Longtime Microsoft shareholder and Windows Phone owner Dana Vance stated that he received an email about the Microsoft Pix app no longer supporting Windows Phone. However, the app is available for iPhone and Android users. The same applies to Microsoft Outlook.
This prompted Vance to seek an explanation from Nadella. The company’s CEO said the following:
“Microsoft will build devices that are unique and differentiated with our software capability on top of it, whether it’s Surface or Surface Studio or HoloLens or the phone, and also make our software applications available on Android and iOS and other platforms. That’s what I think is needed in order for Microsoft to help you as a user get the most out of our innovation.”
Another question came from a shareholder who said he uses his Windows Phone “18 hours a day”. He expressed his concern about the company reportedly stepping away from mobile.
“We think about mobility broadly. In other words, we think about the mobility of the human being across all of the devices, not just the mobility of a single device,” Nadella said. “That said, we’re not stepping away or back from our focus on our mobile devices.”
“What we are going to do is focus that effort on places where we have differentiation,” he continued. “If you take Windows Phone, where we are differentiated on Windows Phone is on manageability. It’s security, it’s Continuum capability, that is, the ability to have a phone that can act like a PC. So we’re going to double-down on those points of differentiation.”
To further clarify his response, Nadella cited the HP Elite x3 device. The Windows 10 Mobile presents an example of a successful Windows 10 strategy.
“We will keep looking at different forms and different functions that we can bring to mobile devices, while also supporting our software across a variety of devices,”, he said.
“We are not stepping away from supporting our Windows Phone users. But at the same time, we are recognizing that there are other platforms in mobile that have a higher share, and we want to make sure that our software is available to them.”
Surface Phone rumors
The Questions regarding the company’s mobile development come at a time when Microsoft is reportedly working on a Surface Phone. Surface Studio and iPhone producer Pegatron will control the manufacturing of the device.
According to several reports, Pegatron will begin trialing the Surface Phone very soon. Further speculation sees a late 2017 release for the device. Still, Microsoft is yet to confirm the Surface Phone in any way.
