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[Shmunter]

During the glory days of Xbox 360, I went out and got a Nokia 520 with the new Windows Phone o/s. Being an apple user, it was a tall order to impress.

And impress it did, won’t go into the long list of forward thinking UI elements, the Microsoft eco system was core to the experience. My 360 avatar was right there on the front dashboard. I could dip into Xbox live and see who’s playing, my achievement's. The integration day one was already impressive.

But of course we know the sad history, an amazing phone and o/s that came too late and the app market rejected it in favour of the established App Store and Google play, causing its eventual demise.

What would mobile/remote gaming look like if the Windows Phone was alive and well today, with a gaming focused hungry behemoth at the helm……


Edit: great video on what happened…..

 

[teezzy]

N-Gage for life

 

[Shmunter]

N-Gage for life

Could very well have lived on

 

[TheGecko]

You know I actually liked using the windows phones I had. It’s a crying shame how it went and the conspiracy in the tech media to destroy it.

 

[SmokedMeat]

Halo themed Snake level. Get an achievement for 25 Reward points.

 

[Miles708]

Man i loved my windows phone so much. Way better ui than Android and always snappy and stable even with 512mb of ram.

Not only that, it had wonderful games too!
A mobile version of Ilomilo which was awesome.
Crimson Dragon, the semi-sequel of Panzer Dragoon.
The extremely fun mobile version of Mirror's Edge.

When i had to abandon that in favour of an Android phone or was a shock, a step back in many regards.

Such a pity.

 

[01011001]

honestly, Microsoft might have a second chance. with Windows on desktop supporting more and more types of devices and with the constant processing power increase in phones, if they are actually not completely stupid they are already working on adjusting Windows 11 to be usable as a Phone OS.

with Android app emulation (which was actually planned to be integrated into Windows Mobile, but of course that never happened because it died before they could implement it) and PC compatibility you could have a crazy good all in one device.

take it with you and it works like a phone, it supports the usual apps and is easy to use.

be at home and plug it into a monitor using USB-C and you have a full Windows 11 desktop environment.

Android phones do that already but of course using Android, which still isn't a feature complete desktop OS, but even there it's already really good.

if Microsoft really wants to keep their OS superiority they need to think about this and actively look into making Windows 11... or 12 by then maybe, ready to work perfectly on ARM and to adapt on the fly to a Phone screen size and layout.
because that will be the future, how fast we will get there is the question of course, but we will eventually get there, where you use 1 device that is capable enough to do all the things you need in a Phone and PC, android is almost there, Windows needs to catch up fast to stay relevant in such a future.
even OSX and iOS are extremely closely related these days, and I bet Apple is working towards this end-goal as well

 

[Shmunter]

honestly, Microsoft might have a second chance. with Windows on desktop supporting more and more types of devices and with the constant processing power increase in phones, if they are actually not completely stupid they are already working on adjusting Windows 11 to be usable as a Phone OS.

with Android app emulation (which was actually planned to be integrated into Windows Mobile, but of course that never happened because it died before they could implement it) and PC compatibility you could have a crazy good all in one device.

take it with you and it works like a phone, it supports the usual apps and is easy to use.

be at home and plug it into a monitor using USB-C and you have a full Windows 11 desktop environment.

Android phones do that already but of course using Android, which still isn't a feature complete desktop OS, but even there it's already really good.

if Microsoft really wants to keep their OS superiority they need to think about this and actively look into making Windows 11... or 12 by then maybe, ready to work perfectly on ARM and to adapt on the fly to a Phone screen size and layout.
because that will be the future, how fast we will get there is the question of course, but we will eventually get there, where you use 1 device that is capable enough to do all the things you need in a Phone and PC, android is almost there, Windows needs to catch up fast to stay relevant in such a future.
even OSX and iOS are extremely closely related these days, and I bet Apple is working towards this end-goal as well

Nice thought, but sadly they got burnt so catastrophically, I’m not sure they’ll ever touch it again. We can hope.

