Will the success of Windows on ARM cause a resurgence of Windows Phone 2.0 devices?

Jul 27, 2020
24,043
16,800
146
Clock the SD Elite X SoC low and suddenly, you got a potentially performant phone/tablet chip that can run normal Windows apps!

I think Google and Apple will feel the heat soon, unless Microsoft/Qualcomm really mess things up somehow.
 

georg34

Junior Member
Sep 14, 2022
8
0
36
Clock the SD Elite X SoC low and suddenly, you got a potentially performant phone/tablet

chip that can run normal Windows apps!

I think Google and Apple will feel the heat soon,


unless Microsoft/Qualcomm really mess things up somehow.

Some phones shows connection has limited or no connectivity. Solved with this Limited or no connectivity guide. Also used this request timed out tutorial.



Let more similar innovations arriave. It will increase the competition and thus help the consumers. But, still I do not think Microsoft can challenge the Android eco system in the near future.
 
Last edited:
Jul 27, 2020
24,043
16,800
146
I think Microsoft has a chance if it takes a security first approach to fortifying WoA OS against malware/malicious apps. A lot of non-technical people that own iPhones give me a succinct answer when I ask them why they chose Apple: "It's the most secure device in existence".
 
Mar 11, 2004
23,444
5,846
146
To answer your question, OP, no. Microsoft has no intention of doing that. I think its more likely they straight up abandon Windows as an operating system entirely than make another Windows Phone, because no one (not literally, but consumers in general) wants one. Microsoft is becoming platform agnostic and are more about services. Their entire business model is moving more and more to that being cloud. They'll be happy to just make apps or services for other platforms as long as they keep getting the money on the back end. They might even prefer that at this point, seeing how Windows Phone was such a failure (as was their earlier attempt at smartphones, the Kin - which the tech press loved but consumers didn't), Xbox is floundering (repeatedly), and there's been rumors that Microsoft would turn Windows into a service platform for years. Frankly, I think the only reason Windows is still around is because it the main way to get enterprise customers using Microsoft's services.

You can see this in Xbox, where its looking more likely that Microsoft ditches Xbox hardware and instead makes it an app/service. I think they'll make a go at a Switch like system first, where it'll be a portable. I see them making the dock more powerful though.

Add in Windows Mixed Reality and also Hololens. They've buddied up with Meta now for AR/VR. I will be curious if they make Vision Pro apps, as they have some stuff ready from their time with Hololens, including I believe a version of Minecraft that builds a Minecraft world based on your real world surroundings.

Also, they are slowly deprecating Windows support. Not just the length of support for older Windows, but the actual development as well. They're already relying on Windows Insider program as the main means of bug testing, which has not been going terribly well (they had the bug that was wiping people's systems a year or two back, I think I still have a Windows Update that fails and has been a known bug for like over 6 months now; there's also still some other bugs, like how enabling 3D Display mode in the display settings basically borks Windows). And in servers Windows is dwindling as well. Non-Microsoft OSes dominate webservers and the like.

Shorter term (next 10 years), Windows probably becomes locked down virtual machine terminals of their primary services (Xbox, Office, Windows - which would be more just a "compatibility" service for older software that hasn't been ported).

But, I get where you're coming from. I think there would be potential there, but I just don't think anyone (consumers as a whole for instance), Microsoft included, has any interest in that. If it weren't for AI, I'd actually love the idea of a Windows "brick" that contained all my computing info (software/apps, data, etc), that I could carry with me and then it could just pass that to whatever device I'm using. And the devices wouldn't keep any of that data, so you could share hardware much more easily. And it would auto-adjust. So, it'd pop up a touch interface for a phone or tablet (unless you have mouse/keyboard), a differnt one for like a watch or other wearable, or an augmented reality one for a headset, or you get home and it links to your media/gaming hardware. I felt like Microsoft was working towards that from like 2005-2015, but then they basically abandoned it after all the failures. Windows Phone being the big one, then Windows 8 attempt at pushing to touch interface, then they half-butted Windows Mixed Reality, then they abandoned Hololens, they even were letting Surface languish, and now arguably are doing the same with Windows, with their primary focus now being on trying to get people to use their services and cramming AI into as much of them as they can.

Let more similar innovations arriave. It will increase the competition and thus help the consumers. But, still I do not think Microsoft can challenge the Android eco system in the near future.

