AfterDawn: Tech news

This is how dead Windows phones are

Written by Matti Robinson @ 19 Dec 2016 2:44 User comments (12)

This is how dead Windows phones are

Even when Microsoft was focusing on smartphones more than ever Windows Phones were barely staying afloat. After Microsoft discontinued manufacturing both dumb and smart phones this summer it was clear that there is really no future for Windows phones in current form.
Some companies still believe that there is room for a third operating system, and many people agree. Can there still be a successful smartphone with Windows in it? Microsoft seems to believe so, after all, CEO Satya Nadella has recently promised that the company will deliver something unique in the future.

If you want to see what kind of traction a traditional Windows 10 powered smartphone with nothing unique creates then look no further than Moly X1. Moly X1 was featured on the crowd-funding site Indiegogo and the startup behind the concept was looking for $100,000 for its work oriented smartphone.



The campaign was a fiasco, and that's a kind way of putting it. A total of 30 funders managed to gather a total of $2,569, that's under 3 percent of the goal. Only 14 backers wanted to invest the products value, around $180. The rest were struggling to give five dollars for a case or a mere digital booklet.

Well, there you have it. There's really no better way to put it. However, we do have to keep in mind that this attempt was definitely not the most interesting Windows smartphone concept and promised nothing new or exciting with its low-end specs. It is safe to say, though, that Windows smartphones do not currently seem like a good way to get easy startup money.

Previous Next  

12 user comments

120.12.2016 03:54

Windows phones are not that bad actually, what fails it for me is the apps. What you can get on at the Apple Store or Google Play doesn't mean that you can get it on Windows. It's really frustrating. Is it because developers find it hard to built the same for Windows? is it that Microsoft ask to much of a cut? I just can't understand the issue.

220.12.2016 11:26

Windows phones are SOLID. Truly the most stable of all the phones OS's out there in my experience.

I totally agree with Dragon3000......it's the store and the lack of apps that kills this........PERIOD.


ANYONE and I mean AN-Y-ONE that actually spends time with a Windows phone will see that it's quite robust, snappy and stable and practical.

Sadly, the world loves the crap that Android is. Constant obsolescence, constant insecurities, constant bombardment from a Play Store that does NOTHING to vet the crap apps that get put up, CONSTANT ass-dragging slowness after several months of use.

Look, I'm a tech and know my experiences aren't isolated to myself. I recognize that non-technical peeps probably don't see the little differences in speed and general use but Android is just as I described but I'm sure someone will ring in with "never seen it slow down" nonsense.

320.12.2016 16:10

Emulate x86 apps (such as .exe. & .msi apps) on a Windows Phone and watch how quickly things turn around....

421.12.2016 10:12

Originally posted by hearme0:
Android is just as I described but I'm sure someone will ring in with "never seen it slow down" nonsense.

We know you have the habit of calling people nonsense; so, nothing is new here as we know where you are coming from.
I reiterate...THERE IS NO SLOWDOWN IN ANDROID. Are you angry now?
i have > 150 apps installed in my G4. If you could install these many apps, a Windows phone would behave the same; i.e., it would work but with a little hiccup if you would try to open too many apps at the same time (since many apps like Facebook try to work in the background). Oh well, Windows phones can't have these many useful apps. Ouch!

Many of my colleagues have now reported that they are losing contacts RANDOMLY in their Windows phones. And, it's a known bug! I would not use a Windows phone for this sole reason. I like and use Windows OS, but couldn't like Windows Phone OS.

I wanted to use an iPhone despite it's a walled garden, and relatively expensive. But as I have repeatedly mentioned that video playback is one of the areas where an iPhone miserably fails.
This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 21 Dec 2016 @ 10:13

522.12.2016 11:46

Most of the reason Windows on PC is so popular is the applications. I'd love to go all linux, but then I'd lose out on virtually all games as well as my favorite cad, video editing, and photo editing suites.

The idea of going to a Windows platform for fewer apps just boggles my mind...not only do I have a form of Linux on my phone but it has more apps than any other phone os.

And no...there is no slowdown on a modern Android phone unless you load it with background-running apps, in which case you would have a slowdown on any phone, tablet, or pc. Some particular phones from particular companies may have slowdowns if they screwed their distro up terribly (SAMSUNG), but even then it's easy to disable the offending apps. It's a downside to being open...Google makes their own phones and they are very good, arguably better than the in-house phones from Microsoft and Apple, especially if you compare dollar-for-dollar. Some of the 3rd party Android phones are great, others are crap...that's what you get with freedom (yes, I know 3rd parties can make Windows phones...but why would one want to?). You know where there IS a slowdown? Windows! Take any Windows PC that has been used even an hour a day for a couple years and install a fresh copy of the same Windows...it will be like a new computer. (there are other ways of fixing most performance issues of course, this is just an easy shotgun method). Will the phones be the same? Considering Microsoft wants to put desktop operating systems on them, I'd guess yes.

