++ the future of Microsoft Lumia mobile phones ++

Everyone:

This conversation started out regarding the future of Lumia cell phones, but seems to be wandering elsewhere. I didn't start the conversation so take what I have to say as coming a bit from somewhere in the tall grass with the best of intentions.

First, for a number of practical and legal reasons, "Lumia" has no future other than that determined by the owner of the trademark whether MS or Nokia. MS has ended production of the Lumia line and Nokia seems to be moving forward with Android OS phones. Further, MS has farmed out WIN-10 support to a 3rd party and the same for the WIN-10 mobile OS.

If by "Lumia" we are really talking about some Windows OS version cell phone in the future, that might be another discussion, but I would remind you that speculation about a "Surface" phone has been rife for over a year without tangible results. MS will neither confirm or deny it, but benefits from having its name in the tech press on a regular basis. Even if such a phone is contemplated, the practical and economic aspects are daunting. No "Surface" speculation that I know of has projected a price less than $900 USD and there's not much market for a phone that expensive as Apple has learned. The resources required to write new code for a mobile OS to take advantage of better chip architecture and graphics are no small concern and are a diversion of those resources from other projects that seem to have a brighter future in management's eyes.

I don't disparage the team analogy, but teams have to interact with other teams and often limit that to what they believe is in their best interest despite what their fan base might want. The team analogy is a good one, but teams have owners and those owners have moved, sold, or closed teams based on their own vision of the future.

From what I can see of MS, they think the future is in the cloud with distributed services and software and that there's more of a future and more money writing interfaces for devices such as cell phones or tablets running iOS or Android than there is in trying to catch up or keep up in a cell phone race they've gotten so far behind in that they can't win.

As for OS issues and software problems, I understand the complaints and have had some myself. For example, I've never understood the approach to program design which doesn't take as a starting rule that the data files should be platform independent. Also, I didn't leave DOS until my business required it, held onto WIN-XP, SP3 until I had to move to WIN-8 because I couldn't support my clients otherwise and moved to WIN-10 for the same reasons. I'm not interested in the bleeding edge, but change is going to come.

As for end-user testing, I'm reminded of the saying, "It's impossible to make anything fool-proof because fools are so ingenious." I know that's so because I've been one of them.

+ https://www.statista.com/statistics/266572/market-share-held-by-smartphone-platforms-in-the-united-states/ ++ & Kantar measurements ++  link available in a recent post //

• market share has been discussed many times in this discussion & it is over 1% in the USA (in UK it is close to the starting point, which in fact is a concealed virtual assistant sign) // there are many domains in which Microsoft can do more & develop further, but all the rivals have benefited from its legacy, so be more + //

• Windows 10 mobile has had many assets as well (e.g. legacy items such as live tiles & fluent design) // I think it is important for the company as a leading OS manufacturer to develop the existing mobile OS or come up with something even better as an upgrade mobile OS // Windows 10 mobile is competitive in many areas featured in this video of the competition // generally speaking the competition has had a better marketing strategy & fewer communication missteps partly because the mobile business is much more important to them // in my opinion for Microsoft the importance of the mobile business should be at the level of its Xbox division (as a big first step) // in Formula 1 there are sometimes DNF results & hope that instead we will have applied the sports principle to continue to compete for the benefit of mankind //

PS recently I have seen a video from the competition of featuring the capability of a phone to enter in rest mode if you face it down ... Windows 10 mobile has many little great features which have been never ever promoted at their potential //

• to enjoy Windows 10 mobile you need at least the Anniversary update // the flagships can realize a 50% recharge in 0.5h 'going from O to hero ' // nil + e gives Nile a very long river // do not retire if possible comebacks are not easy, e.g. 2 unlimited with still unlimited // Prost had a great comeback in 1993 but with great hardware & especially software // Never give up , never compromise (Lumia 435 slogan) & use Windows 10 mobile #evergreen