These companies aren't actually competing though. They're all buddied up. Microsoft and Apple are about the closest but they aren't even really as Apple really isn't pushing into Windows that much, and Microsoft is more than happy to making iOS apps. I think Microsoft's eagerness with ARM is actually more about transitioning to that devices as terminals for services model.
 
Jul 27, 2020
24,043
16,800
146
But, I get where you're coming from. I think there would be potential there, but I just don't think anyone (consumers as a whole for instance), Microsoft included, has any interest in that. If it weren't for AI, I'd actually love the idea of a Windows "brick" that contained all my computing info (software/apps, data, etc), that I could carry with me and then it could just pass that to whatever device I'm using. And the devices wouldn't keep any of that data, so you could share hardware much more easily. And it would auto-adjust. So, it'd pop up a touch interface for a phone or tablet (unless you have mouse/keyboard), a differnt one for like a watch or other wearable, or an augmented reality one for a headset, or you get home and it links to your media/gaming hardware.

+Million! Amen!

Shorter term (next 10 years), Windows probably becomes locked down virtual machine terminals of their primary services (Xbox, Office, Windows - which would be more just a "compatibility" service for older software that hasn't been ported).
As long as I'm alive, I hope that does not happen or else I'll become like one of those sad people still holding onto their DOS boxes and Amigas and running their old software and feeling "happy".

After I die, I don't care. Humanity has a penchant for "devolving" anyway.
 

WelshBloke

Lifer
Jan 12, 2005
32,417
10,539
136
Clock the SD Elite X SoC low and suddenly, you got a potentially performant phone/tablet chip that can run normal Windows apps!

I think Google and Apple will feel the heat soon, unless Microsoft/Qualcomm really mess things up somehow.
Windows phone didn't fail because of lack of hardware!

Honestly running normal windows apps on a phone sounds horrible. I've got one of those laptops where the screen folds over and it turns into a windows tablet. Running normal windows apps on that is horrible and that's a 13 inch screen!
 

mindless1

Diamond Member
Aug 11, 2001
8,613
1,680
126
Windows phone didn't fail because of lack of hardware!

Honestly running normal windows apps on a phone sounds horrible. I've got one of those laptops where the screen folds over and it turns into a windows tablet. Running normal windows apps on that is horrible and that's a 13 inch screen!
Which apps though? People keep thinking they are required to use the latest greatest bloatware, and it's okay because their PC is an order of magnitude faster than they were when the older apps were developed.

I am not an android geek aka know-it-all, but quite proficient at windows, and would love the extra level of control that windows on a phone provided, yet I would not pay a premium for windows phone, rather they'd have to be close to selling it at a loss to build up market share, IMO, and with it being a budget conscious hardware build, also that's going to degrade the performance and user experience, though I suspect that fast storage could make up for a large chunk of that.
 

sdifox

No Lifer
Sep 30, 2005
98,732
17,215
126
Which apps though? People keep thinking they are required to use the latest greatest bloatware, and it's okay because their PC is an order of magnitude faster than they were when the older apps were developed.

I am not an android geek aka know-it-all, but quite proficient at windows, and would love the extra level of control that windows on a phone provided, yet I would not pay a premium for windows phone, rather they'd have to be close to selling it at a loss to build up market share, IMO, and with it being a budget conscious hardware build, also that's going to degrade the performance and user experience, though I suspect that fast storage could make up for a large chunk of that.


Err Wondows Phones didn't run standard Windows apps.
 

WelshBloke

Lifer
Jan 12, 2005
32,417
10,539
136
Which apps though? People keep thinking they are required to use the latest greatest bloatware, and it's okay because their PC is an order of magnitude faster than they were when the older apps were developed.

I am not an android geek aka know-it-all, but quite proficient at windows, and would love the extra level of control that windows on a phone provided, yet I would not pay a premium for windows phone, rather they'd have to be close to selling it at a loss to build up market share, IMO, and with it being a budget conscious hardware build, also that's going to degrade the performance and user experience, though I suspect that fast storage could make up for a large chunk of that.
It's the UI more than anything. Windows is horrible for touch navigation even with a big screen. When it's a 6 inch screen with apps designed for a normal windows desktop it's horrible.
I mean windows mobile was really unpleasant to use and that was designed for small screens.
I have a box full of windows CE and windows mobile phones somewhere. I'd gone full android by the time windows phone came out, but that wasn't too bad tbh.
 

sdifox

No Lifer
Sep 30, 2005
98,732
17,215
126
  • Like
Reactions: igor_kavinski