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

Jul 27, 2020
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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

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Sep 14, 2022
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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.
 
Jul 27, 2020
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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
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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
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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.