Microsoft lags and Google takes over
I'm talking about phones here. And let's not make any mistakes. I'm no idiot. I know that Android has been trouncing Windows Phone in sales since it was unveiled. But, I've also never agreed with the masses. Android wasn't (from my perspective) always a better operating system. I've long contended that the superior product doesn't always win.
To that end, I long held to the belief that Windows Phone was the superior operating system in most regards. It was modern, new, fresh and had interesting features which separated it from the competition. But, I warned that Microsoft needed to keep innovating and pushing the bar until they regained market share.
That stopped happening. And worse, in some cases they dropped functionality. As they moved to Windows 10 progress halted pretty much entirely. And after the Nokia acquisition hardware stagnated as well. For most platform owners that wouldn't be a big deal. But Nokia was 90+% of their hardware sales. As a result, market share has gotten worse, not better.
What has happened in the meantime is that Android has caught up on the areas where I felt WP was superior. Also, long gone are the performance woes of Android's past. And they just keep getting better on that front. Features are stacking up and the platform gets more and more compelling on a daily basis. I'm struggling to keep myself from running out and buying a Galaxy S7 Edge.
While it is true that most phones still never officially get updates for very long if ever. But, from a platform perspective they are iterating faster than anyone else. And where we are now is at a point where I don't even think that lack of support is an issue. Android is more modern than iOS and past WP on virtually every front and neither of them is likely to catch up during the typical device life cycle.
In other words, if you get an Android N phone once available, you might be left wanting for Android O features or perhaps even Android P features before you change phones, but in that time it isn't likely that either Windows Phone or iOS will have offered enough to make it compelling to switch off your Android N device, let alone whatever the current Android release is at the time such a switch is viable.
While it isn't impossible that a competitor could come out with a killer feature or catch up on all fronts, both are fairly unlikely. iOS is tethered to its past in the same way Windows 7 was (and to some degree Windows 10 still is). Windows Phone dev has stagnated lately.
I'm still waiting it out to see if they go x86/64 Windows on phones. But, as I said earlier, if I weren't dangling that carrot in front of myself, I think I'm ready to switch.
To that end, I long held to the belief that Windows Phone was the superior operating system in most regards. It was modern, new, fresh and had interesting features which separated it from the competition. But, I warned that Microsoft needed to keep innovating and pushing the bar until they regained market share.
That stopped happening. And worse, in some cases they dropped functionality. As they moved to Windows 10 progress halted pretty much entirely. And after the Nokia acquisition hardware stagnated as well. For most platform owners that wouldn't be a big deal. But Nokia was 90+% of their hardware sales. As a result, market share has gotten worse, not better.
What has happened in the meantime is that Android has caught up on the areas where I felt WP was superior. Also, long gone are the performance woes of Android's past. And they just keep getting better on that front. Features are stacking up and the platform gets more and more compelling on a daily basis. I'm struggling to keep myself from running out and buying a Galaxy S7 Edge.
While it is true that most phones still never officially get updates for very long if ever. But, from a platform perspective they are iterating faster than anyone else. And where we are now is at a point where I don't even think that lack of support is an issue. Android is more modern than iOS and past WP on virtually every front and neither of them is likely to catch up during the typical device life cycle.
In other words, if you get an Android N phone once available, you might be left wanting for Android O features or perhaps even Android P features before you change phones, but in that time it isn't likely that either Windows Phone or iOS will have offered enough to make it compelling to switch off your Android N device, let alone whatever the current Android release is at the time such a switch is viable.
While it isn't impossible that a competitor could come out with a killer feature or catch up on all fronts, both are fairly unlikely. iOS is tethered to its past in the same way Windows 7 was (and to some degree Windows 10 still is). Windows Phone dev has stagnated lately.
I'm still waiting it out to see if they go x86/64 Windows on phones. But, as I said earlier, if I weren't dangling that carrot in front of myself, I think I'm ready to switch.
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