As for x86/x64 program support on a phone, I really don't see much value there. Yes, there are a few things (like a Flash player that plays flash games) that a few people would want, but generally desktop programs don't work well with small touchscreens and unless the phone CPU is either x64 or has some kind of hardware x64 emulation (either would probably slash battery life) then the performance is going to be terrible so it isn't like you are going to be playing new AAA games or running photoshop or anything like that. At best it would allow the Windows phone to run some open source apps that are already available on Android and iOS for free, but not on Windows phone.

622.12.2016 14:19

M$ has apparently successfully made (real desktop, not "NT") Windows 10 work on ARM processors, so you'll be seeing Win10 phones soon enough, you can be sure: http://www.theverge.com/2016/12/7/13866...upport-qualcomm

This is meant more to be hooked up to an external monitor/kb/etc., rather than used right on the phone; essentially, a laptop replacement. But they supposedly can run the desktop version of Photoshop on it, so *shrug* ...

This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 22 Dec 2016 @ 2:25

723.12.2016 12:10

Originally posted by Bozobub:
M$ has apparently successfully made (real desktop, not "NT") Windows 10 work on ARM processors, so you'll be seeing Win10 phones soon enough, you can be sure: http://www.theverge.com/2016/12/7/13866...upport-qualcomm

This is meant more to be hooked up to an external monitor/kb/etc., rather than used right on the phone; essentially, a laptop replacement. But they supposedly can run the desktop version of Photoshop on it, so *shrug* ...
Yeah, I got a good laugh out of that video when I first saw it, like how just scrolling up and down on a website that was already loaded used over 50% of all 4 cores, and how they claimed to be running photoshop on the system but if you look closely they were running the cloud version. Yes, they had the x86 front-end for the program but all the work was being done in the cloud. Then they ran a game...a cloud game with the graphics turned down. So basically there are front-ends for websites that are written for x86 windows...and you can run those front-ends. There is no x64 support even with x64 windows, but it doesn't matter because anything that would actually need x64 would be far more than the machine could handle even if it had the ram. Sure, it's not nothing...I'm sure there are some people who would really like to run some small x86 app on their phones...but those people are a tiny minority, otherwise those apps would get ported or recreated on Android/iOS.

827.12.2016 17:12

Originally posted by mukhis:
Originally posted by hearme0:
Android is just as I described but I'm sure someone will ring in with "never seen it slow down" nonsense.

We know you have the habit of calling people nonsense; so, nothing is new here as we know where you are coming from.
I reiterate...THERE IS NO SLOWDOWN IN ANDROID. Are you angry now?
i have > 150 apps installed in my G4. If you could install these many apps, a Windows phone would behave the same; i.e., it would work but with a little hiccup if you would try to open too many apps at the same time (since many apps like Facebook try to work in the background). Oh well, Windows phones can't have these many useful apps. Ouch!

Many of my colleagues have now reported that they are losing contacts RANDOMLY in their Windows phones. And, it's a known bug! I would not use a Windows phone for this sole reason. I like and use Windows OS, but couldn't like Windows Phone OS.

I wanted to use an iPhone despite it's a walled garden, and relatively expensive. But as I have repeatedly mentioned that video playback is one of the areas where an iPhone miserably fails.
My wife has G3.............Brutally slow. And I'd challenge anyone stating that the G4 is dramatically different where all the "slowness" changes for the better.

927.12.2016 19:35

Funny, I had A G2 that was never slower than its original install (I benchmarked every so often, actually). This was using CyanogenMod 12, by the by.

It's almost like anecdotal evidence...isn't really evidence, or something.

CAN Android slow down over time? Certainly, exactly like every other OS can (phone or not) point of fact, especially if using a retail ROM, sadly. And yes, you can prevent it from happening in the 1st place and/or fix the problem in several different ways of your choosing, retail ROM or not. Get a grip.

This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 27 Dec 2016 @ 7:36

1027.12.2016 19:35

*Double post*

This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 27 Dec 2016 @ 7:36

1127.12.2016 23:47

Originally posted by hearme0:
My wife has G3.............Brutally slow. And I'd challenge anyone stating that the G4 is dramatically different where all the "slowness" changes for the better.

Your wife's G3 is brutally slow, and my G4 is as fast as a new phone. So, Mr. omniscient techie, stop challenging people.

1228.12.2016 18:19

Originally posted by hearme0:
My wife has G3.............Brutally slow. And I'd challenge anyone stating that the G4 is dramatically different where all the "slowness" changes for the better.
Just wondering...have you actually tried to do anything about this phone? I mean you have been bashing Android for months, saying this one phone is a reason to buy an iPhone or a Windows phone...but have you actually checked to see if it is full of crapware she installed? Maybe out of memory on the internal storage or simply stuck in an update loop? Worst case should be a factory reset...something that just about anyone can do, which has little negative effect since basically everything is backed up in the cloud...if that doesn't work, then the problem isn't software at all...there are hardware issues that can cause slowdowns as well; a bad (or water damaged) thermal sensor can make a phone slow itself WAYYYY down.

Comments have been disabled for this article.

News archive