Microsoft pulls the plug on Windows Phone 8.1

Microsoft released Windows Phone 8.1 in 2014, and now three years later the Redmond giant has officially ended mainstream support for the mobile operating platform. This means devices running Windows Phone 8.1 will no longer get security updates or software updates in the future. 

According to AdDuplex, nearly 80 percent of all Windows Phone handset are still running Windows 7, Windows 8 or Windows 8.1. Support for Windows 8 and Windows 7 ended in January 2016 and October 2014 respectively. All of these are now officially unsupported.

Meanwhile only 20 percent of all Windows Phones are running the latest Windows 10 Mobile.  As for the market share, by the end of 2016, Windows Phones had a combined market share of only 0.3 percent.

Windows Phone 8.1 was Microsoft's biggest effort to counter Android and iOS, but still failed to succeed. It came with Cortana digital assistant, UI changes, new notification center and more. The main reasons for the failure were lack of apps, and the growing popularity of Android and iOS. With Windows Phone 8.1 out of the frame, only two mobile operating system remain Android and iOS, which has a combined market share of 99.6 percent.

Microsoft still supports Windows 10 Mobile, but it's not clear how long the support will continue in the future. The company has added a number of feature to its upcoming Windows 10 Fall Creators update for PC, however, Windows 10 Mobile Fall update hardly brings any new features. These are signs that Microsoft is moving away from smartphone business. 

Source | Via

Kaiser Bey

Kaiser is a tech enthusiast who likes to write, read and talk about tech. He dreams of going to Mars and never come back. We hope that you find his posts on AndroGuider helpful and informative