As Microsoft stated, a new version operating system for smartphones will be completely separate from the entire series of Windows 10. This system is called Andromeda and all phones that will be released after the release of the OS will use this particular version. Modern gadgets will not be able to support Andromeda OS.
Support for the current edition of the OS for phones will continue for the next year and a half. After this period, Windows 10 Mobile will no longer be updated and supported by the manufacturer.
The Andromeda operating system will take into account any form factor, which will allow you to install it on any device capable of supporting it. However, all smartphones from Microsoft released before the release of the new OS will not be able to use it.
Also interesting is the fact that Google is developing a novelty in the field of operating systems with the same name as Microsoft - Andromeda. This operating system will be designed to combine the Android and Chrome operating systems.
New branch of development - Feature 2
Feature 2 is a new fork in the development of Windows 10 Mobile that is completely isolated from its entire series. It was this separation from the main project that caused the closure of the current version.
This version of the software will be supported by developers for the next year and a half. For the current version of the OS, bug fixes will be released, new features for custom type versions will be introduced, and a security service will be supported.
The developers also announced the backporting of a new multi-tasking platform for the current version of Windows 10 Mobile, which is used on more modern platforms, for example, Redstone 3 and 4. This innovation is needed for Feature 2 since it is similar in functionality and capabilities to Redstone 2. Such support will be provided until the end of the Windows 10 Mobile project.
Backporting for a current software modification is necessary so that smartphones that support it do not become obsolete ahead of schedule. This will allow them to use modern applications and applications that will be released during the remaining period of OS support. After release new development support for the old one will end, and phones like the Lumia 950 or HP Elit x3 will quickly become obsolete.
Mobile version of Windows
The latest edition of the operating system for smartphones is the usual Windows 10, but adapted to devices with a display diagonal of no more than 9 inches. The entry of this OS was in February 2015. The main feature of this version was the ability to connect the phone to a desktop computer with their full synchronization, as well as the use of a smartphone as a full-fledged system unit when a monitor, keyboard and mouse are connected to it.
However, Microsoft was unable to occupy its significant niche in the market of smartphones and operating systems for them. At the moment, almost all mobile devices run on software from Android or iOS. Only 0.4% falls on Windows. At the same time, 80% of smartphones from Microsoft use Windows Phone 7, 8 or 8.1, and only 20% support Windows 10 Mobile.
This material is difficult to write correctly. After reading more than a dozen reviews of mobile Windows 10, I came across approaches that are radically different: from the usual description of menus and their capabilities to a deep analysis of system codes from the point of view of developers and programmers. I wanted to approach this review a little differently, from other positions. Describe not only what the user gets today, but also where the development of the system can go, what ideas are embedded in it and what they can result in in the end. One cannot exist without the other, and therefore, in addition to descriptive, specific points with illustrations taken from Lumia devices, I will need to deviate to the side and describe what is not on this platform, but is present on the modern market. Why? The answer is obvious, the Windows 10 Mobile platform does not exist in a vacuum, but competes for the attention of the buyer with systems such as Android / iOS. And only by understanding these differences will it be possible to break out of the trap of Microsoft's worldview, which prefers to describe only what exists within their systems, but not to pay attention to competitors.
Reasons for Windows 10 Mobile - a clean slate for the third time
We already live in a post-PC market where the majority of web browsing is done with mobile devices, not personal computers, be it a home system or a laptop. The irony lies in the fact that one of the pioneers of this direction and the company that accurately predicted the development of events, but made a slight mistake in the dates, was Microsoft Corporation. She never had a shortage of visionaries, people who could predict the development of the market and give accurate forecasts. The problem was in making predictions, putting them into practice, and building a mobile version of Windows. There has always been one approach that can be called dominant within Microsoft, it has not changed for the last decade or even more. The mobile operating system should be a copy of the desktop system and give the user a similar experience. So, when Windows Mobile appeared, users were convinced that it was ideologically the same system as on their computer, look, it even has a Start button! Many people bought devices on Windows Mobile to realize that they are nothing like their computers, are not compatible with them at all or are almost incompatible and belong to a completely different class of portable devices. Nevertheless, at the dawn of the smartphone market, the role of Windows Mobile was quite serious, this system influenced the development of Symbian, its ideology was considered by many as promising.
But Microsoft made a number of serious mistakes by building a business model on cooperation with Chinese manufacturers, who created Windows Mobile smartphones, the company started the process of destroying its platform. Noticeable unit sales, programmers who rushed to create applications - everything whispered about the success of the undertaking. But the trouble came from those same Chinese who, in the battle between themselves, gave up on quality, as a result, the platform became associated with powerful, but buggy devices. The same Symbian lost functionally, developed not so fast, but it was guaranteed to work. The direction of Windows Mobile has become a kind of cursed place inside Microsoft, there was no person who would present a clear and detailed development plan. More precisely, there were too many such people, and each had his own plan of salvation. They, as in Krylov's fable, each pulled Windows Mobile in their own direction. And the result was that the company suddenly realized that they were losing the market and could lose the race for the consumer. It was at the starting point of Android's growth, around 2009, when the system first showed its potential and it became obvious even to die-hard naysayers. And at that moment, Microsoft's throwing began, which did not end even today, the first zeroing of the company's mobile platform took place - the appearance of Windows Phone.
