Paul Thurrott just released an article of his time at Microsoft Ignite and he brought up several key points in his article involving Windows Mobile during the developer conference.
Windows 10 Mobile is only for businesses. This was stressed repeatedly in different ways. There’s no consumer play here at all, and that is not changing going forward. Even the “More Personal” slide was about “Office 365 pre-installed, OneDrive for Business, Cortana for work,” and so. Businesses, not individuals/consumers.
It sure seems like it to me that Microsoft is throwing in the towel when it comes to Windows Mobile in the consumer space. What they basically said (without actually saying it) is that they have given up on Windows Mobile in anything but a business-type setting.
And why not? Let’s face facts here, Windows Mobile was a stillborn platform from the very beginning. Android and Apple iOS pretty much has the market cornered and up until a couple of week ago Microsoft Windows Mobile and Blackberry held onto a messily less than 1% of the market. According to this BusinessInsider article…
Windows 10 Mobile and BlackBerry OS make up 0.6% and 0.1% (of the market), respectively.
Those two platforms make up less than 1% of the market, pretty pathetic if you ask me. And according to this article… Android commands an impressive 86.2% of the market with Apple commanding 12.9% of the market. It’s plain to see that both Android and Apple iOS (albeit less Apple and more Android) are dominating the market. There’s not much room in the market left for a third competitor even if that competitor is Microsoft. And with Blackberry admitting defeat that leaves Android and Apple iOS dominating the market with Microsoft in very distant third place.
Windows 10 Mobile is for existing business customers, not for new customers. This one was interesting. At one point, one of the presenters said of the future, “our desire in this space is that Windows Mobile remain the safest, most manageable, most deploy-able solution for organizations that are already Microsoft customers. You will see that in the next year, and in the years after that.” That’s extremely limited, from an aspiration/goal standpoint. The question, by the way, was what success looked like for Windows phones.
Good God, with the way that part reads it looks like Microsoft is simply trying to desperately hold onto what little part of the market they have left and have lost all initiative to gain any more market share. It sure looks like it to me that Microsoft has given up when it comes to Windows Mobile.
Microsoft’s use of Windows phone internally. One attendee asked how Microsoft used Windows phone internally. Let me answer that one more accurately than the presenter did: They don’t. And at Microsoft Ignite this year, there was a dramatic drop in the number of Windows phones seen, especially among Microsoft employees. It was something many in the press remarked on.
Ouch! Microsoft basically said that nobody in their own company uses Windows Mobile devices and that the average Microsoft employee uses either an Android or an Apple iPhone. If that doesn’t state the obvious I don’t know what does. Windows Mobile is dead and Microsoft basically said it without actually saying it.
If you want to read the article written by Paul Thurrott, click here 
Microsoft Discusses a Very Limited Future for Windows 10 Mobile