tasking UI was absolute garbage. Windows Phone had a great UI for it and then Apple went and copied it for iOS which is great! I've also never had an Android phone as my primary device but they had the notification center, something iOS lacked that proved very useful for customers so when Apple copied that for iOS too it was of benefit to me and all other iOS users even if we didn't touch Android or Windows Phone.
If they don'
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One of the things they're doing that they tout as innovation, which just makes no sense to me at all, is continuum. Sure, it sounds nice to essentially have a desktop computer in a phone, but honestly, how often would you actually use that? In order to do so, you'd have to carry around a bunch of dock accessories in your pocket on the very, very off chance that you'll actually find a monitor to connect to that doesn't already have a bunch of stuff connected to it that you have to remove before you can use i
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And in fact, I think Continuum is exactly why Microsoft is desperate to get into mobile computing. They are going to l
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But they're already rolling out Office to their competitors' phones. In other words, they're handing the biggest gimmicks they have already. I cannot see any reason to use an MS portable device, and I actually have one (an 8" Windows 10 tablet, which I use maybe once every couple of weeks when my G4 runs out of juice).
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And yet the open source community churns out hundreds of linux distributions to fling at the wall and hope one sticks, every other day yet-another-android-based somethingOS is announced.
Why can't these fucking witless wankers actually work together, work to cure the deep-seeded infection of NIH syndrome that permeates the community and produce something genuinely innovative instead of piles of useless also-rans.
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http://www.microchip.com/wwwpr... [microchip.com]
(I die a little inside when I see the Microchip logo when looking at an Atmel product page)
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A laptop is a "mobile computers" and yet most don't have a touchscreen, GPS, accelerometers...
What you want is a freakin' smartphone. There's already plenty of choices.
let me guess (Score:1)
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And has a shag carpet back for the premium feel.
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Runs something like Windows 10 S Mobile
In other words, it'll be so outdated you'll have to learn Proto-Indo-European [wikipedia.org].
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Come on, that wouldn't be a reboot. What they really need to do is come out with a new improved Kin. [wikipedia.org]
Gotta respect that optimism (Score:5, Funny)
This time, THIS TIME, it'll work.
Optimism is often a stand in for insanity.
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If I were a betting man, I would put money that this gimmick for this new device is that it's optimized for Continuum, Microsoft's version of the "dock your phone and get a desktop computer" idea. It's the only thing I can think of that would lead them to think, "This time, it'll work." Their big advantage is that Windows still has a big market share on the desktop, and they may be able to leverage that fact by marketing a phone that also operates as a full Windows machine. It also makes sense of some re
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Given MS's direction from the past...decade...their problem will be the interface. If they stay true to form, they'll introduce a phone with an interface optimized for a mouse and keyboard then act bewildered when no one wants it ( hello windows 8 ).
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I don't think that's likely to be the problem. With Windows 10, they have an OS that's capable of automatically switching between a phone/tablet touch-optimized UI and a desktop mouse/keyboard UI. I don't love it, but it's passable.
The real problem with MS is that they get greedy. It's not good enough to have the world's most successful OS. It also needs to spy on people, serve advertisements, force people to have an Outlook.com email address, force people to buy all their apps from the Windows App Sto
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No, no, they tried that many years ago with WinCE.
This time, I predict they'll go with an interface optimized for gesture. You haven't read an ebook until you've read an ebook on a device with "shake to scroll"...
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I think they would gain a lot of traction with that kind of dock your phone-get a computer idea, the problem is their finance people hate it because a big chunk of people would decide they don't need a desktop or laptop anymore and all those windows (and some office) licenses would disappear.
Microsoft is really in an existential trap where the actual innovation they could provide that would be valuable would apparently cost them money.
Personally, I don't think that many people would abandon their desktops o
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Yep. i liked my Lumia, good little phone (and cheap, $60 or so from target with no contract) only problem was the plastic contacts for the power and volume buttons got finky after a couple years of use.
Re: I actually liked their last mobile OS (Score:2)
Why on earth would you test websites on a lumia?
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Team it with their dock and replace a bunch of business class computers with it.
A better name wouldn't hurt though...
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Fully agree w/ both your points. Latter one first: they could have called it Metro or something, and left the desktop Windows 8 w/ the same old Windows 7 interface. And introduced Continuum in Windows 10 for touchscreen laptops.
The lack of apps is painful, and not just that, apps that previously existed are slowly disappearing e.g. Fandango. Until recently, there were no VOIP apps, nor any video calling apps (until WhatsApp added that functionality). If one is a Uber or Lyft driver, this platform is o
so... wait... WHAT? (Score:2)
Wasn't Windows Phone supposed to have superseded Windows Mobile? What's next, the return of the resistive touch screen??
Is anyone at the helm at Microsoft?
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They're at the helm, but still reading the release documents on how to steer while trying to avoid agreeing to an overbearing EULA.