 

[TheGecko]

honestly, Microsoft might have a second chance. with Windows on desktop supporting more and more types of devices and with the constant processing power increase in phones, if they are actually not completely stupid they are already working on adjusting Windows 11 to be usable as a Phone OS.

with Android app emulation (which was actually planned to be integrated into Windows Mobile, but of course that never happened because it died before they could implement it) and PC compatibility you could have a crazy good all in one device.

take it with you and it works like a phone, it supports the usual apps and is easy to use.

be at home and plug it into a monitor using USB-C and you have a full Windows 11 desktop environment.

Android phones do that already but of course using Android, which still isn't a feature complete desktop OS, but even there it's already really good.

if Microsoft really wants to keep their OS superiority they need to think about this and actively look into making Windows 11... or 12 by then maybe, ready to work perfectly on ARM and to adapt on the fly to a Phone screen size and layout.
because that will be the future, how fast we will get there is the question of course, but we will eventually get there, where you use 1 device that is capable enough to do all the things you need in a Phone and PC, android is almost there, Windows needs to catch up fast to stay relevant in such a future.
even OSX and iOS are extremely closely related these days, and I bet Apple is working towards this end-goal as well

when I’ve used dex with my S21 I’ve thought exactly this. Dex is ok but rubbish for a more intermediate or advanced user and I thought imagine if this was a win 10 or 11 experience.

going forward they could just call it windows and just keep the updates rolling in.

 

[M16]

most people often get the story about what happened to windows phone totally wrong.

windows phone was gaining good market share. in fact, it was outselling iphones in many markets. at one point, they were selling around 10 million devices a quarter, while apple was selling in the 30 millions.

Nadella was against the deal to buy Nokia made by Ballmer before he left. He didn't want Microsoft in the phone hardware market. He's a Cloud and Services kind of guy ( as we would eventually see). Why waste massive resources trying to build something from the ground up against already established competitors, when you can just piggyback off of them and get your nice recurring revenues. That's basically what it came down to in the end.

One of the first things he did as CEO was write down the Nokia purchase. Stephen Elop, the former CEO of nokia was also in the running for CEO of microsoft. If he had edged out Nadella, windows phone would have lived. He was a heavy proponent of Hardware, and making the company more of a hardware company. Even though Nadella won in the end, and that meant the end for windows phone, i'm still glad we got Nadella instead of Elop. Nadella had the vision for the Cloud. The Cloud is going to be the supreme platform in the end. If you think about it, Microsoft is a big player in the app market. They have one of the biggest Clouds, and most apps make use of the cloud. Show me an app or game that doesnt.

 

[Shmunter]

Couple of things come to mind….

A) Native Xbox controller support out of the box.

B) The phone would be xcloud integrated 100%. The experience would feel completely native, except for the game online streaming in when selected. A phone with an instant catalogue of xcloud.

The latter being significant over the current website model they are forced into by Apple, which frankly will never become prolific in its current configuration in my opinion.

 

[Shmunter]

most people often get the story about what happened to windows phone totally wrong.

windows phone was gaining good market share. in fact, it was outselling iphones in many markets. at one point, they were selling around 10 million devices a quarter, while apple was selling in the 30 millions.

Nadella was against the deal to buy Nokia made by Ballmer before he left. He didn't want Microsoft in the phone hardware market. That's basically what it came down to in the end. One of the first things he did as CEO was write down the Nokia purchase. Stephen Elop, the former CEO of nokia was also in the running for CEO of microsoft. If he had edged out Nadella, windows phone would have lived. Even though Nadella won in the end, and that meant the end for windows phone, i'm still glad we got Nadella instead of Elop.

Actually, Nadella was against the deal because the Nokia deal was a last ditch effort to bump a phone already on life support. You really think he would have shut it down if it was a roaring success??

 

[01011001]

Nice thought, but sadly they got burnt so catastrophically, I’m not sure they’ll ever touch it again. We can hope.