By and large, Windows Phone has become Microsoft's anti-crisis plan, a response to the conquest of the market by iOS / Android. In 2010, at a congress in Barcelona, the company showed Windows Phone as an animated screensaver on dummies of future phones, no system existed, it had to be created in the coming months. We were all shown pictures that had nothing under them, and the choice of tools for developers, code for the mobile OS was chaotic, it was designed on the knee, just to have time to share the pie in the form of end users. The only task that was set within Microsoft was to meet the deadlines, in a state of time pressure, the creation of the system could not be properly planned. The first devices in the Lumia series from Nokia had many problems, each of which was fixed along the way, the most serious errors were fixed in the first few months of sales, and the "little things" were finished off for about a year.
But inside Microsoft, already in the first months of Windows Phone 7's life on the market, there was an understanding that this system was built incorrectly and that the kernel needed to be reworked, switching to source code similar to the desktop version of Windows NT. In the future, this would make it possible to create the same applications for different branches of Windows, with minimal differences and labor costs. The decision was controversial, as the company's PR and advertising new platform promised that users would receive updates. But instead, a year later, the market received Windows Phone 8, and enthusiasts and pioneers of the new system received version 7.5, in which they added external similarity with 8, but the key features were missing. Many people felt cheated, as once again Microsoft has reset its mobile platform and started its life from a new point.
I want to draw your attention to the fact that all these years at Microsoft, the idea that the mobile system should be similar to the desktop OS has not disappeared anywhere. With tenacity worthy of a better application, the company implanted in phones an interface that few could call successful, it was unusual (Metro UI in original name or tiles), but from the point of view of ergonomics, not the best.
The change in company management, the lack of spectacular success in the field of Windows Phone, the murder of the tablet version of Windows RT - all these events took place during the existence of Windows Phone 8.x. And they showed inside Microsoft a simple thing: the system that the company created is not viable without iron subsidies, when it is sold below cost and only therefore has 3% of the world market. Billion-dollar marketing investments, the purchase of Nokia's mobile division - nothing has brought success to Windows Phone. The problems only got worse. And what has become next step? At Microsoft, they did what they are already accustomed to doing - they decided to start life from scratch.
The advent of Windows 10 Mobile is a reset of the impasse of Windows Phone 8.x, when the system did not receive any noticeable sales, and the few developers who wrote software for it constantly felt like outcasts. There was an opinion that those who are unable to create software for Andorid / iOS can write it for Windows Phone, where the quality of programs does not play a big role, since these programs are few and users are eager for them. On lack of fish and cancer, fish, as they say in our area.
Such a parameter as the cost of owning Windows Phone for the end user was noticeably higher than for Android / iOS, since in the absence of competition between programs, any price could be set for them. For example, Microsoft paid for the development of the official Instagram client for Windows Phone, it was shown at one of the press conferences, and it seemed that this was the turning point when everyone would start writing for this platform. But it didn't work out. Moreover, in 2016 the official Instagram client for Windows 10 Mobile is still in beta status! It does not have most of the settings available on other platforms, there is no support for working with video. The best alternative product 6tag does not work with all filters, and you will have to pay 119 rubles to work with video. This is just a small touch that shows the state of affairs with software for Windows Phone.
Microsoft realized that they had lost the battle for the mobile device market and went into loss minimization mode. The arrival of Windows 10 Mobile is an attempt to capitalize on the key event of 2015, the release of the Windows desktop version, which was number ten. Part of the success of the Windows desktop was supposed to jump-start and support mobile device sales, until the company came up with a new plan and reset this direction once again to start everything from scratch.
In early 2015, when they showed Windows 10 Mobile, Microsoft told a very interesting thing - the launch of the system will take place later than the release of desktop Windows 10. Why? The answer was obvious - all forces are thrown at the main product, and they will try to finalize it in a short time. From October, after the launch of desktop Windows 10, most of the programmers will switch to finalizing Windows 10 Mobile, and in a couple of months it will be brought to mind. Even then, these words confused me, it turned out that Microsoft reduced the priority of the mobile OS to the minimum.
But at the same time they announced the Windows Insider program, which allowed anyone to become a beta tester of the mobile system. Windows Phone fans perceived this as a good attitude of the company towards them, business pragmatists - as a reduction in development costs, shifting tests to the shoulders of end users. Which always leads to negative results, since testing must take place within the company, and only then can they give an adequate result.
Unfortunately, the number of innovations for end users that were shown at the beginning of 2015 for mobile Windows turned out to be so meager that it caused consternation. In my material, I described them and expressed bewilderment how you can wait almost a year to release such an update on the market.
Already at the time of the announcement, the system looked archaic, and the speed of development of Windows Phone compared to other systems was lower. In fact, Windows Phone not only remained a catch-up system, but iOS/Android began to catch up with it, and over the past five years, Microsoft has not been able to close this gap, or at least close it.
Initially, Microsoft plans to update almost the entire Lumia line to Windows 10 in November 2015, then the deadline was postponed to November, and then to early 2016. This is because internally the company is aware that the current version of Windows 10 Mobile can hardly be called a beta version, it is unstable, has many problems and flaws, and even against the backdrop of Windows Phone 7, it is striking in the number of problems. The company could not but release its flagships on Windows 10 Mobile, they were put into production, components were purchased for them. But at the same time, Microsoft is trying to minimize the damage from launching raw products as much as possible. So, the company does not distribute devices for tests if the publications and journalists do not agree that they will not mention the minuses, but will focus only on the positive aspects. However, no one warns Lumia buyers that the system is flawed and cannot be called out of beta.
