windows phone 8 1Microsoft has publicly admitted for the first time that its Windows Phone is dead. In a series of tweets, Windows 10 chief Joe Belfiore said that the company is no longer developing new features or hardware for Windows 10 Mobile, with only bug fixes and security updates to come for existing users.

Belfiore explained that his team had tried "very hard" to incentivize app developers by paying them and writing apps for them, but the low volume of users meant it was no longer worth the investment in Windows Phone.

Microsoft officially ended support for Windows Phone back in July, but the software giant never owned up to the fact that the move was essentially the final nail in the coffin for its flagship mobile platform. Today's news that the Windows 10 Mobile hardware is no longer a focus for the company now puts that beyond doubt, and makes the possibility of a long-rumored Surface-branded phone seem further away than ever.


Windows Phone was released in 2010 and quickly became the world's third most popular mobile operating system, but the platform couldn't compete with iOS and Android, which accounted for a combined 99.6 percent market share earlier this year.

In another sign of the times, the New York Police Department recently confirmed it will begin transitioning from Windows Phones to iPhones for its 36,000 police officers in the fall.

In Belfiore's series of tweets, the corporate VP also revealed that he had switched away from Windows Phone to a rival mobile operating system, but didn't say which one.

Top Rated Comments

jayducharme Avatar
80 months ago
As has happened before, Microsoft just couldn’t see the future.

Score: 23 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Dave245 Avatar
80 months ago
This is not really good, because we need competition to push the other companies to make better devices.
Windows Phone was never really competition for the iPhone, the two big players are IOS and Android, i think it will be this way for a long time to come.
Score: 19 Votes (Like | Disagree)
djcerla Avatar
80 months ago
after being burned by supporting Windows Phone, and after moving to iOS en masse, institutions and companies should really look into adopting the Mac, which would make them save “up to $500 per machine” (source: IBM).

They should, and they will (slowly).
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
radus Avatar
80 months ago
This is not really good, because we need competition to push the other companies to make better devices.
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
iKrivetko Avatar
80 months ago
It was never really alive in the first place.
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
maflynn Avatar
80 months ago
In other news, scientists have discovered that rain is wet.

Seriously, tell us something we already didn't know. The platform had promise, when it was windows CE and they delayed and revamped things so much that they blew it.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)

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