Tag: Windows Phone

In a series of Tweets answering users questions on Windows Phone, Microsoft’s Joe Belfiore admits that, outside of business customers, the platform is in maintenance mode.  It is the closest yet that the company has indicated that they have no further plans for developing a mobile platform.

Of course we’ll continue to support the platform.. bug fixes, security updates, etc. But building new features/hw aren’t the focus. 😟 https://t.co/0CH9TZdIFu

— Joe Belfiore (@joebelfiore) October 8, 2017

Based on Mr. Belfiore’s sad-face emoji, it doesn’t appear he’s all too thrilled with the situation for fans and users of Windows Phone, but the reality is that the phone platform will slowly ride off into the sunset.

Analyst firm IDC has released their Smartphone OS Market Share report for the first quarter of 2017 and its all looking good for Android.  The report looks at smartphone unit shipments to base the figures and Android for the quarter was on 85% of all units shipped.  That’s up from the 81.4% of the previous quarter (Q4 2016) but still 2.6% below the high water mark of 87.6% in Q2 2016.

The gains for Android came at the expense of Apple’s iOS.  Unit shipments for iPhones dropped to 14.7%, down some 3.5% from Q4 2016, which happened to be the height of its shipments at 18.2%.  The only other mobile platform that was mentioned was Windows Phone in the report.  That all-but dead platform now accounts for .1% of smartphone units sold.

After months of waiting, the official Starbucks app for Windows Phone has been released.  The app, similar to the one available for Android and iOS, allows you to pay for your coffee or food items at participating shops with your phone.  This is done by providing a barcode which is connected to your Starbucks account (which in turn is tied to a credit card) that is displayed on your phone and scanned at the register.  It is quick and simple and as one who has been using their app on other platforms, it is about time it got to Windows Phone!

If you have been trying to add your Gmail account to your Windows Phone over the past few days and keep getting an error, you are not alone.  Currently when users attempt to add their Gmail account to their phone, they get an error indicating that the browser (Edge) is not supported and provides links to download other browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer).  But, as you will know, that’s not an option for Windows Phone users.

The issue, it seems, is with Google and this isn’t the first time this particular issue has popped up.