Unfortunately, the classic situation for Microsoft is repeated, the company will not be able to develop Windows 10 Mobile in 2016, as all efforts will be spent on fixing bugs and working on firmware. This means that Microsoft needs to reduce the number of phones sold as much as possible, as the company has already officially announced, the lineup 2016 will be minimal and represented by several models. Eliminate iron subsidies, since there is no more competition for market share, why sell a raw product that will scare away users? And preparing for life from scratch, which will be Surface Phone, although the name of this product can be anything.
It turns out that Windows 10 Mobile is yet another page in the history of the mobile platform from Microsoft, which can be considered a passing and temporary one. The company does not build any serious plans for this system, to some extent they want to forget it as soon as possible in order to start building the “correct” system for the new time. But many people do not know this, do not understand and can buy a Lumia smartphone. Let's take a look at the system itself and what it offers to its users today. Let's move on to the description of the Windows 10 Mobile interface.
Windows 10 Mobile tiles and UI features
The originality of the Windows 10 Mobile interface is hard to deny, the main screen consists of tiles different sizes, you can choose a small square, a larger square, a rectangle. You need to hold the tile for the icons to appear, and you can also pin the tile to the screen.
The screen has a vertical orientation, that is, the tiles need to be scrolled down. You never know how many tiles you have in total, the screen can be conditionally infinite. Considering that most of the necessary applications can easily be placed on the main screen, this does not cause any problems. Everything you need can be posted here.
Unfortunately, in the area of customization, Windows 10 is far behind modern platforms, you can not customize the color of individual tiles - you can only choose color scheme for all. This can be confusing for those who are not familiar with the system and are used to WhatsApp having a green icon. On my phone, for example, the default color for all tiles is blue, and the WhatsApp icon is the same color.
Does this confuse people who are used to WhatsApp being green? Definitely. But for software developers, this creates certain difficulties; when advertising and promoting your application, you cannot achieve the uniformity you expect. Why is this done in Windows? Apparently, they thought that the icons might be too colorful. Or they just didn't get it, I don't know. But the fact remains, you won’t be able to customize everything for yourself. And the experience of other systems and vast world outside of Windows, you should forget - here the icons will be in the color that you have chosen or for you.
In the "Options" section, you can also choose whether to show more tiles or less, this setting adjusts the same size. There is a choice of wallpapers and tile transparency, interestingly, compared to Windows Phone 8.x, wallpapers appeared both on the central screen and in the application list.
Now an amazing moment that remains a mystery to me. In desktop Windows, many functions have been duplicated in different menus so that the user can change the setting in a matter of seconds. In mobile Windows, everything is different, to change the wallpaper, change the color of the tiles, you need to go to the settings (this section is called "Settings"). Not very logical and not very convenient. But, apparently, the developers proceeded from the assumption that it is not necessary to adjust the color of tiles and wallpapers so often. There is a certain logic in this.
Unfortunately, toggling the more/less tiles mode messes up the grouping of tiles on the screen when there are a lot of them. They suddenly line up not in three vertical rows, as before, but in two. It is possible that this glitch will be removed later, but it looks strange, the system does not remember the previous state.
Many of the tiles are animated and show information, for example, the mail tile scrolls through the headers of new emails, there is a circle with the number of new messages. This is quite simple and informative, but this approach is rather an exception. In most cases, the information is displayed randomly, and there is no system in it, that is, you cannot assess at a glance what you missed or what happened. For example, news shows headlines, changing them one after another. Something similar was in widgets at the very beginning of the development of Android, then the system evolved, but this did not happen in Windows.
I don’t presume to evaluate what the tile looks like for the end user, you can get used to it and even fall in love with it. Evaluating UI design is a matter of taste, everyone will have their own opinion. I would like to dwell on how this UI manifests itself in work.
In standby mode for phones with AMOLED screens, it is possible to display information from certain applications, such as the calendar. On a black background, white inscriptions burn brightly, for example, this may be a message that your friend has a birthday. You are free to choose the applications that will display information here. Plus icons of missed events and time are shown.
This screen operation is convenient and allows you not to take the phone in hand to see what was happening while you were doing other things. In lock mode, when you have not yet got inside the device, you can see information from other applications, such as Twitter - as a rule, this is one entry. Therefore, it can be considered more of a design element than something useful and really helping to navigate the flow of information.
The vertical orientation of the interface is due to the fact that the list of applications (swipe to the left) is better displayed this way. You see applications sorted alphabetically, there is a search bar at the top or a letter selection, then you can jump to a specific section. The irony is that for users outside the US who use two languages, the alphabet goes like this - first the local layout, then the English one.
That is, English language almost always on the second screen, it turns out that you need to scroll the screen and only then select the desired letter. Ergonomics is manifested in such trifles, and in Windows 10 Mobile it is lame on all fours. It felt like an army of Microsoft programmers were working on individual features and applications, but there was no chief architect to explain and show how all these parts should work together.
At the top of the list are the latest apps you have installed on your device.
By analogy with Android and iOS, Windows 10 has a curtain for notifications and quick activation of certain functions. You drag the screen down, 4 icons appear, each of which you can customize to your liking by choosing what you need from a list predefined by the manufacturer. You can expand the icons, then a 4x4 matrix will appear, but in a large matrix for three new rows, you can no longer select functions, they are determined by the manufacturer.
Notifications in the curtain are grouped by programs, you can disable their display here for each application. For SMS / MMS there is a quick response from the curtain, just type the text, and you can immediately send it.
Some notifications do not make any sense, for example, after a system update, this is reported in the blind. Clicking on the notification does not show any information, i.e. it is a dead end. There are a fair number of such messages, and why they are needed is decidedly unclear.
