Microsoft admit the Windows Phone is dead

Microsoft’s Windows Phone is dead as a doornail. As a dodo. As a recently expired parrot.

The tech giant has finally admitted that it’ll stop trying to foist Microsoft’s terrible mobile operating system on unsuspecting consumers.

Yes, the Windows Phone is no more.

In a series of tweets on Sunday 8 October, Microsoft’s Corporate Vice President of Operating Systems, Joe Belfiore, declared that the company had stopped working on Windows Mobile and no new apps or products would be released.

Windows Phone not very appy

Microsoft’s biggest problem with the Windows Phone was breaking through the dominance of Android and iOS.

And even though it is a multi-multi-billion dollar company, it could not get enough developers to produce apps for its devices to compete with Android’s Google Play Store or Apple’s App Store.

It left Windows Phone users with a much smaller minority of apps to play with.

Belfiore confessed: “We have tried VERY HARD to incent[ivise] app dev[elopers]. Paid money…wrote apps 4 them. But the volume of users is too low for most companies to invest.

“Of course we’ll continue to support the platform…bug fixes, security updates, etc. But building new features [and hardware] not the priority.”

Even Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates let slip in a September interview with Fox News that he has switched to an Android device, rather than trying his own company’s shoddy offering.

The announcement leaves Windows Mobile limping badly and with an uncertain future.

Windows Phone took its largest UK market share of a measly 3.5% in December 2015 and has been declining ever since.

In the face of hefty competition from Android and iOS the Windows Phone slipped even further down the scale this year.

As of April, according to statistia.com, less than 2% of phones in the UK were using the Windows operating system.