Category: Microsoft Windows

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.

When I started this site in 2004, it was focused mainly on Microsoft mobile technology, what was then called PocketPC.  I had actually started writing about their tech in 1999 for other sites on Handheld PCs but that was clearly dying so I moved over to PPC.

Last year, after a couple of years with iOS, I moved back to Windows Phone as all indications where that Microsoft had finally sorted their scene on their mobile direction.  They had bought Nokia, had been talking about the universal nature of Windows 10 on the desktop and phone and I thought, “Maybe this time”.  I had, after all, lived through the Windows Mobile 6.5, 7, and 8 reboots so what the heck?  10 could be the magic number.

I was wrong.  It became increasingly clear that the muddled path that Microsoft was going down with their mobile platform was as confusing and foggy as ever before.  I jumped ship.  I ran to Android and I haven’t looked back.  Windows Phone market share has continued to decline, fewer phones are shipping than ever before or being manufactured than ever before and Windows 10, that universal platform, is horribly delayed.

Windows Phone is on life support and I suspect that it won’t be there for long.  Microsoft is going to kill it for good and with a market share of 1.1% globally, I doubt many will notice.

It is a sad tale and a sad ending of what could have been for Microsoft.

Ultimately I think the death of Windows Phone has come down to three primary areas:  Lack of developer support, Microsoft own “Mobile first” strategy and the simple fact the market cannot bare 3 mobile platforms.

There are other reasons of course, a lack of a flagship device certainly isn’t helping, but these three I think sum up the crux of the problem.

First, Windows Phone simply does not have the attention of the developer community.  Sure you can find apps in the Windows Store and there are some big name developers there.  But not enough and not enough to sustain the platform.  Consumers expect to be able to go to the Windows Store and pick up that name brand app they can get on Android or iOS.  In some cases they can but in far too many case, they are stuck with a 3rd party app that gets them close but no quite there.  I’m not knocking these developers.  Far from it.  Without them, the platform would have been dead years ago.  But there are not enough of the Electronic Arts or Rovio or even TripIt out there.  In the app world, perception is often reality and the perception is there are not a lot of apps from known brands in the store.

Today is a significant day in the history of personal computing.  30 years ago Microsoft Windows 1.0 was launched, bringing with it the first widely available GUI (Graphical User Interface) instead of command line functions.  While we can all debate the Microsoft of today and their business practices of the past, there is no denying the significance of Windows 1.0.  It, in every way, revolutionized how we interacted with computers and opened the door for billions to learn and easily use PCs in their homes.

Essentially Windows 1.0 was a 16-bit multi-tasking shell that ran on top of MS-DOS (Microsoft Disk Operating System) that was a mouse driven GUI.  To put it into perspective of how far we have come in 30 years, your Android phone sitting next to you is very likely running a 64-bit architecture – never mind your PC!  By today’s comparisons, it was not exactly a beautiful user interface but it was revolutionary for the time.

Now what would early days Microsoft be without Steve Ballmer?  And everyone enjoys a good launch video for an app right?  Feast your eyes on this gem!

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Makes you feel all warm and fuzzy doesn’t it?

Yesterday’s Google event threw out a lot of facts and figures that could have easily been missed if you were distracted at any moment during the 1 hour plus presentation.  If you haven’t had a chance to view it by-the-way, you can do so here.  One interesting number that was thrown out yesterday is actually very telling about where the personal computing industry is today.  Google announced yesterday that there are 1.4 billion active Android users in the world today with a new 400 million active users added since May of last year.  That figure is important because it is only 100 million shy of the once all dominant Windows platform.

Paul Thurrott has some great insights on this over at his site if you want to research this a bit more.

Last week I told you about the all new Google Hangouts 4.0 that was released for Android as well as iOS (with a few less functions).  If you haven’t tried it out, do yourself a favor.  This is not the old Hangouts.  It’s far smoother an experience and generally a much nicer experience.  As part of that release, Google has quietly released a Google Hangouts website that allows you to use your browser to be your Hangouts app.  Like the apps for the mobile devices, it’s buttery smooth and beautifully designed.

In the first 24 hours, Windows 10 has landed on over 14 million devices according to Microsoft.  That would easily make Windows 10 one of the quickest adopted versions of Windows with reviews of the new flagship OS from Redmond being generally positive.  I personally have installed it on both my primary PC and tablet (Toshiba Encore 2) and both have performed flawlessly.  Indeed I would suggest the Tablet mode is a massively improved experience over Windows 8.1 for my Toshiba tablet.

Microsoft hosted launch events globally, mostly in their retail outlets here in the United States, and all indications are those were well attended.