Those who use the phone actively and who do not have enough space on the first screen can create folders for icons, just drag one icon to another and they will be grouped in a folder. When you click on the folder below, a window opens with all the icons, but there are no inscriptions with the names of the applications. But you can give a name to your folder.
The vertical orientation of the main screen and menu plays a cruel joke with the phone, because modern devices may well work in landscape orientation, which is how you watch videos. For example, I'm starting to watch a video, but I don't want to see the credits, so I want to drag the scroll bar to fast-forward the video. The slider is at the left edge, but instead of rewinding, a curtain pops out. Why? It's simple, it is tied to a vertical UI, and the curtain does not change orientation - landscape in the video player, vertical in the curtain. Brain blow!
It remains to say that the buttons are made on-screen, and to call them, you need to pull from the bottom up. In many applications, they automatically disappear, do not take up space on the screen. But in some cases, for example, when calling video playback from another application, they remain on the screen and are constantly lit. Which also raises questions.
The buttons are as follows - return back (long press the list of recent applications), the central house from Microsoft (exit to the main menu), search.
A short line about multitasking, in the last running applications, only seven windows are shown, from the list they can be closed individually or all together.
For me, the last seven applications are an anachronism, since I'm used to displaying dozens of applications, even if some of them have long been unloaded from memory and take time to launch (which is almost always imperceptible). Moreover, on Windows 10, even "running" applications sometimes require restoring the state, and this takes the same time as on other platforms. The restriction is stupid and annoying.
In every phone for me important information is the battery charge, not only its graphical display, but also the percentage, and I would like to see this information in the status bar, choose the possibility of such a display (there is on almost all Android smartphones, as well as on iOS). In Windows 10, to see the battery percentage, you need to pull the shutter down. It's damn inconvenient. And then someone will quite rightly say that I find fault and you can evaluate the charge by the icon. Of course it is. But I would like to get the same convenience that I see on other systems.
In general, I have a distrust of how the various progress bars are shown in Windows 10, they were written by some schoolchildren. This is best seen in the example of downloading applications in the store. Microsoft applications. For example, you have an application that takes 10 MB, downloaded about 8 MB, how much do you think the download indicator will be painted over? Common sense suggests that it will be about 80 percent, visually the same story as with a battery. It's a pity, but usually it's half! I specially experimented, and it turned out that almost always the loading indicator lags behind what the system shows in the same window. How it can be, I don't know - the feeling that Windows 10 draws information about the boot with a long delay and does not immediately show it in the graphic element.
Now a nitpick that can be safely ignored. When updating the system software, gears spin on the screen, one larger and one smaller. Exactly the same arbitrary display of progress under them. But it finishes a trifle that is contrary to common sense, the gears do not mesh with each other. They spin in the air, each on its own. Finding a more accurate metaphor for Windows 10 Mobile is hard, the company did it itself.
All felt-tip pens are different in taste and color, but Windows 10 Mobile is distinguished by numerous roughness in the interface, which were laid down at the design stage of Windows Phone. The system is saved by the absence of a large number of applications and users who can be called “heavy”, those who squeeze every last drop out of modern smartphones. Compared to Android/iOS, Windows 10 Mobile has much more limited customization options, from widgets to other aspects of the system. A matter of taste, but for me this is an indicator of predestination, the lack of flexibility of the system. It cannot be customized, although in the same Android you can change literally any element of the system.
File system - where are my files?
Microsoft has a lot of experience in developing desktop systems, but for their mobile OS they borrowed a lot from iOS and did it thoughtlessly. For example, I can't help thinking that by taking Apple's approach to the file system, Microsoft shot itself in the foot. The device has an explorer (file manager) that shows the following folders:
- Video
- Documentation
- Downloads
- Images
- Ringtones
- Music
And it doesn't show anything else. At all. For example, if you decide that it's 2016 and you can download a torrent from where you can download videos, music or something similar to your device, then get ready for the first surprise. By default, the torrent client will download everything to its own folder, which is not visible from the file manager. You will not see these files! They can only be viewed from a torrent client! It was 2016...
Let's remember how it works on Android, you upload files anywhere, and in the player they become visible immediately, you don't even think where they are saved. You just press a button and start watching or listening to them. Voila. In Windows 10 Mobile, this is an impossible operation, something that comes from the distant future.
Further more. You may have a dozen video players, but only the one that is preinstalled on the phone will open from the torrent client. Surprise! The "Video" application cheerfully announces that "the videos that are copied from the PC will be shown here." We live in a post-PC world, what kind of computers are you talking about? I want to download videos to my device directly and be able to open them with regular tools and without dancing with a tambourine.
But that's not the Microsoft way, is it? If you think video is the lucky exception, forget it. With ringtones the same story, do you remember the folder of the same name? Accordingly, the file must be in it, otherwise you will not be able to select it, you simply will not see it. How you could shoot yourself in the foot like that, I don't know. But those people who believe that such an approach is convenient, I have doubts about the adequacy. These are unreal dances with a tambourine, and out of the blue.
Microsoft Edge is the fastest browser on the planet
With Internet Explorer, Microsoft did not work out, a heavy legacy of the past, bad karma and a loss to its main competitor in the face of Chrome. The way out was found in Microsoft's simple way, it is necessary to rename the "unsuccessful" product, and after that it will become "successful". This is how Microsoft Edge was born, the latest generation browser that has the same icon as its predecessor.