I honestly think that they have no other choice. many Android phones already work towards that future of having your phone work as a PC. I have a Samsung and I can basically use it as a PC with a Windows like desktop environment.
for windows to stay relevant I think they need to also have that.

right now these "PC modes" phones have are still pretty shit compared to an actual desktop OS, but one day they might not be anymore, and then Windows will be in trouble on the consumer desktop market

when I’ve used dex with my S21 I’ve thought exactly this. Dex is ok but rubbish for a more intermediate or advanced user and I thought imagine if this was a win 10 or 11 experience.

going forward they could just call it windows and just keep the updates rolling in.

yes, IMO they should just work on this and eventually, once the time is right and it works well, then launch maybe a Microsoft Surface Phone with Windows 12, a fully functional Windows PC OS in the palm of your hand, connect it to a screen and you have a full PC... or simply connect a Bluetooth keyboard/touchpad combo and with the click of a button you have a mini Laptop.

android emulation should be absolutely no issue on an ARM device either and they already have a working emulator built into Windows 11 for desktop.

if they launch with the right price, at the right time (when the OS actually works without issues) and with the right hardware, such a device could be very successful.

 

[adamsapple]

What a coincidence, I also owned a Lumia 520 for a few seconds back in the day.

Loved the sleek tile design but hated that the windows phone store was a shell of the Android.

 

[jaysius]

There was even another MS phone that came out near the time of Windows Phone, but they aborted that one even faster.

I had a cheap Windows Phone and for a cheap piece of this phone it was really good at the time it was hard to get an Android phone that cheap without a world of issues and a screen that big and that light.

I liked the interface.

 

[Shmunter]

I honestly think that they have no other choice. many Android phones already work towards that future of having your phone work as a PC. I have a Samsung and I can basically use it as a PC with a Windows like desktop environment.
for windows to stay relevant I think they need to also have that.

right now these "PC modes" phones have are still pretty shit compared to an actual desktop OS, but one day they might not be anymore, and then Windows will be in trouble on the consumer desktop market



yes, IMO they should just work on this and eventually, once the time is right and it works well, then launch maybe a Microsoft Surface Phone with Windows 12, a fully functional Windows PC OS in the palm of your hand, connect it to a screen and you have a full PC... or simply connect a Bluetooth keyboard/touchpad combo and with the click of a button you have a mini Laptop.

android emulation should be absolutely no issue on an ARM device either and they already have a working emulator built into Windows 11 for desktop.

if they launch with the right price, at the right time (when the OS actually works without issues) and with the right hardware, such a device could be very successful.

Least not forgetting, they actually had full windows working just as you describe on the phones, could have honed it into something indispensable by now.

Check the video in the op..

 

[Neilg]

I really enjoyed mine.

Didn't they do an update of the OS at one point that forced devs to do a shitload of work on their apps to get them to run again, and most just didn't bother as it was more complicated than a re-compile?
I gather there were a lot of bad decisions and odd moves around these. Incredible camera on them though - that's why I got mine. Took a few generations for the iphone camera to catch up.

 

[01011001]

Least not forgetting, they actually had full windows working just as you describe on the phones, could have honed it into something indisputable by now.

Check the video in the op..

yeah and I absolutely think they are still working on making Windows 11 fully compatible with mobile devices as we speak. they would be foolish to not actively work on that. they are most likely waiting for the right timing to release a phone with full blown Windows

 

[Topher]

This was back in the days when Microsoft seemed to lag behind everyone else. Phones, consoles, search engines, etc. They let other companies get a foothold ahead of them. It was a good thing Nadella was promoted and made Azure a priority. It is a much different Microsoft these days.

 

[M16]

Actually, Nadella was against the deal because the Nokia deal was a last ditch effort to bump a phone already on life support. You really think he would have shut it down if it was a roaring success??

See, everyone frames it as "on life support" when in fact, at the time, they were selling more than they ever had(but yes, it wasn't a success either). it wasn't a last ditch effort. They had a deal with Nokia to only put WP instead of android on their phones. When the deal expired, it could have killed WP overnight. Ballmer made the call to acquire them and keep growing. Nadella on the other hand just didn't want the fight(Neither did Bill Gates). He didn't see it possible for them to gain ground on their competitors because it was too late.

 

[Skifi28]

I wanted a windows phone so bad. It was the time when mid-range androids were more like lagdroids and a nokia felt so much more responsive in comparison. Dodged a bullet.

 

[ParaSeoul]

 

[The_Mike]

Not gonna lie tho. They were great for their price. I ditched it because it didn't have regional apps like bank etc.

 

[Forsythia]

Best phone I've ever had. Would be great to have Game Pass integrated into it. But as soon as apps were getting discontinued I had to get an Android phone (fuck Apple). What a shame.