Virtually everyone has a smartphone nowadays. We not only use them to message and call people (we can do that with any cell-phone really – smartphones are meant for more than that!) but we use them to have fun – to watch YouTube videos, to scroll through TikTok or even for online gambling with wildz nz. For some people, smartphones are a matter of prestige, and for others a matter of necessity. What’s more, they’re often a popular topic to discuss, especially among tech-savvy people. However, when was the last time you heard someone said they have a Windows Phone?
While there is no main or one big reason why Windows Phone failed, there are several different ones, all of which led to Microsoft ending any further development and abandoning the Windows Phone project back in October 2017.
Being Late to the Party
Windows entered the market with its WP7 operating system that seemed to be miles ahead of the competition. However, while a handful of people complimented Windows for their innovation, by the time they have entered the mobile phone market, both Google and Apple were already well-established in the mobile ecosystem and, instead of praise, WP received negative feedback, and their innovation was deemed alien to mobile phone users.
While some people thought that staying on the path and continuing with innovation was the way to go back then, instead of doing that Microsoft caved in and have watered down their product.
It Lacked Crucial Apps
Things didn’t continue to look up for Windows Phone. Perhaps one of the biggest reasons why Windows Phone has failed is due to the absence of many familiar apps that users were expecting on their new phones, such as Gmail, PlayStore, and of course, YouTube. Naturally, Google wasn’t just going to hand over the permission to use their IP to a company that’s marketing itself as their direct rival.
By lacking these, and so many other apps that people used in everyday life, Windows Phone looked cheap compared to other devices. After all, who was going to pay premium cash for a phone that comes with half the popular apps and with no possibility whatsoever to get them on your phone?
The Beginning of the End
In addition to missing the aforementioned apps, WP users were not able to use popular apps like Google’s Chrome or Instagram, for example. However, that wasn’t even the biggest of Microsoft’s problems.
Not only did they lack apps, but they desperately needed developers willing to create apps for their platform. Add to that the company’s bad rep and the backlash they have received after the release of Windows 8, and it doesn’t come as a surprise that Windows Phone was slowly being shunned away and fading from the public’s eye.
Summary
Windows Phone wasn’t bad by any means. As a matter of fact, it had many advantages over the competition. Unfortunately for Microsoft, those advantages weren’t that significant to make millions of users switch platforms, which eventually led to WP’s demise.