Microsoft has taken the Blackberry route and competes in virtual parrots, citing benchmark data that proves that EDGE is best compatible with HTML5, works faster than competitors, in a word, is a work of art. I would add modern art, since the browser does not have any advantages over its counterparts in the face of Safari or Chrome.
Let's start with simple and understandable things, this is the browser UI. At the bottom of the page is a line for entering the address, as well as search. On the left is the windows icon, it never displays the number of windows you have "open". In Chrome, you always see how many windows you have, which is nice and useful. For example, when I reach 70-80 windows, I close them in order, usually I have 10-15 working tabs.
By double tapping, the page and the text on it adapt to the screen, in one column. Unfortunately, this does not happen very quickly, and even on simple pages. The second disadvantage, noticed on different devices (Lumia 550/950/950 XL), by default, when adjusted to the screen width, the font becomes small, not very readable. The feeling that the developers forgot about the complaints in the 8th version of the system and simply spit on all subsequent fixes. Here again it is small and inconvenient to read. You can adjust by hand, but this is an extra step.
Unfortunately, the browser renders pages slowly, it is impossible to call it fast. And this happens with any site, there are no exceptions.
When you access the page again, it should load again! The phone does not keep a cache, which creates certain delays, and if you do not have a network, then it is impossible to view the page. There is a very convenient "Reading List" function, you leave pages for later, they have a large icon, short description. Probably, someone will decide that the pages in this list are stored in the phone's memory and can be called up even without the Internet? But this is not so, on the plane I looked at the splash screen that there was no connection. What is the deep meaning of the function, I'm not very clear. Additional bookmarks and nothing more.
Favorites usually, you can synchronize it with your desktop PC running Windows 10, which will please users of this system. But there is no possibility of synchronization with more popular browsers.
Search engines for Russia have Bing, the default is Yandex, but no Google. This is surprising, since in the outside world EDGE masquerades as Google Chrome, and does not present itself under its own name. This sometimes leads to very funny consequences, for example, when calling a link from the system Windows applications 10 on the phone to download MS Outlook, the Play Store opened in the browser with the corresponding Android application. The error is very rare, but revealing and funny.
Unfortunately, no one except Microsoft develops decent browsers for Windows Phone, you won't find Chrome or Safari here. As a consequence, in the absence of alternatives, you will be tied to this browser. One hope is that someday they will finish it, increase performance, add a data cache. At the time of writing the review, the EDGE browser is also one of the most energy-intensive applications, it consumes the battery with a bang. Fans of the system from Microsoft are already coming up with options on how to avoid this, for example, you can disable the browser from running in the background or manually close it after work. Conveniently? It's Windows!
The Microsoft App Store, the cost of programs and their features
The app store design has been redesigned in the style of the previous version of Android, tiles have been abandoned in each of the views, now it is something in between. Again, this is a taste that does not deserve attention, another thing is the quantity and quality of applications, as well as their capabilities.
I'm used to the fact that on Android / iOS you can find many programs that perform the same functions, they differ from each other both in features and in design. If in the past on Android many programs were crooked in terms of following Google's design wishes, this has hardly been observed in the last year. They all look about the same style and are perceived the same, on iOS, Apple has achieved this from developers much earlier.
The state of Windows 10 and third-party programs can be described simply: who is in the woods, who is for firewood. No uniformity can be traced even remotely, the program settings are randomly scattered across different menus, as well as the font size, the arrangement of elements and other “little things” differ. All together creates a feeling of slovenliness of the system, you never know and are not sure how the application that you download from the store will look like.
Historically, third-party developers, both large companies and small players, have not wanted to create software for Windows Phone. Microsoft had to pay for the adaptation of existing programs, but very quickly at MS they realized that they would go down the drain if they gave everyone money for it. The path was a dead end. Moreover, the complexity of programming for Windows Phone was rejected by developers, plus a small number of users, most of whom are not ready to pay for applications, since they use phones for calls and SMS, but not as modern smartphones. All this created the conditions when the struggle for the number of applications in the Microsoft store began, when it was necessary to catch up with other systems. And this led to disastrous results, the store turned into a garbage dump that lives its own life, different from the life of the entire planet.
So, in the store you can find programs that were created on the knee in a couple of hours to show how to program! For example, this is one of the video players that I stumbled upon by accident. And the creator is not at all shy about this and added this information to the description of the program.
But these are flowers, berries begin at the moment when you are trying to find something, searching the app store almost never gives an adequate result. Descriptions for programs are so crooked that many of them drop out of the search, you will not be able to find them unless you know the exact name. Not cool.
Despite the fact that there are program charts, you can find not so much interesting software in them. See what the top 10 apps look like on Android, iOS and Windows 10 Mobile and feel the difference.
Windows 10 Mobile
I will give a simple example from life. I love to play different games on the road, I prefer the widespread Tower Defense genre. There are more than a dozen great games on iOS/Android, they are almost the same on both platforms, and the total number of toys in this genre is in the hundreds or something, if not more. How many games of this genre are on Windows 10? Exactly one, according to a search query in the Microsoft store.
As I mentioned above, many free programs from other platforms are not available on Windows 10 or have severely reduced functionality. For example, the same Instagram is in beta, there is no support for videos and many effects, as well as editing tools. In the alternative and best 6tag client, you will have to pay 119 rubles for the opportunity to work with video.
The main complaint about the software for Windows 10 Mobile is that it has no alternative, no different versions programs. But even more depressing is the fact that the software itself is extremely simple, to match the system. By the standards of the world of modern operating systems, this is some kind of stone age. I tried to remember at least one program that on Windows 10 Mobile would be superior in its characteristics to similar software on iOS / Android, but no matter how hard I tried, I could not do it.
