Do you think could Windows Phone make a comeback? Nokia used to make phones for Microsoft and Lumia series were the best phones in Windows Phone history. If you go back further other OEMs used to make phones for Microsoft. Nokia made lots of phones and each phone had its own characteristics. Lumia 520 was a budget entry level phone. 520 had 512 MB of RAM but it used to run smoothly compared to its Android competitors. Windows Phone succeeded using resources efficiently.
Lumia 730 was released as a selfie phone and it did a really good job at camera department at the time. Lumia 1520 has a huge display with a good back camera and Lumia 930 is a little bit tinier version of Lumia 1520.
And Lumia 920 is the first phone using OIS in the world. It’s crazy we have “flagship” devices like OnePlus 9 without OIS in 2022. And Lumia 950 was the first smartphone having USB-C port released in 2015 and it was super interesting in the past. Windows Phone has some features in the camera app like Magic Eraser on Pixel phones. It also has “Glance Screen” which is same as “Always On Display”. The system used to come with handy features but they had mistakes in the past versions of Windows Phone. Microsoft made their phones with the best hardware but this wasn’t enough.
Windows Mobile 6.0 had a start menu on the homepage which is small and hard to access. And even some phones had a pointer on browser like the PCs. All of those weren’t a good UI design choice for a small device. Windows 7 changed these and came with an UI brings out the apps on home screen. You need to see the apps when you unlock the phone since they are the things you use most.
It was a refreshing change for the OS but the real problem were the apps. Google made some apps for Windows Phone and then they removed from Windows Store. Users couldn’t use a properly made Instagram app even on Windows 10 Mobile! And WhatsApp ended its support in the past months. It wasn’t surprising since Microsoft doesn’t update the phones.
Microsoft is strong at PC department but it seems Google and Apple don’t want a 3rd OS for mobile devices. Google made the apps poorly for Windows Phone and existing Facebook apps didn’t get updates regularly. Microsoft can’t force developers to make the apps for sure. Windows Store left with system apps and some apps made by individual developers. Official apps were extremely bad so some developers made an alternative app to official ones. For instance 6tag was the most popular Instagram alternative app. You may ask why you need an alternative for Instagram app and yet the answer is simple.
Official Instagram app used to crash or freeze at the homepage it had terrible bugs. Even the other Facebook apps weren’t stable on Windows Phone meanwhile they’re working normally on iOS and Android. If Windows Phone make a comeback Microsoft will make a solution for this.
So could Windows Phone make a comeback?
If you ask me personally “Could Windows Phone make a comeback” I still have the hope for Windows Phone comeback but it must be different than the first ones. Microsoft made the Windows working on ARM processors but the apps are still an issue. It could be a good start if Microsoft succeeds at making x86 apps compatible with ARM version of Windows. Imagine you use your heavy .exe programs on a Windows device with no cooling fan spinning like Apple did with M1 devices. Microsoft has some Surface tablets but they are expensive and not available in every country.
So Microsoft should find a way to make apps compatible with a very efficient CPU, lower the cost of Surface devices and make a good marketing. This will be a very long to achieve all of these. People need a long lasting battery, wireless connections, good cameras, good apps and so on.
If we answer yes to the question “Could Windows Phone make a comeback”, it will take a long time to develop even if Windows Phone does comeback. Brands like Huawei can use Windows Phone instead of Android-based operating system like HarmonyOS. Affordable Windows Phone phones can also help the rise of Windows Phone. If Windows Phone make a comeback, it would be called Windows Phone 11 or Windows Phone 2022.
This is a screenshot from Apple Maps app. Another app Windows Phone suffered to make it working properly. Microsoft should take serious to switch to the ARM CPUs on their new operating systems. At this point Microsoft seems like they stopped caring Lumia devices completely. They don’t post anything on their Instagram account and didn’t even bother deleting the account, they just do nothing. This shows us Microsoft will not do Windows Phone make a comeback soon.
I assume a device with ARM CPU and running Windows as usual could be future of mobile Windows devices. M1 iPad Pro’s Windows edition with ARM CPU for instance. And a phone version of this would be groundbreaking.
