Microsoft Ends Support for Windows 10 Mobile
by Anton Shilov on December 11, 2019 3:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Mobile
- Microsoft
- Smartphones
- Windows 10 Mobile
Microsoft this week has finally retired Windows 10 mobile, ending support for its smartphone OS. However, in a quirk of differing lifecycle policies, the software giant will continue to support its Office apps for Windows 10 Mobile a bit longer – Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote will get support until early 2021.
This past Patch Tuesday, December 10th, was the final update that Microsoft will deliver for the Windows 10 Mobile. This means that going forward, the company will not be providing any further security updates, non-security hotfixes, free assisted support options, or free online technical content updates for the OS. This applies to smartphones/phablets produced by Microsoft (under the Nokia Lumia brand), whereas other devices may have a different lifecycle policy and continue to get certain kind of support.
Microsoft will continue to support its Office apps for Windows 10 Mobile till January 21, 2021, which includes availability of install packages, technical support for issues, security fixes, and bug fixes.
Microsoft launched its Windows 10 Mobile OS in 2015 to succeed the poorly adopted Windows Phone 8.1, which was only used by a handful of manufacturers. Designed to resemble Windows 10 for PCs, the new OS didn't have much more success than its predecessor: the only well-known Windows 10 Mobile smartphones were Microsoft’s Nokia Lumia as well as HP’s Elite X3.
The software giant started to wind down its smartphone efforts in July, 2014, by laying off 12,500 former Nokia employees. In mid-2015, the company took an impairment charge of approximately $7.6 billion related to assets associated with the acquisition of the Nokia Devices and Services business, and fired another 7,800 former Nokia employees globally. In 2016, the company laid off nearly 2,000 people from its smartphone division and agreed to transfer another 4,500 to HMD Global. By late 2017, the company ceased development of its Windows 10 Mobile OS and essentially halted its efforts to build a competitive mobile platform.
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quiksilvr - Wednesday, December 11, 2019 - link
...They were still supporting it?MrSpadge - Wednesday, December 11, 2019 - link
Security updates only. They stopped fixing other things about 3 years ago (ex Lumia 950 user here), nevermind new features. I still miss some of their features on my Mi9, though.StevoLincolnite - Wednesday, December 11, 2019 - link
I was a Nokia Lumia 920 owner back in the day.Was an awesome device.
Only thing that held the platform back in my eyes was the lack of app/game support...
Never even had the 920 in a cover either, was a durable phone that lasted for years, only upgraded to a Note 5 because the Lumia's screen started to discolor... And the Lumia 930 just didn't have what I want from a hardware point. (Plus I saw the writing on the wall)
And eventually upgraded to a Note 8 and just a few days ago... A Note 10+.
It's a shame, I thought the Windows Phone was gaining traction at one point as it was shifting 10+ million units sold a quarter, Microsoft probably wanted more than that.
Freeb!rd - Wednesday, December 11, 2019 - link
I still use a Nokia 1020, but just ordered a new sim card for it's replacement a Razer 2 I got cheap (cheaper than these $800-$1000 phones at least) on a pre Black Friday sale. The Nokia 1020 is still rather snappy with the apps that still run on it. A lot of news aggregators/apps don't carry current feeds because their apps are so out of date, but many of the games run fine and I'll be turning it over to my son as a mobile game app device. :DHardwareDufus - Thursday, December 12, 2019 - link
Lumia 920 phone was a fantastic piece of hardware. I loved how heavy it was!!Manch - Thursday, December 12, 2019 - link
They never really supported it. Their Win 10 flash bricked my phone and I had no recourse. I was willing to pay to fix it and they said nopity nope. I will never buy a phone from them again.baka_toroi - Wednesday, December 11, 2019 - link
Nice way to end the decade.What a shitshow this whole thing was. Ever since MS bought Nokia this has been a disaster move after another.
IMO one of the worst ones was not updating Windows Phone 7.x users to 10. The one thing that could differentiate Windows Mobile from Android is providing a long-term, constantly updated platform. But they decided to screw their first customers, the only ones who could've recommended it to other people.
I'm glad though. I didn't want MS to make a significant dent in the mobile market. We had too much of you, MS. You're only saving graces are Win32 (not even the whole OS) and Office.
fred666 - Wednesday, December 11, 2019 - link
Even if they did they would have failed.They were always too little too late. Flagship Windows phones were usually lesser Android phones released 6 months earlier. They have never been first at anything since iPhoneOS and Android launched.
Just like Blackberry, they watched and failed.
drexnx - Wednesday, December 11, 2019 - link
agreed, nokia/symbian/stephen elop/ms takeover/wm7+ will be future business case studies in how to take slowly dying but still profitable platforms (symbian and winCE based WM 6x) and pour gasoline on them to make them burn even brighter, wasting a lot of cash in the process.HardwareDufus - Thursday, December 12, 2019 - link
man you aren't kidding.