Moreover, Microsoft considers its own operating system so miserable and limited in capabilities that they create software for their services primarily for iOS / Android, this is the trend of the last year. Interestingly, software for foreign systems is the first to receive features that will appear on Windows 10 Mobile in a year or not at all. That is, a logical question arises, what is the advantage of the operating system from Microsoft, if all branded services are in best quality available on iOS/Android? For Microsoft fans, this fact is very painful, they try to come up with many excuses to shield the company. But all I see here is that development for other systems is so much easier that even Microsoft proves it with their software. What could be the best anti-advertising for Windows 10 Mobile?
And this is another indirect indication of where the company is going and why it is going to abandon the current version of the system in favor of the usual Windows 10 running on Intel processors.
Microsoft Outlook - mail on the "top ten"
Many of my friends like MS Outlook on a personal computer so much that they install some version of Windows on their MacBook and use mail in this particular environment. Mobile Outlook did not inherit all the features from the older one, but it did not become an ugly duckling either. The mobile version of mail from MS got the ability to attach files to letters from OneDrive, other programs, but not from the file system, which is actually not there for the user. The engine has added formatting of letters, as in MS Word, which is not bad, many HTML pages open in the MS EDGE window. There were even gestures when you can swipe certain messages in the menu and set an action for them (check the box or archive - this is the default, but you can set other actions). There is a unified mailbox, but there is no filter system, which can upset someone. But there is good integration with the calendar, when events can be entered into it with a few taps. Another thing is that there is simply nothing unusual or differentiating this program from the standard GMail on Android.
Navigation online and offline, Here maps
For me, the quality of navigation is measured not only by the drawing of maps, but also by the number of POIs by which you can search for certain objects. In Here, the number of points that are available both online and offline is not very large, and their relevance leaves much to be desired, the same Google Maps is a cut above. In the US, I used Here navigation for a week, compared with Google Maps, and all the time I realized that without such insurance I would often miss when the stores are open, where they are located, and the routes would be far from optimal. The main reason is that cards can improve when they are used by a large number of people, and here it simply does not. The only plus is the ability to download maps of different regions for offline navigation (free of charge).
Universal Apps, or UWP
Microsoft decided to fight the lack of quality apps for mobile devices by creating a platform for universal applications (UWP).
Developers with a minimum number of changes can create their applications for different devices, and the user gets virtually the same application on each of the devices. Conveniently? Undoubtedly. The problem here is exactly the same as before. Many Windows desktop software creators have no presence on mobile platforms, which means they cannot be the source of such software. But those developers who are active on iOS / Android will almost never create applications for Windows, because they do not see this market. Isolated cases of universal applications show that they are created either by Microsoft itself or by large companies. As a rule, such applications are not too complicated when it comes to third-party developers.
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All sorts of things and some impressions
It so happened that Microsoft began to actively release its key applications for iOS / Android, for example, this concerns the office suite, that is, now these applications are more functional on foreign platforms. Marvelous? Not that word. And there is no reason to get them as part of Windows 10 Mobile, except for the cost of a subscription, which may differ in the future, now it is zero everywhere. I don’t see much point in describing this software, it is well known.
As well as stopping at MS Groove, TV and Cinema, News and Finance applications. They are all standard and familiar, they have both positive and negative features, but they cannot have any decisive influence on the choice of system.
Almost two months since the Lumia 950, several OS updates received in that time, and a conclusion that many will not like. The system remains raw. It gets to the unimaginable, the Photos app (album) suddenly starts consuming power like crazy, about 7% battery per hour. In half a day, the phone is discharged to zero, and the only thing left for me is irritation. The error is well known, documented, and they promise to fix it in the near future, in a month or two.
I like the fact that now at least you can get the GMail phone book, pull up contacts from the cloud from Google, no crutches are needed. But I don’t like at all that the applications live an independent life, and the system is assembled from separate bricks that they didn’t bother to bring to a common denominator.
Of the funny, but typical for Windows 10 Mobile errors, I can remember the alarm clock. If you miss your alarm in the morning, if you don't touch your phone, you'll know the next morning that you missed it twice. That is, first you will be shown a new alarm, and then the missed old one. It doesn't fit in my mind. The system does not replace with a new event something that has already passed and has not received a user response. I don't care what happened to the alarm yesterday, I already missed it, and I don't need it. Why show it a second time? Especially since the alarm is set to the same time throughout the week.
Another point that is very annoying is the constant offers to restart the phone, as it thinks that the SIM card or its settings have changed. There were no changes, and after a reboot everything starts all over again. A floating glitch, it happened that he was gone for a week, and then he again appears and annoys.
The system turned out to be very raw, moreover, many things that worked in Windows Phone 8.1 are missing here or do not work correctly. And this is a clear step backwards, which cannot be corrected in any way. For example, for the "People" tab, all social accounts associated with a person's name have been removed; now they cannot be viewed from the bookmark, as before.