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Ok thanks. To reiterate, so I'm sure I understand this, Windows Phone has with version 10 become "Windows 10 Mobile", which is based on the Windows code base, to distinguish from "Windows Mobile" which is based on the Windows CE code base, the last version of which was purported to have been released in 2013.
So, "Windows 10 Mobile", which runs on 32 bit ARM, is a different code base from "Windows Mobile", which also runs on 32 bit ARM.
And after abandoning Windows Mobile (the WinCE-based product) in favor o
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Was Windows CE ever called Windows Mobile? I had no idea
Windows Phone 6 & 7 were based on Windows CE. Windows Phone 8 was based on the same kernel as Windows 8 and RT i.e. an NT kernel. Windows 10 Mobile is based on the same kernel as Windows 10 - again an NT kernel.
I don't think they're going back to a CE based OS.
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Wasn't Windows Phone supposed to have superseded Windows Mobile? What's next, the return of the resistive touch screen??
Is anyone at the helm at Microsoft?
8.x was Windows Phone. 10 is Windows Mobile
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Wasn't Windows Phone supposed to have superseded Windows Mobile? What's next, the return of the resistive touch screen??
Is anyone at the helm at Microsoft?
8.x was Windows Phone. 10 is Windows Mobile
But 10 is a different Windows Mobile than the WinCE Windows Mobile than they're talking about here. Different code base.
w10 (Score:1)
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Windows 10 Mobile is better than any Android device I've ever seen, by far.
You are comparing an OS with a piece of hardware. That's a strange comparison.
More to the point, the reason so few people have purchased Windows phones is the phones lack the software people want to run. Android, and iOS, do not.
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More to the point, the reason so few people have purchased Windows phones is the phones lack the software people want to run. Android, and iOS, do not.
That's the problem in any established market. Windows Phone was actually not a bad operating system but it wasn't disruptive or innovative either. If you want to be successful in an established market you need seamless compatibility (which seems unlikely) or disruptive innovation. No new OS (Windows Phone, Maemo, Meego, webOS, FirefoxOS, etc) has had either of those things in the current iOS/Android smartphone market.
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Why is that a problem? I don't want to have a different eco system appear every other year because it offers a small feature that the current one does not. Switching platforms is expensive. I want to do it when the benefit is great, not small. The problem is that the Microsoft and Apple ecosystems are tightly controlled, not that they are established markets. The platform should be an open one where anyone can interact.
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Why is that a problem?
Well I dont see how a company is going to break into an established market without overcoming it.
I don't want to have a different eco system appear every other year because it offers a small feature that the current one does not.
Right, that's what has been constantly happening and is why these new platforms fail, a small feature isn't going to entice anybody to change.
The platform should be an open one where anyone can interact.
We should also have world peace, among many other things.
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Sot hey're adding mobile capabilities... (Score:2)
to dead horses now?
It may be good... (Score:2)
Do it right this time (Score:2)
The absence of Microsoft from mobile device platforms is really weird.
From what I understand their current CEO is much less of a clown than Monkey Boy Ballmer was. They should be able to break into this market.
They need to stop their cycle of release > fail > abandon. Windows CE > Pocket PC > Windows Mobile > Windows Phone > Windows 10 Mobile
Yet another version of Windows... (Score:2)
Will it "work" on British Airways? (Score:1)
I'm wondering if it will work on British Airways, as well as their reservations and booking systems do.
(end sarcasm)
Why even bother? (Score:2)
There is zero chance Microsoft can make a dent in the iOS/Android duopoly even in the markets where Windows Phone used to dominate back in the day (business etc) so why even bother trying?
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Larry Ellison used to say the same thing about SQL Server, but now it's a viable enterprise database platform, and has been for the last decade.
I prefer the Windows phone interface, so I want to see them keep trying until they get something that makes people really pay attention (like they did when Surface was released). If I have the spare cash, my next laptop will definitely be a Surface.
OCD (Score:2)
I dub it the Microsoft Surface Zune!
Will never buy a Microsoft OS Phone again (Score:2)
I own a Lumia 525 for the last 3 years. It came with Windows 8 & then it got a 8.1 upgrade. Over the last year, MS has dropped all support for it. Outlook is available on Android (even the older ones) but not available on Windows 8.1
My workplace integrated some kind of external 2FA with Office365 & it works on Android, iOS & Windows 10 but doesn't work on my Lumia - because it requires Outlook. The default mail app which comes with Windows 8.1 doesn't support this.
So though I love the phone
Stop Wasting resources. (Score:1)
Microsoft should stop trying to be on the mobile scene,
just like
Google should stop trying to be on the social network scene.
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Google never really tried or wanted that. It's enough to have a Google+ +1 button on every fucking piece of content to track everybody.
then how do you explain Orkut and then Wave and then Google+ ? It took them 3 huge projects to come up with 1 little button?
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*shrugs* YAWP (Yet Another Windows Phone) (Score:2)
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