++ the future of Microsoft Lumia mobile phones ++

• let's say the smartphone market is 1 000 000 000 & Windows Phone accounts for 0.32% (https://www.netmarketshare.com/operating-system-market-share.asp). Is this nothing // every costumer counts and here still are many hundred thousands (a real army) // in the Windows Store apps are updated regularly ++ those which survive // in 2015 the market share has been approximately 3% // I compare this poor strategy to an aircraft diving towards the ground // such great products are poorly defended // the Windows Phone flagships have been launched in Q4 2015 (still competitive in many ways ++ the rivals have had great problems in this time frame, but hided them with their PR)//

there is a distructive speech & I know even Wikipedia mentions that mainstream support ends for Windows 10 Mobile in Q4 2019, but until then we hope for the Wind of Change // a Surface Journal or Note could be great, but will not replace smartphones & do not expect spectacular market shares // Microsoft is responsible in part for Apple's great success & makes a great mistake if exits this market // later there will be even greater entry barriers //  There are still people who enjoy phones that are working like the Windows PC //

Brutal realities carry equally brutal consequences. The market outreach the phones had created, if forced to collapse with brutality, might, unexpectedly, drain off with some currently profitable products. Not to mention irreversible image issues that competing companies will exploit with glee.

In general, absolutely correct. When applied to the situation in question however, a brutal collapse of 1% of market outreach is nothing. Nobody cares, least of all Microsoft, when their refocused approach on targeting the main platforms is giving them the 90+% of market access. Non-WP users couldn't care less about something they are not even aware of - like the existence of Windows Mobile. There can be no image issues where the image doesn't really exist. A relatively loud, but otherwise extremely small in number fanatic user base can delude itself into thinking that they actually matter in the market - unfortunately that is not true. 20, 30, even a 100 comments on a dedicated niche platform can seem a lot within that confined space, but are absolutely irrelevant in a market of 1.5 billion smartphones sold just in 2017.

++ I once have read a Microsoft statement : if no one else will make Windows Phones, we will make them #keeptheWord //

I'm not sure, I do not understand. What I personally see, that MS invested lot of energy to build a cross device platform (UWP), and just after it was finished, they removed one pretty important pillar, the mobile phone.

It's very, very simple. The important pillar covered less than 1% of the market, which makes it very unimportant, and no developer would waste their time and effort for that sort of return, no matter how easy it is to do it. The platform was already doomed by the lack of support from major networks and the lack of apps, UWP was too little too late to save it.

Brutal realities carry equally brutal consequences. The market outreach the phones had created, if forced to collapse with brutality, might, unexpectedly, drain off with some currently profitable products. Not to mention irreversible image issues that competing companies will exploit with glee.