This system is great for budget devices that make calls, write SMS, and sometimes use other functions. But it is impossible to call it a full-fledged and modern platform for a smartphone. Of course, here everyone can have their own opinion, but even after waiting a couple of months since the start of sales of Lumia 550/950/950 XL, I did not wait for a stable version of Windows 10 Mobile and fixing minor and serious bugs. The reason is that the system is not actively developed and de facto has already been abandoned, it is a living dead. Of course, many of its elements will form the basis of the next version, even today Windows build numbers do not differ in any way between the mobile and desktop versions, in the future the unification will become even greater. It was possible to delve into individual details, but this is not necessary. What is described above is enough to appreciate what Windows 10 Mobile is capable of and what it cannot do and will never learn. At the moment, the demand for Windows 10 Mobile smartphones is at a historical minimum for Windows Phone, sales of three Lumia models are so low that with the same Lumia 950 they give the Lumia 550 to the load and completely free of charge. And here it should be noted that the devices have normal hardware, but everything rests on the system itself, which the market and consumers on it have not accepted. And there is simply nothing to add to this, the share of Windows Phone in the world has fallen to the level of 1 percent and continues to decline. It's not even the "Other" category anymore, but less. In the first quarter of 2016, third place after Android and iOS, oddly enough, will take Tizen, sales of a month and a half speak of this with all clarity.
P.S. Reviews of Lumia 950/550 will appear one of these days, in which I will focus on my impressions of the hardware and the devices themselves.
Recently, I often hear statements from users that the mobile version of Windows 10 is dead and you need to quickly dump it, but is it really so? Let's try to take a closer look at this issue.
Frankly, Windows users are amazing people and at the slightest rustle they panic and say that everything is lost.
Let's start with a little history. Windows Mobile first appeared as early as 2000, which was based on Windows CE, which in turn appeared in 1996, after which there were already 6 versions of Windows Mobile that were supported until 2012. Yes, at the beginning of the 2000s, Windows Mobile was on horseback, but with the advent of other mobile operating systems that were more responsive to users, the share of Windows Mobile dropped sharply, but nevertheless, Microsoft supported it as long as possible, until the release of Windows 8.
Microsoft understood that Windows Mobile needed a restart and on February 15, 2010, Steve Ballmer officially introduced the new Windows Phone mobile OS. Back then, Microsoft and Nokia signed a cooperation contract. Oddly enough, but it so happened that the Nokia brand also needed a restart, and therefore, for a certain amount of money, Microsoft simply bought the Finnish mobile division. After that, a fruitful cooperation began. Nokia was engaged in their smartphones, which were great in design, of course this does not apply to cinder blocks like the 920 Lumiya, but then there was its revolutionary mother wireless charging, which leveled this defect a little. Carl Zeiss optics were the highlight of smartphones and they took really good pictures, even by today's standards. Microsoft, in turn, was engaged in software and exclusive support for Nokia, since in fact it was already their company. And the people who followed the tandem of these two giants were sure, including me, that it would turn out just bombing phones that would wipe out the nose of all sorts of iPhones and Samsungs, but this did not happen. When Windows Phone 7 came out, they turned out to be some nondescript and little functional. And in principle, both developers and users, oddly enough, were not particularly upset. And they said that this is supposedly their first joint device and everything is still ahead. And after the release of the new Windows Phone 8 platform, some work on the bugs was already visible. Smartphones looked pretty nice. The aforementioned flagship Lumiya 920, although it looked like a brick, was still popular. After, by the way, Microsoft updated the smartphone to version 925. He looked much cooler and thinner. Even I could not resist then and bought a Lumia 820. The 920 was too big for me, as it seemed to me, and the 720 was rather weak. Although Lumia 720 was the most beautiful smartphone at that time. The Lumia 820 had an excellent 8MP camera with dual LED flash and good design, which won me over. It seems to me that it was during the existence of Windows Phone 8 that the mobile OS was at the top of its popularity. After that came Windows Phone 8.1 and the new 3rd and 4th line of Lumia smartphones, which from the design side were great. Moderately elegant and not oversized.
Then Microsoft announced the release of Windows 10 and again renamed Windows Phone to Windows Mobile. Released at the end of 2015, the 5th line of smartphones called Lumia 950 and 950 XL is a kind of cosplay on the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. Frankly speaking, the phones turned out to be not the best and with a rather buggy OS then. Microsoft understood that it could not give such a system to other older smartphones, so it delayed the release of the tenth Windows until March 2016, after which all smartphones of the 3rd and 4th line, Lumia 1520 and third-party smartphones were able to receive this cherished update. The second line of smartphones did not officially receive Windows 10 Mobile, but anyway, through Windows Insider, Microsoft allowed them to upgrade to version 10 without problems, but after that, of course, they banned the release of assemblies for these smartphones, summarizing this by saying that smartphones are too old, but the Top Ten they could get.
So that's what I mean by all this. This story was needed to restore some consistency. To be honest, there were even skeptics who, back in the early 2000s, said that Windows Mobile was an unnecessary OS that would die soon, but almost 20 years have passed and the system is still alive. It has had its ups and downs, but still there are people who use it and don't want to give it up. Even Microsoft itself claims that it will not stop releasing builds for smartphones on Windows 10 Mobile. This is already a good sign, it's another matter if Microsoft was silent at all, otherwise one can hope that mobile Windows in the form in which it is now will receive updates for several more years. Yes, my God, even Windows RT, which has ten times fewer users than Windows 10 Mobile, still receives updates, even one owner of this tablet once told me that a menu was added to the RT version Start, as in Windows 10, while, let me remind you, the system was released in 2012, 5 years ago, and after that you will say that Windows 10 Mobile is dead? I currently have a Lumia 830, the phone came out in the fall of 2014, now it's already 2017. Approximately 2.5 years have passed and the smartphone is still receiving updates. Many Android smartphones cannot even afford this. Even if suddenly updates stop coming out for this platform, then that the phone will immediately turn into a brick? It will still work, except perhaps there will be problems with some applications, but looking at the tighter Windows RT, which is less popular, while everyone has already forgotten about it, except for Microsoft and some enthusiasts, then we can say that Windows 10 Mobile will still be live very long.
Personally, I can say for myself that, for example, I broke the Lumia 820 in 2014, when I was riding a bike and fell on the right side, and just on that side I had a phone in my pocket and I still haven’t been able to fix it , due to the lack of the required part. The Lumia 830 was already under repair once, although it was under warranty, but it was still there, so the Lumia smartphones themselves are likely to die faster than the mobile operating system from Microsoft.
Yes, Microsoft is preparing new smartphones that should be closer to the functionality of full-fledged Windows 10, but the mobile regular Windows will also live in parallel, no one is going to refuse it. I have been hearing for about 2 years now that the mobile system is dead. And is she dead now? No, more alive than all the living.
If we talk about the problems of Windows 10 Mobile, then there is only one. This is very expensive devices. If Microsoft were to sell these devices at a loss, like the Xbox 360, for example, then the system would have a much larger base of both users and developers. It is valuable that we kill two birds with one stone. Since users, looking at branded smartphones from Microsoft, still chose similar phones on the Android system, since they are cheaper and better in terms of characteristics, and wealthier people took the iPhone because it is an iPhone. Like, if you have an iPhone, then you have taken place in this life. And smartphones on Windows Phone and Windows Mobile were mainly taken by enthusiasts and those people who wanted to try something new. Some leave gradually to other systems, while others return, as they are used to this OS.
Microsoft has paused for now, there have been rumors of a full-fledged Windows 10 on smartphones with Intel Atom processors, but Intel has curtailed their production, and now Microsoft is relying on Qualcomm, whose new chips support Windows 10 and DirectX 12 at the hardware level. ARM chips will be be embedded in both smartphones and laptops, while thanks to the Andromeda project, the system will adapt to the device, it will even be possible to run x86 applications thanks to the emulator of this architecture.
Switching to another mobile system or staying on Windows 10 Mobile is up to you. I am by no means defending Microsoft, since it is they who are mostly to blame for the mobile market, but even now this system suits me completely. There are plenty of applications in the store, the protection is pretty good on a smartphone. What else do you need to use? If you still play toys on your phone, and there are no necessary games on this OS, then most likely Windows Mobile did not suit you initially. I repeat once again - the system is not dead and yet, perhaps, it can even surprise with something.
Those who are interested in the development of high technologies are concerned about the release of Windows Phone 10 (officially called Windows 10 Mobile), Microsoft's new operating system for smartphones. The company's developers assured that the Windows 10 system would be universal and under its control both computers and phones, tablets and even game consoles would be able to work effectively. But the official release of Windows 10 took place in July, and its mobile version is still in the testing phase.
Windows 10 Mobile release date (Windows Phone 10)
On the official Facebook page, company representatives reported that the first devices to be upgraded to Windows 10 Mobile will be available in December 2015. Official sources have not yet announced the exact date. It is also unknown how long it will take to update the full list of supported devices.
But when Windows 10 Mobile is released, Lumia smartphone owners will enjoy the benefits of the new OS and test their favorite Microsoft services to a new level.
Device requirements for upgrading to the new OS
When Windows 10 for smartphones comes out, in order to upgrade your device to it, you need to meet only two parameters:
- at least 8 GB of internal memory;
- the installed OS is Windows Phone 8.1 Lumia Denim.
Advice! Update your smartphone to the required version as soon as possible. To do this, go to the update settings and run a check for available updates.
Which models will be updated first
- Lumia 430;
- Lumia 435;
- Lumia 532;
- Lumia 535;
- Lumia 540;
- Lumia 635;
- Lumia 640;
- Lumia 640XL;
- Lumia 735;
- Lumia 830;
- Lumia 930.
Also, the corporation will soon launch Lumia 950 and 950 XL smartphones (it’s useful to know “”), they will already work on the new Windows 10, which means that these models will be the first devices running on Windows 10 Mobile.
At the same time, when the long-awaited update of Windows 10 on Lumia is released, the more budget 550 model will also appear on the market.
What's new in Windows 10 Mobile
Now that you have an idea of which phones will get Windows 10 first, let's talk about what's new. The updated interface will include:
- new display options;
- improved menu;
- the Continuum function, which allows you to work with a smartphone on a computer screen;
- new digital assistants and applications;
- the appearance of interactive notifications.
Ability to use the system before it is released
Taking care of the quality of its products, Microsoft has developed a preliminary testing program - Windows Insider. Thanks to this innovation, customers can install a test build of the OS before it is released and write reviews about its work and functionality.
The Insider Program helps you improve features and expand the capabilities of Windows. When Windows 10 for phones comes out, it's likely that it will be made with some insider input in mind.
Update 03/15/2016
According to information that has not yet been confirmed by official representatives of Microsoft, the release of Windows 10 Mobile for devices running operating system Windows systems Phone 8.1 is slated for March 17th. On this day, updates should come to the following smartphones: 1520, 930, 830, 640, 640 XL, 638, 636, 535.
So far, Microsoft cannot name the exact date the release of a new OS for Windows Phone smartphones, constantly pushing it to a later date. But this should take place in the first half of 2016.
Update 03/17/2016
Unfortunately, devices with 512 MB of RAM do not support the official build of the new OS due to problems with low performance.
If your smartphone is on the official list of supported devices, learn how to update the operating system on it in the article "".
There were some questions about Windows installation 10 Mobile? us and we will try to help.
